Cogent Communications Holdings Inc (CCOI) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Cogent Communications Holdings second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded, and it will be available for replay at www.cogentco.com.

早安，歡迎參加 Cogent Communications Holdings 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。提醒一下，本次電話會議正在錄音，可在 www.cogentco.com 重播。

A transcript of this conference call will be posted on Cogent's website and it becomes available. Cogent's summary of financial and operational results attached to its press release can be downloadable from the Cogent website. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Dave Schaeffer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cogent Communications Holdings. Please go ahead.

本次電話會議的記錄將發佈在 Cogent 的網站上，可供查閱。附於 Cogent 新聞稿中的財務和營運結果摘要可從 Cogent 網站下載。現在我想將電話轉給 Cogent Communications Holdings 董事長兼執行長 Dave Schaeffer 先生。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I'm Dave Schaeffer, Cogent's Chief Executive Officer and with me on this morning's call is Tad Weed, our Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to take a moment to touch on some of the key milestones that we achieved in the quarter.

謝謝大家，早安。歡迎參加我們的 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。我是 Cogent 的執行長 Dave Schaeffer，今天早上與我一起參加電話會議的是我們的財務長 Tad Weed。我想花點時間談談我們在本季取得的一些重要里程碑。

As of the end of the quarter, we were offering wave line services in 938 data centers at 10 gig, 100 gig and 400 gig service models, materially, we also have reduced our provisioning intervals for approximately 30 days.

截至本季末，我們在 938 個資料中心提供 10 GB、100 GB 和 400 GB 服務模式的波浪線服務，實質上，我們也將配置間隔縮短了約 30 天。

Our wavelength revenues for the quarter were $9.1 million, a 150% increase on a year-over-year basis and a sequential increase of that revenue stream of 27%. As of the end of the quarter, we have sold wavelengths in 418 locations. We currently have a backlog and funnel of 4,687 wavelength opportunities.

本季我們的波長營收為 910 萬美元，年增 150%，季增 27%。截至本季末，我們已在 418 個地點銷售波長。我們目前有 4,687 個波長機會的積壓和漏斗。

We do intend to capture 25% of the highly concentrated North American wavelength market. In the quarter, we completed two significant debt transactions that materially enhanced our liquidity. In April, we issued an additional $174.4 million of debt against our IPV for securitizations at a rate of 6.646%, which was substantially below our initial securitization rate of 7.924% for the initial $206 million of asset-backed securitization IPV4 notes issued in May of 2024.

我們確實打算佔領高度集中的北美波長市場的 25%。本季度，我們完成了兩項重大債務交易，大大增強了我們的流動性。4 月份，我們以 6.646% 的利率額外發行了 1.744 億美元的 IPV 債務用於證券化，該利率遠低於 2024 年 5 月發行的初始 2.06 億美元資產支持證券化 IPV4 票據的初始證券化利率 7.924%。

In June, we issued $600 million of 6.5% secured notes that mature in 2032. This extended the maturity of our $500 million secured notes which were coming due in May of 2026 and provided us an additional $100 million of liquidity.

6 月份，我們發行了價值 6 億美元的 6.5% 擔保票據，到期日為 2032 年。這延長了我們原定於 2026 年 5 月到期的 5 億美元擔保票據的期限，並為我們提供了額外的 1 億美元流動資金。

Our EBITDA increased sequentially by 11% to $48.5 million, and our EBITDA margin increased sequentially by 200 basis points to 19.7%. Our EBITDA as adjusted increased sequentially by 7% to $73.5 million, and our EBITDA margin as adjusted increased by 200 basis points sequentially to 29.8%.

我們的 EBITDA 較上季成長 11%，達到 4,850 萬美元，EBITDA 利潤率較上季成長 200 個基點，達到 19.7%。我們的調整後 EBITDA 較上季成長 7%，達到 7,350 萬美元，我們的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率較上季成長 200 個基點，達到 29.8%。

Our SG&A expenses declined sequentially by $5.6 million and a decline of 27% of our revenues to 25% of revenues. Our IPV4 leasing revenues for the quarter increased sequentially by 6.3% to $15.3 million and this represents a 40.1% increase on a year-over-year basis.

我們的銷售、一般及行政費用較上月下降了 560 萬美元，佔營收的比重也從 27% 下降到了 25%。本季我們的 IPV4 租賃營收季增 6.3%，達到 1,530 萬美元，年增 40.1%。

Our average revenue per IPV4 address leased in the quarter was $0.39, a 22% increase from the base at the beginning of last year. We have an inventory of a total of approximately 38 million IP before addresses. We have continued the reconfiguration of Sprint facilities and added them to our data center footprint.

本季我們出租的每個 IPV4 位址的平均收入為 0.39 美元，比去年年初的基礎成長了 22%。我們總共擁有約 3800 萬個 IP 位址之前的庫存。我們繼續重新配置 Sprint 設施並將其新增至我們的資料中心足跡。

We currently have connected 1675 third-party carrier-neutral data centers as well as our total fleet of 187 Cogent data centers. The Cogent data centers have an installed base of 214 megawatts of available power. During the quarter, we purchased 230,000 shares of our stock or a price of $11.5 million at an average price of $50.18. So far this quarter, we have purchased an additional 95,000 shares or $4.5 million at an average price of [$47.24]. Our Board has authorized an additional $100 million buyback program that will remain in place through December 31, 2026.

我們目前已連接 1675 個第三方營運商中立資料中心以及我們總共 187 個 Cogent 資料中心。Cogent 資料中心已安裝 214 兆瓦可用電力。本季度，我們回購了23萬股股票，總價值1,150萬美元，平均價格為50.18美元。本季迄今為止，我們又回購了9.5萬股，總價值450萬美元，平均價格為[47.24美元]。我們的董事會已批准額外 1 億美元的回購計劃，該計劃將持續到 2026 年 12 月 31 日。

We currently have a grand total of $106.4 million available for the company under its buyback program. Our sales force rep productivity significantly improved in the quarter to 4.8 installed orders per rep per month from an average of 3.8 orders installed per rep per month in the previous quarter.

目前，我們根據該公司的回購計畫總共可獲得 1.064 億美元的資金。本季度，我們的銷售代表生產力顯著提高，從上一季平均每位銷售代表每月安裝 3.8 個訂單提高到每位銷售代表每月安裝 4.8 個訂單。

After considering the impacts of HR1 tax bill, we are not expected to be a federal tax income tax payer for at least the next five years. Our Board decided to increase our dividend by another $0.005 per share quarterly from $1.01 per share per quarter to [$1.015]. This represents the 52nd consecutive sequential increase in our regular dividend and a 3% annual dividend growth rate.

考慮到 HR1 稅法案的影響，預計至少未來五年內我們不會成為聯邦稅所得稅納稅人。董事會決定將股息每季再增加 0.005 美元，從每季每股 1.01 美元增加到[1.015美元]。這代表我們的常規股利連續第 52 次增加，年股利成長率為 3%。

We anticipate our long-term average revenue growth to be between 6% and 8%. And we expect our EBITDA as adjusted margins to expand by approximately 200 basis points annually. Our updated revenue and EBITDA guidance targets are meant to be multiyear targets and are not intended to be specific quarterly or annual guidance.

我們預計長期平均收入成長率將在 6% 至 8% 之間。我們預計，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率將每年擴大約 200 個基點。我們更新的營收和 EBITDA 指導目標是多年期目標，並非具體的季度或年度指引。

We're nearing the end of the grooming of unprofitable and undesirable revenue that we had acquired in the Sprint base. And as these contracts expire and continue to expire, we expect to return to positive top line growth in mid-Q3 of 2025.

我們在 Sprint 基地獲得的無利可圖和不良收入的整理工作即將結束。隨著這些合約到期並繼續到期，我們預計到 2025 年第三季中期，營收將恢復正成長。

We remain focused on selling high-margin on-net services. Our sequential revenue decline improved materially to $800,000 and as compared to a sequential rate of revenue decline in the previous quarter of $5.2 million.

我們仍然專注於銷售高利潤的線上服務。我們的連續營收下降幅度大幅改善至 80 萬美元，而上一季的營收連續下降率為 520 萬美元。

With regard to our aggregate leverage, it has peaked at this point. We believe that our leverage on an LTM basis will continue to improve. Our leverage inclusive of the payments from T-Mobile under the IP transfer agreement and the net present value of those of $244.8 million should be treated as a cash receivable in calculating our net leverage and represented both on a short-term and long-term basis.

就我們的總槓桿率而言，目前已經達到頂峰。我們相信，我們在 LTM 基礎上的槓桿率將繼續提高。我們的槓桿包括根據 IP 轉讓協議 T-Mobile 支付的款項以及 2.448 億美元的淨現值，在計算我們的淨槓桿時應視為應收現金，並在短期和長期基礎上表示。

Our gross debt is adjusted for the amounts due from T-Mobile on a gross basis was 7.74% at the end of the quarter and 6.61% at the end of Q2. As I stated, we expect these numbers to decline sequentially from this point forward.

我們的總債務根據 T-Mobile 應收款項進行調整，本季末為 7.74%，第二季末為 6.61%。正如我所說，我們預計這些數字從現在開始將逐步下降。

Now I'd like to turn it over to Tad and let him read our harbor language and provide some additional detail on the operating performance in the quarter.

現在我想把它交給塔德，讓他讀一下我們的港口語言，並提供一些關於本季營運表現的更多細節。

Thank you, Dave, and good morning to everyone. This earnings conference call [includes] forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon our current intent, belief and expectations. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings for more information on the factors that could cause actual results to differ.

