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Wireless carrier executives are turning blue in the face as they spout about how unhappy they are over their stock prices. The death of wireless is greatly exaggerated, they say, but investors don’t seem to know that. How did wireless carriers spin so out of favor in such a short time?

The signs of slower subscriber growth were there all year, but the investment community didn’t want to believe it, Wall Street analysts say. When customer numbers began to slump, investors started to panic, and now they’re scrutinizing things like high debt, which they didn’t care too much about when subscriber growth was hot.

Slower growth isn’t necessarily a bad thing if carriers manage it correctly. Reducing the alarming rate of churn and finding new ways to increase revenue among their existing customers should be carriers’ primary goals. But it’s difficult for wireless executives to change the way they manage their businesses when they are pressured by investors to find new ways to add customers.

Carriers will either bow to the pressure by unprofitably seeking new customer segments, or they will suffer a few quarters to prove they can be successful even in a slower economy. And the ones that suffer for a while will help pave the way for renewed success in the wireless industry.