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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1022266318301891560\nTelecommunications: Wireless\nBy Jesse DruckerStaff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal\nIn a year when the wireless-telecommunications industry's prospects got progressively worse, it sometimes seemed that the best advice for investors wanting to make money was simply to stay away.\nBut the top stock pickers in the sector found ways to get ahead of the pack with a few companies that generated good returns.\nBill Benton\nBill Benton, a 33-year-old analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago, earned top honors for 2001 with a simple formula: sticking with Sprint Corp. PCS Group, Overland Park, Kan., and its affiliates. \"The mass market knows the Sprint brand name,\" he says. \"That allows them to get better customer growth.\" Indeed, his \"strong buy\" recommendation on Sprint PCS for the full year generated a total return of 19%.\nMr. Benton's three other moneymakers in 2001 were all Sprint network partners, including his best-performing pick, Alamosa Holdings Inc., Lubbock, Texas, which gave investors a 121% return for the period he recommended it. He had a \"buy\" or \"strong buy\" rating on the stock from the start of the year into August, when he downgraded it to a \"hold.\"\nMr. Benton still recommends Sprint PCS, as a \"buy,\" even after the company last week issued a gloomier outlook for this year. He says its technology allows the company to deliver service more efficiently than some competitors. Last year, he adds, Sprint PCS's customer base had the second-highest growth rate of any of the six major wireless carriers, and, on an absolute basis, it added the most customers of any major carrier.\nHowever, Mr. Benton remains cautious about the wireless industry for 2002. His biggest concern is that while cellular customers are using more minutes, the carriers are seeing a slowdown in average revenue per user.\nColette Fleming, who joined UBS Warburg in New York, a subsidiary of UBS AG of Switzerland, from Morgan Stanley in February 2001, placed second in the wireless-telecom group. Her best pick was Sprint PCS, which generated a return of 70% during her \"strong buy\" recommendation periods in January and February and again from April through the year's end.\nMs. Fleming thinks it's still the company to stick with, in part because plans for upgrading to a higher-speed network to carry data and increased voice capacity are relatively easy.\nShe also did well last year with San Diego-based Leap Wireless International Inc., which had a total return of 21% during the time she recommended it as a \"strong buy.\"\nMs. Fleming, 38, who recently took up kickboxing -- to relieve stress, she says -- is still bullish on wireless stocks, but says investors need to be selective. \"We're in very much a show-me market,\" Ms. Fleming says. Though carriers released positive first-quarter earnings, the stocks in general haven't made headway. \"People want to see a couple quarters of trend,\" she says.\nChristopher M. Larsen, 30, of New York-based Prudential Securities Inc., a unit of Prudential Financial Inc., came in third. His top performer was Intermedia Communications Inc., which returned 113% for the period he recommended it before he downgraded it to \"hold\" from \"strong buy\" in February. But that stock won't repeat: The company was acquired by WorldCom Inc., Clinton, Miss., last year.\nLike Mr. Benton and Ms. Fleming, Mr. Larsen did well with Sprint PCS, which racked up a 32% return during his \"buy\" and \"strong buy\" recommendation periods before he downgraded the stock to a \"hold\" in late July. He also is cautious about the outlook for the future, and is concerned over cellular pricing wars.\n\"It only takes one competitor to do something irrational and get the other leaders to follow,\" he says.\n24 Analysts, Median Score = - 59.2\nAnalyst Honors Firm Performance Score\nBill W. Benton 2 William Blair 118.7\nColette M. Fleming 2 UBS Warburg 67.1\nChristopher M. Larsen 2 Prudential Securities 32.7\nWilliam Power 2 Robert W. Baird 31.7\nThomas J. Lee J.P. Morgan Chase 25.5\nSource: Thomson First Call\nDefinitions & Notes\nWrite to Jesse Drucker at jesse.drucker@wsj.com"