謝謝你，戴夫，大家早安。本次收益電話會議[包括]前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述是基於我們目前的意圖、信念和期望。這些前瞻性陳述以及本次電話會議中可能做出的所有其他非歷史事實的陳述都受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，實際結果可能存在重大差異。有關可能導致實際結果不同的因素的更多信息，請參閱我們的 SEC 文件。

Cogent undertakes no obligation to update or revise our forward-looking statements. If we use non-GAAP financial measures during this call, you will find these reconciled to the corresponding GAAP measurement in our earnings releases that are posted on our website at cogentco.com.

Cogent 不承擔更新或修改我們的前瞻性聲明的義務。如果我們在本次電話會議中使用非 GAAP 財務指標，您會發現這些指標與我們在網站 cogentco.com 上發布的收益報告中的相應 GAAP 指標相協調。

Summary of our results. Our revenue for the quarter was $246.2 million, a sequential decline of $800,000. Our EBITDA, as adjusted, was $73.5 million for the quarter. That was an increase of [6.9%] (technical difficulty) and our EBITDA as adjusted margin increased sequentially by 200 basis points to 29.8%. As a reminder, our EBITDA as adjusted includes payments under our IP transit agreement with T-Mobile, which is $25 million a quarter at this point.

我們的結果總結。本季我們的營收為 2.462 億美元，季減 80 萬美元。經調整後，本季我們的 EBITDA 為 7,350 萬美元。這是[6.9%]的成長（技術難度），我們的 EBITDA 調整後利潤率較上季成長 200 個基點，達到 29.8%。提醒一下，我們調整後的 EBITDA 包括與 T-Mobile 簽訂的 IP 傳輸協議下的付款，目前為每季 2500 萬美元。

This quarter, we received the three monthly payments totaling $25 million, and every payment has been made on time, and that was the same amount as last quarter, $25 million. Last quarter of last year's second quarter, we received $66.7 million as the payments ramp down to $25 million a quarter, and they will continue for 29 monthly payments until November of 2027.

本季度，我們收到了三個月的付款，總額為 2500 萬美元，每筆付款都按時支付，與上一季的金額相同，為 2500 萬美元。去年第二季最後一個季度，我們收到了 6,670 萬美元，付款額逐漸減少到每季 2,500 萬美元，並將持續 29 個月的付款，直到 2027 年 11 月。

There are further cash payments related to lease obligations that we received from T-Mobile that we assumed at closing that will total at least $28 million. This $28 million is to be paid to us in four equal payments from December '27 to March '28.

我們在交易結束時承擔了從 T-Mobile 收到的與租賃義務相關的進一步現金支付，總額至少為 2800 萬美元。這 2,800 萬美元將從 2027 年 12 月到 2028 年 3 月分四次等額支付給我們。

We analyze our revenues based upon network connection type, on-net, off-net, wavelength and noncore, and we also analyze our revenues based upon customer type. We have three types: NetCentric, corporate and enterprise.

我們根據網路連線類型、網內、網外、波長和非核心來分析我們的收入，我們也根據客戶類型來分析我們的收入。我們有三種類型：NetCentric、企業和大型企業。

Our corporate business represented 44.3% of our revenues this quarter which was a decrease by 8.8% year-over-year and 1.5% sequentially. These decreases in our corporate revenue are primarily due to the continued growing of loss net of low-margin off-net customer connections and the elimination of noncore products that we acquired.

本季度，我們的企業業務占我們營收的 44.3%，年減 8.8%，季減 1.5%。我們公司營收的下降主要是由於低利潤的網外客戶連接的淨虧損持續增長以及我們收購的非核心產品的淘汰。

Our NetCentric business continues to benefit from the growth in video traffic activity related to artificial intelligence, streaming and wavelength sales. Our NetCentric business represented 39.5% of our revenues this quarter increased by 6.8% year-over-year and sequentially by 5.1%. Our enterprise business represented 16.2% of our revenues this quarter. That was a decrease of 19.9% year-over-year and sequentially by 8.8%, primarily due to the reduction in the noncore and low-margin off-net enterprise revenues that we acquired in the Spring acquisition.

我們的 NetCentric 業務繼續受益於與人工智慧、串流媒體和波長銷售相關的視訊流量活動的成長。本季度，NetCentric 業務占我們營收的 39.5%，年增 6.8%，季增 5.1%。本季度，企業業務占我們營收的 16.2%。與去年同期相比下降了 19.9%，與上一季相比下降了 8.8%，這主要是因為我們在收購 Spring 時獲得的非核心和低利潤的網外企業收入減少。

On net revenue, we serve our on-net customers in 3,529 on-net buildings. Our on-net revenue was $132.3 million for the quarter. Our year-over-year decrease of 6%, but a sequential increase of $2.7 million or 2.1%.

在淨收入方面，我們為 3,529 座網內建築中的網內客戶提供服務。本季我們的淨收入為 1.323 億美元。與去年同期相比，我們的營收下降了 6%，但比上一季增加了 270 萬美元，即 2.1%。

Our off-net revenue was $102.2 million for the quarter, a year-over-year decrease of 8.3% and a sequential decrease of 4.8%. We serve our 26,239 off-net customers and 19,073 off-net buildings. Our off-net revenue results are impacted by the migration of certain off-net customers to on-net and the continued grooming and termination of low-margin off-net contracts, mostly acquired from Sprint, T-Mobile.

本季我們的網外營收為 1.022 億美元，年減 8.3%，季減 4.8%。我們為 26,239 名非網客戶和 19,073 棟非網建築提供服務。我們的離網收入結果受到某些離網客戶向網內客戶的遷移以及低利潤離網合約（大部分是從 Sprint、T-Mobile 收購的）的持續培養和終止的影響。

On pricing, our average price per megabit for our installed base decreased sequentially by 11% to $0.17 and decreased by 30% year-over-year. This is relatively consistent with historical trends. Our average price per megabit for our new customer contracts was $0.08, a sequential price per megabit decreased 21% and 34% year-over-year.

在定價方面，我們已安裝的每兆位元平均價格較上季下降 11% 至 0.17 美元，年減 30%。這與歷史趨勢比較一致。我們新客戶合約的平均每兆位元價格為 0.08 美元，環比下降 21%，年減 34%。

ARPU our ARPUs for the quarter were as follows: our on-net ARPU was $506, our off-net ARPU was $1,267, our wavelength ARPU was $2,163 and our IPV4 ARPU for addresses sold was $0.39 per address. Churn has been relatively constant, our on-net unit monthly churn rate was 1.4%, the same as last quarter.

ARPU 我們本季的 ARPU 如下：我們的網內 ARPU 為 506 美元，我們的網外 ARPU 為 1,267 美元，我們的波長 ARPU 為 2,163 美元，我們出售位址的 IPV4 ARPU 為每個位址 0.39 美元。客戶流失率相對穩定，我們的網路單位每月流失率為 1.4%，與上一季相同。

Our off-net unit churn rate was 2.3%, a slight increase from 2.2% last quarter. Traffic on our network for the quarter increased by 1% sequentially and by 9% year-over-year. Some comments on foreign exchange. Our revenue earned outside of the United States is reported in US dollars and was about 19% of our revenues this quarter.

我們的網外單位流失率為 2.3%，較上一季的 2.2% 略有上升。本季我們的網路流量較上季成長 1%，較去年同期成長 9%。關於外匯的一些評論。我們在美國以外地區獲得的收入以美元報告，約佔本季營收的 19%。

The average euro to USD rate so far this quarter, so for the third quarter, was CAD1.17 and $0.73. Should these average foreign exchange rates remain at the current levels for the remainder of this quarter we estimate that the FX conversion impact on sequential revenues would be about a $1 million positive and year-over-year, about $2 million positive.

本季截至目前，歐元兌美元的平均匯率（即第三季匯率）為1.17加元兌0.73美元。如果本季剩餘時間內這些平均匯率維持在目前水平，我們估計外匯兌換對季減的影響將約為100萬美元，年收入的影響將約為200萬美元。

We believe that our revenue and customer base is not highly concentrated, and our top 25 customers represent 17% of our revenues this quarter, essentially the same as last quarter. Some comments on CapEx and payments on capital leases. Our CapEx declined by $1.9 million sequentially and was $56.2 million this quarter.

我們認為，我們的收入和客戶群並不是高度集中的，本季前 25 名客戶占我們收入的 17%，與上一季基本相同。關於資本支出和資本租賃付款的一些評論。我們的資本支出季減 190 萬美元，本季為 5,620 萬美元。

Our principal payments on capital leases slightly increased by $0.5 million sequentially and were $8.5 million this quarter. We are continuing our network integration of the former Sprint network and legacy Cogent network into a unified network and converting former Sprint switch sites into Cogent data centers.

我們的資本租賃本金支付額比上一季略有增加 50 萬美元，本季為 850 萬美元。我們正在繼續將先前的 Sprint 網路和傳統的 Cogent 網路整合為統一網絡，並將先前的 Sprint 交換站點轉換為 Cogent 資料中心。

This program required capital spending for the first half of 2025 similar to the last half of 2024 and then our capital spending is expected to decline in the second half of this year. Our capital spending for the first half of 2025 was $114.3 million and for the fourth quarter was $105.3 million. Our principal payments on capital leases for the first half of '25 were $16.5 million and last year, for the first half was $156.7 million.

該計劃要求 2025 年上半年的資本支出與 2024 年下半年相似，然後我們的資本支出預計將在今年下半年下降。我們 2025 年上半年的資本支出為 1.143 億美元，第四季的資本支出為 1.053 億美元。25 年上半年我們的資本租賃本金支付額為 1,650 萬美元，去年上半年為 1.567 億美元。

That included a buyout of an uneconomic lease for $114.6 million at a 12% discount. Comments on debt and debt ratios. Our total gross debt at par, including our $605.2 million of finance lease obligations, was $2.3 billion at quarter end, and our net debt -- total debt net of our cash and our $244.8 million due from T-Mobile was $1.8 billion.

其中包括以 1.146 億美元和 12% 的折扣收購一份不經濟的租約。債務和債務比率的評論。以面額計算，我們的總債務（包括 6.052 億美元的融資租賃債務）在季度末為 23 億美元，而我們的淨債務（扣除現金和 T-Mobile 欠我們的 2.448 億美元）為 18 億美元。

Our leverage ratio, as calculated under our more restrictive 2027 unsecured $750 million notes was 6.82 and our secured leverage ratio was 4.2 and our fixed coverage ratio was 2.43. Our leverage ratio, as calculated under our newly issued 2032 secured [$600 million]notes indenture was 5.05, secured leverage ratio was 3.12 and fixed coverage was 3.27.

根據我們限制性較強的2027年7.5億美元無擔保票據計算，我們的槓桿率為6.82，擔保槓桿率為4.2，固定覆蓋率則為2.43。根據我們新發行的2032年（6億美元）擔保票據契約計算，我們的槓桿率為5.05，擔保槓桿率為3.12，固定覆蓋率則為3.27。

The definition of consolidated cash flow under our $600 million secured notes that we issued this quarter includes cash payments under the IP transit services agreement with T-Mobile, and these payments were $100 million for the last trailing 12 months. Lastly, our day sales was 31 days rather at quarter end, a slight increase from 29 days last quarter due to the timing of cash receipts. Our bad debt expense was significantly less than 1% of revenues for the quarter. So a great job there.

我們本季發行的 6 億美元擔保票據的合併現金流定義包括與 T-Mobile 簽訂的 IP 傳輸服務協議下的現金支付，過去 12 個月的這些支付為 1 億美元。最後，由於現金收款時間的原因，我們的銷售日數在季末為 31 天，比上一季的 29 天略有增加。我們的壞帳支出遠低於本季營收的 1%。所以這是一份很棒的工作。

And I will now turn the call back over to Dave.

現在我將把電話轉回給戴夫。

Thanks, Tad. I'd like to highlight a couple of the strengths of our network, our customer base and sales force. We are direct beneficiaries of continued to increase video traffic, artificial end intelligence activity and streaming trends. At quarter end, we were able to sell wavelengths in 938 carrier-neutral data centers across North America with reduced provisioning windows of 30 days. At quarter's end, we were able to sell our IP services globally in 1,862 data centers.

謝謝，泰德。我想強調一下我們的人脈、客戶群和銷售團隊的幾個優勢。我們是持續成長的視訊流量、人工智慧活動和串流趨勢的直接受益者。在本季末，我們能夠在北美 938 個營運商中立資料中心銷售波長，並將配置視窗縮短至 30 天。截至本季末，我們能夠在全球 1,862 個資料中心銷售我們的 IP 服務。

At quarter's end, we were directly connected to 8,085 networks, 22 of these networks represent peers and 8,063 or Cogent transit customers. The reduction in networks connected from last quarter was due to the completion the combination of the Sprint and Cogent IP networks into a single unified autonomous system number, AS 174. Some details on our sales force.

截至本季末，我們直接連接到 8,085 個網絡，其中 22 個網絡代表同行，8,063 個或 Cogent 中轉客戶。與上一季相比，連接網路數量的減少是由於 Sprint 和 Cogent IP 網路合併為一個統一自治系統編號 AS 174。有關我們銷售團隊的一些詳細資訊。

We remain focused on increasing our sales force productivity and managing out underperforming reps. Sales force turnover was 6.2% per month in the quarter, down from a peak of 8.7% during the height of the pandemic, but slightly above the historical average of 5.7% per month.

我們將繼續致力於提高銷售團隊的生產力並管理表現不佳的銷售代表。本季銷售人員的流動率為每月 6.2%，低於疫情高峰期 8.7% 的峰值，但略高於每月 5.7% 的歷史平均值。

At the end of the quarter, we had 628 sales reps. Our sales reps include 296 sales force that focus solely on the NetCentric market, 318 sales reps focusing on the corporate market in North America; and finally, 14 reps focusing on global enterprise customers.

截至本季末，我們有 628 名銷售代表。我們的銷售代表包括 296 位專注於 NetCentric 市場的銷售人員、318 位專注於北美企業市場的銷售代表；最後，還有 14 位專注於全球企業客戶的銷售代表。

We expect to continue to provide profitable on-net and off-net IP services to enterprises corporate customers and NetCentric customers. We remain encouraged and enthusiastic about the prospects for our Wave Life business. We have a significant wavelength backlog funnel of over 4687 wavelength opportunities.

我們期望繼續為企業客戶和 NetCentric 客戶提供有利可圖的網內和網外 IP 服務。我們對 Wave Life 業務的前景仍然充滿信心和熱情。我們擁有超過 4687 個波長機會的大量波長積壓漏斗。

We have several hundred wavelengths that have been installed but have not yet built due to customers and ability to accept the services as they are preparing their equipment to receive those wavelengths. And since our inception, we are focused on offering superior service, expedited provisioning and disruptive pricing. We now have a base of installed wavelengths that are beginning to give us data showing that our wave line quality is substantially better than that of our competitors. We expect to continue to monitor this and use quality as a key differentiator in our ability to gain market share.

我們已經安裝了數百個波長，但由於客戶及其接受​​服務的能力而尚未建造，因為他們正在準備設備來接收這些波長。自成立以來，我們一直致力於提供優質的服務、快速的供應和顛覆性的價格。現在，我們已經擁有了安裝波長的基礎，這些數據開始表明，我們的波浪線品質遠遠優於競爭對手。我們希望繼續監控這一點，並將品質作為我們贏得市場份額的關鍵差異化因素。

With that, I'd like to open the floor for questions.

現在，我想開始回答大家的提問。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝各位，女士們、先生們。我們現在開始問答環節。（操作員指示）

Greg Williams, TD Cowen.

格雷格威廉斯 (Greg Williams)，TD Cowen。

Great, thanks for taking my questions. Dave, you just ended the statements with focusing on quality as marketing your ways, ways seem to be continuing to be off to a slow start. Did you still target [400 to 500] circuits installed a month by year-end? Second question is just on your data center sales progress? Any additional color on interest you're seeing and perhaps more importantly, at this point, is 10 million a megawatt a realistic ask from the interest that you're seeing? Or should we see a haircut on this target? Thanks.

太好了，謝謝你回答我的問題。戴夫，你剛才以注重品質作為行銷方式的結束語，但這種方式似乎仍然進展緩慢。你們的目標是否仍是到年底每月安裝 [400 到 500 條電路]？第二個問題是關於你們資料中心的銷售進度嗎？您看到的興趣還有其他細節嗎？也許更重要的是，目前，從您所看到的興趣來看，每兆瓦 1000 萬美元是一個現實的要求嗎？或者我們應該看到這個目標被削減嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, hey, thanks for the questions, Greg. So we always knew that in order to win market share and wavelengths, we needed to be winning on three criteria: first, being ubiquity of coverage, Second, the price that we offer; and third, the quality of the service. And the quality is actually measured two ways: our ability to actually install in a timely manner and the service to be able to work once installed. We initially focused on the installed metric because we did not have a material base of wave lines.

是的，嘿，謝謝你的提問，格雷格。因此，我們始終知道，為了贏得市場份額和波長，我們需要在三個標準上取勝：第一，覆蓋的普遍性；第二，我們提供的價格；第三，服務的品質。品質實際上是透過兩種方式來衡量的：我們及時安裝的能力以及安裝後能夠正常工作的服務。我們最初關注的是安裝指標，因為我們沒有波浪線的物質基礎。

while our wavelength base is still small, about 1% of the North American market. It is now at least statistically significant enough that we can measure our performance quality as measured by a number of outages along each route.

而我們的波長基數仍然很小，約佔北美市場的1%。現在它至少在統計上足夠顯著，我們可以透過每條路線上的停電次數來衡量我們的性能品質。

Today, and this is anecdotal, we are running at about 7x fewer outages per span than at least one of our major competitors as reported to us by customers who have similar city pairs along different fiber with that other vendor and with Cogent.

今天，這是軼事，我們每跨度的運行中斷次數比至少一個主要競爭對手少了 7 倍，這是與該其他供應商和 Cogent 沿不同光纖擁有類似城市對的客戶向我們報告的。

We think all of these inputs are critical to us gaining share. In terms of our wavelength install cadence, while we installed and began billing 147 wavelengths in the quarter, we actually installed several hundred more wavelengths than we have begun to bill for.

我們認為所有這些投入對於我們獲得市場份額都至關重要。就我們的波長安裝節奏而言，雖然我們在本季度安裝並開始計費 147 個波長，但實際上我們安裝的波長比我們開始計費的波長多出幾百個。

As we had mentioned in previous calls, we have been installing services faster than customers have expected. They then usually need to order a cross connects, sometimes pluggable optics on their side to be able to accept these wavelengths and they've been accustom to having protracted delays from other vendors.

正如我們在之前的通話中提到的，我們安裝服務的速度比客戶預期的要快。然後，他們通常需要訂購交叉連接器，有時還需要可插拔光學元件才能接受這些波長，而且他們已經習慣了其他供應商的長時間延遲。

We are beginning to build credibility with those customers, and we are accelerating our ability to install. We have the capabilities to get to 500 wavelengths per month. We will ramp to that. And I think over the next several quarters, our customer base is going to become accustomed to our rapid provisioning, which is different than what the industry has traditionally experienced. And as a result of that, we think the number of wavelengths that we install, but do not bill will shrink.

我們開始與這些客戶建立信譽，並且正在加快我們的安裝能力。我們有能力每月達到 500 個波長。我們將逐步實現這一目標。我認為在接下來的幾個季度裡，我們的客戶群將會習慣我們的快速供應，這與該行業傳統上經歷的情況不同。因此，我們認為我們安裝但不計費的波長數量將會減少。

We report a number of granular KPIs. I think that is critical until we have a material base of billable revenue in our wavelength product set. The fact that our revenues increased 27% sequentially, I think is a good indication of our gain in market share albeit off of a small base.

我們報告了許多詳細的 KPI。我認為，在我們的波長產品系列擁有可計費收入的物質基礎之前，這一點至關重要。我們的收入環比增長了 27%，我認為這很好地表明了我們的市場份額有所增長，儘管基數較小。

I'm going to pivot to your wave -- to your data center question. We continue to negotiate with the four initial parties that put in offers and have actually received two more offers. So we actually have a set of six total LOIs for firm offers on facilities. They range from the entire portfolio to as few as one facility. We have tried to be very cautious with investors not to project the proceeds of the data center sales into our recurring revenue.

我將轉到您的主題—資料中心問題。我們繼續與最初提出報價的四個方進行談判，並且實際上已經收到了另外兩個報價。因此，我們實際上有一套共六份的意向書，用於對設施進行確認報價。它們的範圍從整個投資組合到僅一個設施。我們對投資者非常謹慎，不會將資料中心銷售的收益計入我們的經常性收入。

We have not done that before. We have, I think, been I'm a bit concerned that some of the counterparties have been unable to post meaningful nonrefundable security deposits as they move from letter of intent to contract. I think it is premature for us to conclude that we have to adjust pricing. We will ultimately let the market decide the pricing. We have no initial cost basis in these data centers.

我們以前沒有這樣做過。我認為，我們有點擔心，一些交易對手在從意向書轉向合約的過程中無法支付有意義的不可退還的保證金。我認為現在就得出我們必須調整價格的結論還為時過早。我們最終會讓市場決定定價。我們在這些資料中心沒有初始成本基礎。

And the only basis we have is the work that we have done and the capital that we have spent to convert these centers. With that, we have a great deal of flexibility in divesting of these noncore assets. We continue to have tours, continue to have third-party consultants working on behalf of financial sponsors evaluating the assets and to be direct and answer your question, we have offers arrangement from our full ask price to a fraction of the price. And it's impossible for us to say exactly what we're going to have to accept until we get a contract with a binding deposit.

我們唯一的基礎就是我們為改造這些中心所做的工作和投入的資金。這樣，我們在剝離這些非核心資產時就有很大的彈性。我們將繼續進行考察，繼續讓第三方顧問代表金融贊助商評估資產，並直接回答您的問題，我們提供從全額到低價的報價安排。在我們獲得一份帶有約束性定金的合約之前，我們不可能確切地說出我們必須接受什麼。

Thanks Dave. Just to be clear on your waves comment then. So the 147 additional waves, that's what you've built, but you've installed far more than that, just not billed yet. The right way to think about it?

謝謝戴夫。只是為了清楚地了解你的波浪評論。所以，這 147 個額外的波浪就是您建造的，但您安裝的波浪遠不止這些，只是尚未計費。正確的思考方式是？

That is absolutely correct, Greg. And as I stated previously, at some point in the future, it will only make sense for Cogent to report not on a funnel, not on orders installed but not built, but actually installed and billing. But until we build a larger base, I think giving these incremental KPIs is helpful for investors. Next question, please.

完全正確，格雷格。正如我之前所說，在未來的某個時候，Cogent 的報告將不再基於漏斗，不再基於已安裝但尚未建造的訂單，而是基於實際安裝和計費。但在我們建立更大的基礎之前，我認為提供這些增量 KPI 對投資者是有幫助的。請回答下一個問題。

Next question please.

請問下一個問題。

Chris Schoell, UBS.

瑞銀的 Chris Schoell。

Great. Thank you. Last quarter, Dave, I think you talked about the business returning to top line growth by mid 3Q. Can you just provide your latest thoughts here and to the extent expectations have changed what has shifted for several months ago. And I also believe you slightly raised the margin expansion target long term. Can you just walk us through what gave you confidence to do that today and the main drivers of upside there? Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。戴夫，上個季度，我想您談到了業務將在第三季中期恢復營收成長。您能否在此提供您的最新想法，以及幾個月前發生的變化對預期的影響程度。我還認為您略微提高了長期利潤率擴張目標。您能否向我們介紹一下是什麼讓您有信心今天做到這一點，以及實現這一目標的主要驅動力是什麼？謝謝。

Yeah, sure, thanks for both questions, Chris. So as we stated on our last earnings call, we expected our rate of revenue decline to materially decelerate, it actually did. It went from sequentially $5.2 million decline quarter-over-quarter to $800,000. We knew that in July, we had a significant resale agreement that was actually terminated in June, but we had a tail that we had to support in until July.

是的，當然，謝謝你提出這兩個問題，克里斯。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上所說的那樣，我們預計收入下降的速度將大幅放緩，事實也確實如此。與上一季相比，下降幅度從 520 萬美元下降至 80 萬美元。我們知道，7 月我們有一項重要的轉售協議，該協議實際上在 6 月終止了，但我們還有一個尾巴需要支援到 7 月。

That is behind us. And with that, one remaining large noncore contract now terminated we have a clear visibility to monthly growth in revenue. Whether that is sufficient to get to aggregate post for the quarter, it's very close, and I'm not prepared to say there's FX and there's just some noise around customers. But the rate of decline for the quarter maybe lower than the $800,000. It could actually be a positive number.

那已經是過去的事了。隨著剩餘的一份大型非核心合約的終止，我們可以清楚地看到每月的收入成長。這是否足以達到本季度的總計目標，目前非常接近，而且我還沒準備好說存在外匯，而且客戶周圍有一些噪音。但本季的下降率可能低於80萬美元。它實際上可能是一個正數。

And then from that point forward, we expect to see positive revenue growth each and every quarter sequentially. It's important also and it ties in your margin. A point that the revenue growth that we are experiencing is almost exclusively on net services, whether they be IP-based services, or wave line services.

從那時起，我們預計每季的營收都會持續成長。這也很重要，它與你的利潤息息相關。我們的收入成長幾乎完全來自網路服務，無論是基於 IP 的服務還是波浪線服務。

And the revenue declines are coming from much lower margin, in some cases, negative margin off-net services. The fact that we delivered 200 basis points of margin expansion sequentially last quarter, quarter-over-quarter. And looking back at the eight quarters since the acquisition of the Sprint assets, we have outperformed 200 basis points annually and now with a return to growth, we feel very comfortable that we will replicate the type of margin expansion that Cogent historically had prior to acquiring Sprint, just to align investors from the period in 2005 through 2023 when we acquired Sprint over that 18-year period, Cogent organically, without acquisition had experienced an average rate of margin expansion of 220 basis points.

收入下降是由於利潤率較低，在某些情況下，甚至是負利潤率的網外服務。事實上，上個季度我們的利潤率比上一季環比成長了 200 個基點。回顧收購 Sprint 資產以來的八個季度，我們每年的業績都超出預期 200 個基點，現在隨著增長的恢復，我們感到非常有信心，我們將複製 Cogent 在收購 Sprint 之前的利潤率擴張類型，只是為了讓投資者與我們在 2005 年至 2023 年收購 Sprint 期間保持一致，在這平均收購的情況下個基點的利潤率擴張率。

So this is something that is not theoretical, but it is our actual historical results. We had a margin reset that occur from acquiring a declining and negative margin business. We've taken more than $220 million of costs out of that business, and we have experience better than 200 basis points since the initial acquisition. While there were puts and takes for severance and other reimbursable by T-Mobile as part of the transaction with all of that extraordinary payment behind us. We now have a high degree of confidence that the 200 basis points, as I just outlined, is sustainable going forward on a year-over-year basis.

所以這不是理論上的，而是我們實際的歷史結果。由於收購了利潤率下滑甚至為負的業務，我們對利潤率進行了重新調整。我們從該業務中節省了超過 2.2 億美元的成本，自首次收購以來，我們的經驗已超過 200 個基點。儘管在交易過程中，T-Mobile 收取了遣散費和其他可報銷的費用，但我們仍需支付所有這些額外費用。我們現在非常有信心，正如我剛才所概述的，200 個基點的成長率在未來一年內是可持續的。

And again, to remind everyone, this is meant to be a multiyear average. Some years will beat it. Some years, we may miss it. But on average, over the next decade, we will deliver more than 200 basis points a year of margin expansion on average.

再次提醒大家，這是一個多年的平均值。幾年後就會打敗它。有些年份，我們可能會錯過它。但平均而言，未來十年，我們每年的利潤率將平均成長 200 個基點以上。

Thanks, Dave.

謝謝，戴夫。

Thanks, Chris.

謝謝，克里斯。

Walt Piecyk, LightShed.

Walt Piecyk，LightShed。

Thanks, Dave, can you just remind us in terms of sources of capital or where you could borrow against because I think unless your CapEx, it falls off a cliff, you're probably going to need some incremental capital to fund the dividend growth by the early 2026. So can you just remind us what you can tap to bring funds in to fund that dividend?

謝謝，戴夫，你能否提醒我們資金來源或可以從哪裡借款，因為我認為除非你的資本支出急劇下降，否則到 2026 年初你可能需要一些增量資本來資助股息增長。那麼，您能否提醒我們一下，您可以利用哪些資金來支付股利？

Yes. Sure, Walt. So first of all, I'm going to disagree with your premise with over $300 million of cash on the balance sheet. Secondly, we have indicated that our capital spending was elevated in the second half of '24 in the first half of '25, primarily due to the upgrading of the data centers from DC power to AC that capital expense is behind us now and was approximately a $100 million spread over four quarters. So as a result of that, we anticipate our annual rate, and this will be the rate in the second half of '25 and full year '26 to be approximately $100 million in capital expenditures.

是的。當然，沃爾特。因此，首先，我不同意你的前提，因為資產負債表上有超過 3 億美元的現金。其次，我們已經指出，我們的資本支出在 2024 年下半年和 2025 年上半年有所增加，主要是由於資料中心從直流電升級到交流電，現在資本支出已經過去，大約為 1 億美元，分佈在四個季度。因此，我們預期我們的年率，也就是 25 年下半年和 26 年全年的資本支出約為 1 億美元。

On top of that $100 million of CapEx, we do make principal payments on capital leases. Due to GAAP accounting is shown at a different point in the cash flow statement, but it should be treated like CapEx. That number for the first half of this year was $16.5 million. We have indicated that the annual run rate for those principal payments should be about $40 million.

除了 1 億美元的資本支出外，我們還會支付資本租賃的本金。由於 GAAP 會計在現金流量表的不同點顯示，但它應該像資本支出一樣處理。今年上半年的數字為 1,650 萬美元。我們已經指出，這些本金支付的年運行率應該約為 4000 萬美元。

So we were actually slightly below. It was elevated materially in '24 due to the buyout of the Verizon IRU as a onetime event, which we called out with is associating discount. As a result, the total amount of cash expenditures for principal payments and on capital leases and CapEx should be around $140 million a year.

所以我們實際上略低於這個水平。由於 Verizon IRU 的一次性收購，該價格在 24 年大幅上漲，我們稱之為相關折扣。因此，本金支付、資本租賃和資本支出的現金支出總額每年應約為 1.4 億美元。

In terms of additional borrowing capabilities, we have borrowing capabilities at three levels in Cogent. We have additional capacity available in the group entity, where our leverage today is substantially below the covenant thresholds and our debt service coverage is substantially above.

在額外借貸能力方面，我們在 Cogent 擁有三個等級的借貸能力。我們在集團實體中擁有額外的產能，目前我們的槓桿率遠低於契約門檻，而我們的債務償還覆蓋率則遠高於契約門檻。

So at Cogent Group, there is several hundred million dollars more of borrowing capacity, either secured or unsecured allowed in our current indentures and it will be likely that we will look at the 2027 unsecured debt and probably look to refinance at some time in the latter part of 2026, possibly raising incremental capital but not necessarily. We also have incremental borrowing at Cogent infrastructure.

因此，在 Cogent Group，我們目前的契約中允許的借貸能力增加了數億美元，無論是有擔保的還是無擔保的，我們很可能會考慮 2027 年的無擔保債務，並可能在 2026 年下半年的某個時候尋求再融資，可能會籌集增量資本，但不一定。我們也在 Cogent 基礎設施方面進行了增量借貸。

That includes both the IPV4 ABS, which will have additional capacity based on the growth and cash flow in that as well as the ability to borrow against the other assets that reside in that entity. And then finally, there is always borrowing capability at the holding company level, which has no debt associated with it. (multiple speakers)

其中包括 IPV4 ABS，它將根據其成長和現金流獲得額外容量，以及利用該實體中的其他資產進行借貸的能力。最後，控股公司層級始終具有借貸能力，且不承擔任何相關債務。（多位發言者）

Yes, I'll answer your question. We -- however, we do not anticipate needing material incremental borrowings to either fund the dividend or operations as on an LQA basis, our leverage peaked last year and has been declining -- and on an LTM basis, just arithmetically is going to continue to decline. So while we are at 6.6 times net leverage on a LTM basis at the end of this quarter, we anticipate that over the next six quarters, that number will fall below 5x and continue to delever.

是的，我會回答你的問題。然而，我們預計不需要大量增量借款來支付股息或營運費用，因為在 LQA 基礎上，我們的槓桿率在去年達到頂峰並且一直在下降 - 而在 LTM 基礎上，僅從算術上來看還將繼續下降。因此，雖然本季末我們的 LTM 淨槓桿率為 6.6 倍，但我們預計，在接下來的六個季度中，該數字將降至 5 倍以下並繼續去槓桿。

I mean it's not based on the math. I mean, I think in your math, you're basically taking a net present value of TSA payments and then also including the TSA payments in the denominator of the calculation. So if you just look at what your reported adjusted EBITDA is, which is reported and your actual net debt, it's 7.5 times leverage. And in terms of not if you're basically saying gross debt is not going up.

我的意思是它不是基於數學的。我的意思是，我認為在你的數學中，你基本上是取 TSA 支付的淨現值，然後將 TSA 支付納入計算的分母中。因此，如果您只查看報告的調整後 EBITDA（即報告的實際淨債務），您會發現其槓桿率為 7.5 倍。如果你基本上是說總債務沒有增加，那就不是了。

I mean, I guess, we'll just see if that's going to be the case in future quarters because you're paying $50 million a quarter in dividends your operating cash burn is $30 million, and you have $300 million less in cash.

我的意思是，我想，我們只會看看未來幾季是否會出現這種情況，因為您每季支付 5000 萬美元的股息，而您的營運現金消耗為 3000 萬美元，而您的現金減少了 3 億美元。

So borrowings, if you're saying they're not going to go up fine, we'll just see what happens, I guess, in future quarters, and we can just see how that plays out without obviously a material cutting CapEx. But I don't understand how you can represent the math and it's actually reported numbers. It's 7.5 leverage. And it's 1 time when you exclude the TSA payments, which you're trying to use as an NPV. So if we exclude the TSA payments leverage is 12 times on trailing EBITDA.

因此，如果您說借款不會順利增加，那麼我們只能看看未來幾季會發生什麼，我們只能看看在沒有明顯削減資本支出的情況下情況會如何發展。但我不明白如何表示數學以及它實際報告的數字。槓桿率為 7.5。這是您排除 TSA 付款的 1 次，您嘗試將其用作 NPV。因此，如果我們排除 TSA 支付，槓桿率將是過去 EBITDA 的 12 倍。

So what we've had this discussion on multiple earnings call.

我們在多次財報電話會議上都討論過這個問題。

It's math. Everyone has the numbers. They can do their own math.

這是數學。每個人都有自己的數字。他們可以自己做數學題。

I totally agree with that, and we absorbed a number of losses from T-Mobile, which have depressed our EBITDA and we received a stream of payments over 54 months equaling $700 million. The net present value of those payments goes down each and every quarter as we receive those payments.

我完全同意這一點，我們吸收了 T-Mobile 的一些損失，這降低了我們的 EBITDA，我們在 54 個月內收到了總計 7 億美元的付款。隨著我們收到這些付款，這些付款的淨現值每季都會下降。

You're trying to include it in the numerator and the denominator. You can do that and present it that way, but investors obviously estimate our own decision. Dave, can you just update us on in terms of the pledged stock. Has the Board put any limitation on that? And can you just walk us through the mechanics, if there's any further drop in the stock, how does that impact, if at all, the pledged shares?

您正嘗試將其包含在分子和分母中。你可以這樣做，也可以用這種方式來呈現，但投資人顯然會評估我們自己的決定。戴夫，您能否向我們介紹一下質押股票的最新情況？董事會對此有什麼限制嗎？您能否向我們簡單介紹其中的機制？如果股價進一步下跌，會對質押股票產生什麼影響？

So I as an individual, have received my compensation from Cogent almost exclusively in stock for 25 years. I paid taxes on that stock has that stock vested. I have a basis in my stock as of the beginning of this year of $155 million borrowed against a portion of that stock in order to fund those tax payments, so I did not have to sell on.

因此，作為個人，25 年來我從 Cogent 獲得的報酬幾乎全部是股票。我已為該股票繳納了稅款，該股票已歸屬。截至今年年初，我的股票基礎為 1.55 億美元，我用部分股票借款來支付這些稅款，所以不需要賣出。

And I was fortunate enough to have income from other sources, primarily by real estate portfolio. As the DC real estate market deteriorated, I had additional pressure to reduce leverage of my real estate portfolio, which forced me to begin selling Cogent stock.

而且我很幸運，有其他收入來源，主要是房地產投資組合。隨著華盛頓特區房地產市場的惡化，我面臨著降低房地產投資組合槓桿的額外壓力，這迫使我開始出售 Cogent 股票。

Some of that stock is pledged. And as a result, I have to reduce the pledge amount as well as receive cash to fund equity injections into my real estate. I've tried to be extremely transparent with investors probably more than most people in my situation would be. And I am committed to making sure that as an individual, not as Cogent, on lenders are made whole. Even though many of my brother in my industry have walked away from their assets.

部分股票已被質押。結果，我必須減少質押金額並收到現金來資助我的房地產股權注入。我盡力對投資者保持高度透明，可能比大多數和我處境相同的人做得都好。我致力於確保貸款人作為個人（而不是作為 Cogent）獲得全額賠償。儘管我這個行業的許多兄弟已經放棄了他們的資產。

And the policy that the Board has not changed in terms of my ability to pledge my ability to not hedge in any way, which if I had that ability would negate some of the pressure that forces me to sell.

董事會關於我承諾不以任何方式對沖的能力的政策沒有改變，如果我有這種能力，就會抵消一些迫使我出售的壓力。

But is there a cap on what you can pledge? Because if you just search GPT this is, I think, as occurred with Elon and other companies and boards have actually implemented caps on the percentage of shares that can be pledged.

但是你承諾的金額有上限嗎？因為如果你搜尋 GPT，我認為，就像 Elon 和其他公司的情況一樣，董事會實際上已經對可以質押的股份百分比實施了限制。

There is not at Cogent.

Cogent 沒有。

Who and the Board makes that decision?

誰和董事會做出這個決定？

The Audit Committee.

審計委員會。

Great thank you.

非常感謝。

Neil Deo, MoffettNathanson.

尼爾迪奧、莫菲特納桑森。

Hi, morning, thanks for taking my questions. Dave, you noted that you had provisioned but not yet billed for several hundred waves. Did that metric go up quarter-over-quarter?

大家好，早安，感謝您回答我的問題。戴夫，您注意到您已為幾百波波做好了準備但尚未計費。這個指標是否比上一季上升？

Yes.

是的。

Okay, meaningfully?

好吧，有意義嗎？

Meaningfully. And we commented on this when we reported Q1 numbers and the majority of the wavelengths were installed near the very end of the quarter, and it was the reason for the disconnect between 2% revenue growth and 18% unit growth.

有意義。我們在報告第一季數據時對此進行了評論，大多數波長都是在本季度末安裝的，這也是 2% 的收入增長和 18% 的單位增長之間脫節的原因。

We also explained that we wanted to be careful not to alienate significant customers by being too aggressive and pressuring them to accept wavelengths. We have several large customers that have been truly shocked by our ability to provision in the windows that we have outlined. And as a result, they were not prepared to take the wavelength services. They typically order their cross connects, order their pluggable optics and accept them in a three to four-month window from placing new order.

我們也解釋說，我們要小心，不要因為太激進和強迫重要客戶接受波長而疏遠他們。我們有幾個大客戶，他們對我們在所概述的視窗中提供的能力感到非常震驚。因此，他們沒有準備好接受波長服務。他們通常會在下新訂單後的三到四個月內訂購交叉連接器、可插拔光纖並接受它們。

But in Cogent's case, we had one very large wave order that we were actually able to provision nearly 100 waves in seven days. I mean they were truly amazed at that, but they came back and said we can't take them. And I understand investors frustrations that they want to see an installed number. And we only report installations based on billing revenue. That's been our policy and practice since inception.

但在 Cogent 的案例中，我們有一個非常大的波浪訂單，我們實際上能夠在七天內提供近 100 個波浪。我的意思是，他們對此確實感到驚訝，但他們回來說我們不能接受他們。我理解投資者希望看到安裝數量的沮喪情緒。我們僅根據計費收入報告安裝情況。這是我們自成立以來的政策和做法。

We have given incremental KPI's help investors understand that there's demand here. But as I've said on previous earnings calls, and I want to repeat today, the ultimate goal is to be measured only by GAAP revenue growth. And now listen, on that metric, it looked really good, but it was because a lot of waves installed at the very end of the previous quarter, which got us to 27% sequential and 150% revenue growth. With a small base and with these lags, it is going to be lumpier than I would than I would like.

我們給出了增量 KPI，幫助投資者了解這裡存在的需求。但正如我在之前的財報電話會議上所說的那樣，今天我想重申一下，最終目標僅以 GAAP 收入成長來衡量。現在聽著，從這個指標來看，它看起來確實不錯，但這是因為在上一季末安裝了很多波浪，這使我們的環比增長了 27%，收入增長了 150%。由於基數較小且存在這些滯後，它會比我想要的更不均勻。

Our piece of it is much smoother than the lumpiness suggests. And I think there will be a point in time when we can implement a force billing discipline, but we are unlining to do that at this point.

我們的這塊比它看起來的塊狀要光滑得多。我認為，在某個時間點，我們可以實施強制計費紀律，但我們現在還沒有準備好這樣做。

Okay, got it. Thanks for that caller, Dave. And then maybe just turning to the data centers. What do you think is holding those bidders back from putting down deposits? Because it seemed like you expressed a bit more cautious on that front than you have historically?

好的，明白了。謝謝您的來電，戴夫。然後也許就轉向數據中心了。您認為是什麼原因阻礙了這些競標者支付訂金？因為看起來您在這方面表現得比以前更謹慎了？

Well, it's because another 10 weeks has passed since we have publicly commented on this, and there are no firm deposits in hand. And I would say it's kind of twofold. I think, for the operators that have LOIs in, they are struggling to get capital committed -- and we've had offers for what I would consider de minimis deposits relative to the size of the portfolio and I view those as just unacceptable to go to contract, letting someone tie up the portfolio for, say, 1% of the proposed purchase price that is just inappropriate, you wouldn't do that if you were buying a hotel or a shopping center or any real property asset.

嗯，這是因為自從我們公開評論此事以來已經過去了 10 週，但手頭上還沒有確定的存款。我想說，這有雙重意義。我認為，對於擁有意向書的運營商來說，他們很難獲得資本承諾——我們收到的報價在我看來是相對於投資組合規模的最低限度的押金，我認為這些報價對於簽訂合同來說是不可接受的，讓某人以擬議購買價格的 1% 來捆綁投資組合，這是不合適的，如果你購買的是酒店、購物中心或任何不動產資產，你就不會這樣做。

And then I think for the private equity sponsors, they are trying to get comfort around the revenue stream that their management team is going to generate while they have continued to spend money and do condition reports due towards quality assessments they're being cautious because what they would like to do, which I would do if I was in their shoes, is derisk it by going to the management team you're backing and saying, show me an actual end-user contract that I can underwrite. And we've been very clear, the assets that we are looking to divest of have no recurring revenue associated with them.

然後我認為，對於私募股權發起人來說，他們試圖對他們的管理團隊將要產生的收入流感到放心，同時他們繼續花錢並進行狀況報告，因為質量評估他們很謹慎，因為他們想做的（如果我處於他們的位置，我會這樣做）是通過去找你支持的管理團隊並說，給我看一份我可以承保的實際用戶來降低風險。最終用戶來降低風險。最終用戶來降低風險。最終用戶來降低風險。我們已經非常明確地表示，我們想要剝離的資產沒有相關的經常性收入。

And I think it's really these two constraints that have slowed down the process. And we've tried to, I think, caution investors not to place a lot of value on these. I do still think they will be monetized, but I'm not in a position as I am with wavelength to give you any clarity on the when and how much until we actually conclude a binding transaction with a meaningful deposit.

我認為正是這兩個限制減緩了這一進程。我認為，我們已經試圖告誡投資人不要過度重視這些。我仍然認為它們將被貨幣化，但在我們真正透過有意義的存款達成具有約束力的交易之前，我無法像波長那樣向您明確何時以及多少。

Got it. Thanks, Dave.

知道了。謝謝，戴夫。

Thanks Nick.

謝謝尼克。

Mike Funk, Bank of America.

美國銀行的麥克·芬克。

Yeah, hi Dave. Good to hear from you again.

是的，嗨，戴夫。很高興再次收到您的來信。

Welcome back, Mike. I know you've been covering some other sectors, but it's great to have you back.

歡迎回來，麥克。我知道您一直在報道其他一些領域，但很高興您回來。

It's good to be back, and thank you for the questions. So given that I'm newer back to the story, let me ask some basic ones here. On the provisioning of circuits, I heard your comments, some customers not ready to take delivery as soon as you're available. But from my perspective, it's single disconnect between your sales team, your provisioning team and the customer, I expect a better coordination.

很高興回來，感謝您的提問。因此，鑑於我剛剛回顧這個故事，讓我在這裡問一些基本問題。關於電路配置，我聽到了您的評論，有些客戶還沒有準備好在您有空時立即收貨。但從我的角度來看，這是您的銷售團隊、供應團隊和客戶之間的單一脫節，我期望有更好的協調。

So I guess, where is the disconnect if customers aren't ready to take and what are you doing to, I guess, alleviate that or improve the coordination with customers and do you expect them to shorten their delivery acceptance time?

所以我想，如果客戶還沒準備好接受，那麼脫節在哪裡？我想，你會做什麼來緩解這種情況或改善與客戶的協調？你是否希望他們縮短交貨驗收時間？

Yeah. So four IP services, which are the bulk of Cogent's revenues, they're 87% of our revenues, we have a 25-year track record. We install services on net at an average of about nine days. We also allow customers two times to push out the delivery and then we have kind of a forced billing discipline that's in place, this policy for transit, DIA and VPN services has been in place for over 20 years. Customers are accustomed to it.

是的。因此，四項 IP 服務是 Cogent 收入的主要來源，占我們收入的 87%，我們擁有 25 年的業績記錄。我們平均需要大約九天的時間在網路上安裝服務。我們還允許客戶兩次推遲交付，然後我們實行一種強制性的計費紀律，這種針對運輸、DIA 和 VPN 服務的政策已經實施了 20 多年。顧客對此已經習以為常。

And there is very little float in terms of IP orders installed but not bill. It's not zero, but it's a couple of percent. In the wavelength market, we are a new entrant. Secondly, we made representations that were much more aggressive than any of the other vendors in the market in terms of our speed to deliver the breadth of locations that we could deliver and the quality of the service we would deliver. I think it's totally legitimate for customers to say, show me.

並且，已安裝的 IP 訂單而非帳單的浮動金額非常小。它不是零，但有百分之幾。在波長市場，我們是新進者。其次，就我們能夠提供服務的速度、服務範圍的廣度以及服務的品質而言，我們比市場上的任何其他供應商都更具競爭力。我認為顧客說「給我看看」是完全合理的。

Secondly, for the period between deal closing in May of '23 and the end of '24. So in that roughly 20 --18-month period, we we're doing one-off provisionings, but they did not go smoothly. We did not have all of the automated systems and processes in place, and we did not have the ubiquity of coverage. We have sold about 1,000 wavelengths in that kind of semi-manual but lengthy process. At the beginning of this year, we began provisioning in a streamlined automated way.

其次，從 2023 年 5 月交易結束到 2024 年底這段時間。因此，在大約 20 到 18 個月的時間裡，我們進行了一次性配置，但進展並不順利。我們還沒有建立所有的自動化系統和流程，也沒有實現無所不在的覆蓋。在這種半手動但漫長的過程中，我們已經售出了大約 1,000 個波長。今年年初，我們開始以精簡的自動化方式進行設定。

We have surprised our customers both in terms of where and how quickly we could deliver. Those customers are starting to adjust their behavior. But they've been accustomed to going to the two other major vendors and getting a three to four month delay with a failure rate of, in some cases, up to 50%.

我們的交貨地點和交貨速度都令客戶感到驚訝。這些顧客開始調整他們的行為。但他們已經習慣向另外兩家主要供應商供貨，並且會延遲三到四個月，而且在某些情況下失敗率甚至高達 50%。

We have not had any situations where we have committed to provision and could not provision. There are few cases where the provisioning windows were as long as 90 days and certain vectors at certain speeds. But a very small percent, about 6% of the total footprint has those limitations.

我們沒有遇到承諾提供卻無法提供的情況。在少數情況下，配置視窗會長達 90 天，某些向量會以某些速度運行。但只有很小一部分，大約佔總足跡的 6%，有這些限制。

So the customers are now starting to understand -- the first part of our value proposition, which is we're not misleading them, and we really are able to position the way we say we can.

因此，客戶現在開始理解——我們的價值主張的第一部分，即我們不會誤導他們，我們確實能夠按照我們所說的方式進行定位。

You have to I think that don't want to take what your time. I mean I think one other potential view concerned to be going be customers of overprovisioned to overpurchased wavelengths and are now maybe dragging their feet, delaying acceptance of delivery because if you look at other parts of the ecosystem, whether it's data center capacity or other pieces, customers can't take that fast enough, right?

你必須我認為不想浪費你的時間。我的意思是，我認為另一個潛在的擔憂是，客戶會因為過度配置而購買過多的波長，現在他們可能會拖延，延遲接受交付，因為如果你看看生態系統的其他部分，無論是數據中心容量還是其他部分，客戶都無法足夠快地接受它，對嗎？

And so from my seat, I'm hearing this and I'm thinking the customers over provision just to make sure they had enough potential inventory capacity and now they're pushing out or delaying acceptance. I mean that's the concern from my standpoint, but I definitely hear what you're saying you've improved provision. Can I follow on a quick one, Dave.

因此，從我的角度來看，我聽到這個消息，我認為客戶的供應過多只是為了確保他們有足夠的潛在庫存能力，而現在他們正在推遲或延遲接受。我的意思是，從我的角度來看，這是令人擔憂的，但我確實聽到了您所說的您已經改善了規定。我可以快速跟進嗎，戴夫。

I think in the past, you talked about a 4Q exit run rate for Waves, I think $20 million was last time spoke. Can you update us there, please?

我認為過去您曾談到 Waves 的第四季度退出運行率，我記得上次談到的是 2000 萬美元。能向我們更新一下情況嗎？

Yes, we still feel confident that we will hit that quarterly run rate in the fourth quarter. And I do want to go back to the overpurchasing and delay comment. That is not what we've heard from customers. It's really we're just surprised you did it when you said you would do it.

是的，我們仍然有信心在第四季度達到這一季度運行率。我確實想回到關於過度購買和延遲的評論。我們從客戶那裡聽到的卻不是這樣。當您說要這麼做的時候，我們真的很驚訝您真的這麼做了。

And I do think it goes back to the other comment I started to make earlier, which is we still have to prove to people that not only can we provision faster, the quality is going to be higher than that of our competitors. And every vendor can make those claims. The only way you validate them is by delivering and monitoring. And I feel comfortable that we are building credibility and the size of the funnel that we are accelerating and building is giving us that confidence.

我確實認為這又回到了我之前提出的另一條評論，那就是我們仍然必須向人們證明，我們不僅可以更快地提供服務，而且品質也將高於我們的競爭對手。每個供應商都可以提出這樣的主張。驗證它們的唯一方法是透過交付和監控。我感到很欣慰的是，我們正在建立信譽，而且我們正在加速和建造的管道規模給了我們這種信心。

Okay, Dave, thank you so much. Look forward to seeing you in person soon.

好的，戴夫，非常感謝。期待很快能見到您。

Yeah, I'll see you at the conference.

是的，會議上見。

Of course, thank you.

當然，謝謝。

Frank Louthan, Raymond James.

法蘭克洛森、雷蒙詹姆斯。

Great. Thank you couple of questions. First, a couple of questions. First, where are you -- are you getting most of your wavelength customers? Are they new to Cogent -- or are they from your existing base? And then as far as going forward with the data centers, do you need to hire more experienced dedicated salespeople for that space? Or do you have any sales channel relationships that can help with converting that space. Thanks.

偉大的。謝謝您提出的幾個問題。首先，有幾個問題。首先，您在哪裡—您是否獲得了大多數波長客戶？他們是 Cogent 的新成員嗎？還是來自你們現有的客戶群？那麼就資料中心的發展而言，您是否需要為該領域聘用更多經驗豐富的專職銷售人員？或者您是否有任何可以幫助轉換該空間的銷售管道關係。謝謝。

Okay. Two very different questions. So first of all, on the wave line customers to date about three quarters of them have been existing Cogent transit customers and about 25% of them are brand new to Cogent. Whether that mix will continue to hold as we build the pipeline and install, I'm not sure, but to date of the 4,600 and change in the funnel and the 1,500 plus installed the 6000, the mix has been three quarters, one quarter. With regard to the data centers, Frank, what we are doing now is trying to do two very different things.

好的。兩個截然不同的問題。首先，迄今為止，波浪線客戶中約有四分之三是現有的 Cogent 交通客戶，約有 25％ 是 Cogent 的新客戶。我不確定在我們建造和安裝管道時，這種組合是否會繼續保持，但到目前為止，4,600 個漏斗和變化以及 1,500 多個安裝的 6000 個中，組合已經佔了四分之三，四分之一。關於資料中心，弗蘭克，我們現在正在嘗試做兩件截然不同的事情。

One, continue to do one and two rack retail deals into our retail footprint. We have 187 facilities where we have a retail space available -- we're at about 14.5% utilization in that footprint and the entire 628 person Cogent sales force has been the ones who have been focused on filling that footprint up.

第一，繼續在我們的零售業務中進行一到兩家貨架零售交易。我們擁有 187 個設施，其中有可用的零售空間 - 我們的利用率約為 14.5％，而整個 628 人的 Cogent 銷售團隊一直致力於填補這一空間。

And I think that will continue. The wholesale disposition is a very different process. There, we actually have one of our real estate professionals focused on that disposition process.

我認為這種情況將會持續下去。批發處置是一個非常不同的過程。實際上，我們有一位房地產專業人士專注於這個處置過程。

Okay, great, thank you.

好的，太好了，謝謝。

Hey, thanks, Frank.

嘿，謝謝，弗蘭克。

Michael Rollins, Citi Group.

花旗集團邁克爾羅林斯。

Thanks and good morning. Two topics, if I could, please. So first, when you look at the opportunities to improve revenue in the future, you talked about waves a bunch on this call. Can you talk more specifically about the customer verticals and how those are each progressing in terms of the corporate, the NetCentric and the enterprise.

謝謝，早安。如果可以的話，請問有兩個主題。因此，首先，當您考慮未來提高收入的機會時，您在這次電話會議上談到了很多問題。您能否更具體地談談客戶垂直領域以及它們在公司、NetCentric 和企業方面的進展。

And then secondly, you mentioned earlier in the call you're targeted to reduce net debt leverage. Can you give us just a little bit more of an explanation of how you see both the numerator and denominator evolving over this next couple of years and what are the critical points of execution to deliver on each of those? Thanks.

其次，您在電話會議中提到，您的目標是降低淨債務槓桿。您能否向我們進一步解釋一下，您如何看待未來幾年分子和分母的變化，以及實現每個變化的關鍵執行點是什麼？謝謝。

Yeah. Sure, Mike. Very good questions. So first of all, as I stated in the prepared remarks, we remain focused on selling on-net services. Just to mind everyone on this call, every dollar of revenue gets classified by one off net customer type, geography and by product type.

是的。當然，麥克。非常好的問題。首先，正如我在準備好的演講中所說，我們仍然專注於銷售網路服務。需要提醒各位與會者的是，每一美元的收入都是根據淨客戶類型、地理位置和產品類型進行分類的。

In our investor presentation, we give you a great deal of granularity and breakdown of the various mixes of customer type product and on-net and off-net. Our primary business is selling on-net services. We get much higher contribution margins from those on-net services.

在我們的投資者介紹中，我們為您提供了有關客戶類型產品以及網內和網外各種組合的大量細節和細分。我們的主要業務是銷售網路服務。我們從這些網路服務中獲得了更高的貢獻利潤。

For our corporate customers, roughly half of their purchases are on that half are in locations that we concluded, we cannot economically get a return on invested capital to bring on net and buy off-net services for. For the enterprise base, based on their very disparate geography requirements, we are only about 10% to 15% on net and almost exclusively off-net.

對於我們的企業客戶來說，大約有一半的購買是在網路上進行的，而另一半的購買是在我們認為無法從投資資本中獲得經濟回報的地點，我們無法為其購買網內服務和網外服務。對於企業群體來說，基於他們截然不同的地理需求，我們的網路覆蓋率僅有 10% 到 15%，幾乎全部在網路外。

That is business that came to us from the acquisition of Sprint. And then finally, in the NetCentric segment, about 90% of our revenues are on-net, we are focused on our net corporate on-net NetCentric. Within that, wavelength as a product are almost exclusively on-net.

這是我們收購 Sprint 後獲得的業務。最後，在 NetCentric 領域，我們約 90% 的收入來自網絡，我們專注於我們的網路企業網絡 NetCentric。其中，波長作為一種產品幾乎完全是在線的。

The customer verticals for wavelengths are typically hyperscalers who are using them for AI or for content distribution other content distribution customers, regional access networks who connect their networks together, international carriers who extend their networks. And then finally, some enterprises should build their own private closed networks.

波長的客戶垂直產業通常是將其用於人工智慧或內容分發的超大規模企業、其他內容分發客戶、將其網路連接在一起的區域連接到網路以及擴展其網路的國際營運商。最後，有些企業應該建立自己的私有封閉網路。

Each of these represents drivers for lean for transit services, the market is typically divided between access networks which we have about 8,000 or so that pulled down content around the world and about 5,000 content-generating customers that push applications out.

上述每一個都代表著精益交通服務的驅動力，市場通常分為接入網絡（我們擁有大約 8,000 個左右的接入網絡，用於從世界各地下載內容）和大約 5,000 個內容生成客戶（用於推出應用程式）。

And they could be either hyperscalers for their core business. They can be CDNs. They can be publishing companies or application service providers. And this is a good pivot into the second part of your question, which is how do we delever?

他們可以是核心業務的超大規模企業。它們可以是 CDN。他們可以是出版公司或應用服務提供者。這很好地引出了你問題的第二部分，即我們如何去槓桿？

And we delever through three mechanisms. The first being growth in aggregate revenue. Since quartering Sprint, we've delevered, and we have improved EBITDA solely through the margin improvement that has occurred faster than the decline and the payment streams from T-Mobile.

我們透過三種機制來實現去槓桿。首先是總收入的成長。自從 Sprint 季度拆分以來，我們已去槓桿，並且僅通過利潤率增長（其增長速度快於下滑速度）和來自 T-Mobile 的支付流就提高了 EBITDA。

But over time, those payment subsidies will go away, and we need to grow EBITDA out of top line growth with high contribution margin products. It is why we were confident in saying we can return on a combined basis, to 200 basis points of margin expansion year-over-year.

但隨著時間的推移，這些支付補貼將會消失，我們需要透過高貢獻利潤率產品的營收成長來實現 EBITDA 的成長。這就是為什麼我們有信心說，我們可以實現綜合利潤率同比增長 200 個基點。

That is a significant delevering in and of itself and then returning from what is effectively negative 1% growth we reported this quarter to a year-over-year growth rate of between 6% and 8%, coupled with the delevering gets you to EBITDA growth rate in the low to mid-teens, which is comparable to where Cogent had been historically prior to acquiring the Sprint business.

這本身就是一次重大的去槓桿，然後從本季度報告的實際負 1% 的增長回升至 6% 至 8% 之間的同比增長率，再加上去槓桿，EBITDA 增長率將達到 15% 左右，這與 Cogent 在收購 Sprint 業務之前的歷史水平相當。

And then in terms of the abrogate leverage, it has been Cogent's policy since 2010 to return more than 100% of free cash flow. We did that successfully between 2010 and 2020, maintaining a net leverage range of around 3 times lever with the pandemic and the slowdown in our corporate business, our leverage creeped up to 4.2 times net lever.

然後在廢除槓桿方面，自 2010 年以來，Cogent 的政策一直是返還 100% 以上的自由現金流。我們在 2010 年至 2020 年期間成功做到了這一點，將淨槓桿率維持在 3 倍左右，但隨著疫情和企業業務放緩，我們的槓桿率攀升至淨槓桿率的 4.2 倍。

We acquired the assets from T-Mobile, all with the subsidy payments, we initially delevered due to the asymmetry of those payments down to below 3 times lever. But as those payments step down and went from $87 million a quarter to $25 million a quarter, our leverage has ticked up.

我們從 T-Mobile 收購了資產，全部是透過補貼支付的，由於這些支付的不對稱，我們最初將槓桿率降低到 3 倍以下。但隨著這些付款逐漸減少並從每季 8,700 萬美元降至每季 2,500 萬美元，我們的槓桿率也隨之上升。

We peaked in net leverage this quarter at 6.6x net leverage on a consolidated basis. That number will come down, but our gross leverage will probably not materially come down. It will come down by improving the aggregate amount of EBITDA.

本季我們的淨槓桿率達到峰值，合併後淨槓桿率為 6.6 倍。這個數字將會下降，但我們的總槓桿率可能不會大幅下降。它將透過提高 EBITDA 總額來下降。

Just want to make a quick comment on the numerator and the denominator that is the [6.6] is consistent. So on the debt and the numerator and excluding the -- or coming to a net debt deducting the $244.8 million from T-Mobile, essentially, cash and cash equivalents for the short-term portion and then the long-term investment on the long-term portion. So that's getting the net debt from the numerator on the denominator on the EBITDA, that's backwards looking. So the new rate on the top, that is as of the balance sheet date, the denominator, that's the historical last 12 months that has been paid in cash. So wanted as of and one is looking backwards for the last 12 months.

只是想快速評論一下分子和分母，即 [6.6] 是一致的。因此，就債務和分子而言，扣除 T-Mobile 的 2.448 億美元，得出淨債務，本質上是短期部分的現金和現金等價物，然後是長期部分的長期投資。因此，這是從 EBITDA 的分子到分母得到的淨債務，這是向後看的。因此，頂部的新利率是截至資產負債表日的利潤，分母是過去 12 個月以現金支付的歷史利率。所以想要回顧過去的 12 個月。

So there's no double counting and it's a consistent application or treatment of those payments from T-Mobile, both that we have received in the past and both that we will receive in the future.

因此不存在重複計算，並且對 T-Mobile 的付款（包括我們過去收到的付款以及將來將收到的付款）都採用一致的應用或處理方式。

Tim Horan, Oppenheimer.

提姆霍蘭，奧本海默。

Thanks guys. Dave, can you just reiterate your wavelength kind of longer-term $500 million target and timing and confidence there? Secondly, can you just give us some -- your best guess on timing of the data center resolution? And then third, can you give us some sense of what the actual EBITDA numbers will be for the second half of the year, either third or fourth quarter or full year? Any kind of sense would be helpful.

謝謝大家。戴夫，您能否重申您對長期 5 億美元目標、時間和信心的看法？其次，您能否給我們一些關於資料中心解決方案時間的最佳猜測？第三，您能否告訴我們今年下半年、第三季、第四季或全年的實際 EBITDA 數字是多少？任何一種感覺都會有幫助。

Yeah. Sure. Always good to hear from you, Tim, and thanks for the questions. So first of all, on the confidence on wavelengths, we are actually more confident today than we were on last quarter's call or the quarter before or since we acquired Sprint. The reception that we have received from the customer base, the orders that we have in our funnel and the customer feedback that we've gotten from the orders that we have installed, all give us confidence that we will reach our $500 million run rate on wavelength revenue by mid-year 2028, which is identical to what we laid out in our justification in September of '22 when we announced the potential transaction that ultimately closed in May of '23.

是的。當然。很高興收到您的來信，提姆，感謝您的提問。首先，就波長的信心而言，我們今天實際上比上個季度的電話會議或收購 Sprint 之前或之後的一個季度更有信心。我們從客戶群收到的回饋、我們管道中的訂單以及從已安裝訂單中獲得的客戶回饋，都讓我們有信心到 2028 年中期，我們的波長收入運行率將達到 5 億美元，這與我們在 2022 年 9 月宣布潛在交易（最終於 2023 年 5 月完成）時所闡述的情況相同。

With regard to the data centers, I am not going to put date. Of course, we have never done it before. We have interested parties. We could tell they're spending money, they're hiring professionals are doing analysis, they put in offers.

關於資料中心，我不會公佈日期。當然，我們以前從來沒有這樣做過。我們有興趣的各方。我們可以看出他們在花錢，他們僱用專業人員進行分析，他們提出報價。

But until we have an actual monetized deal with a meaningful at-risk deposit. I'm unprepared to put a stake in the ground of saying when we're going to close because we have no history, we have had a great deal of interest.

但直到我們達成一項具有重大風險的存款的實際貨幣化交易。我還沒準備好確定我們何時會結束，因為我們沒有歷史，我們已經引起了極大的興趣。

We've had some point, as you say, it's not for them, and they've moved away but more have been interested than not and our many parties are continuing to do work. With regard to EBITDA, I'm going to qualify this by saying we don't give quarterly or even annual guidance. What I will say is we expect meaningful sequential growth in EBITDA each and every quarter going forward at or greater than the pacing that we delivered in the last several quarters.

正如你所說，我們有一些觀點認為這不適合他們，他們已經搬走了，但更多的人對此感興趣，我們的許多政黨仍在繼續工作。關於 EBITDA，我要說明的是，我們不提供季度甚至年度指引。我想說的是，我們預計未來每季的 EBITDA 都會實現有意義的連續成長，達到或超過過去幾季的成長速度。

So I think you can model that out, but we feel comfortable that we are both delevering due to the growth in EBITDA and growing our cash flow. And the 6% to 8% top line growth, I think, is now much more realistic than it was when we announced the deal at 5% to 7% in '22.

所以我認為你可以將其建模出來，但我們感到很舒服，因為 EBITDA 的成長和現金流的成長，我們都在去槓桿。我認為，現在 6% 至 8% 的營收成長率比我們在 2022 年宣布交易時的 5% 至 7% 的成長率要現實得多。

And again, just to remind investors from 2005 through 2020, Cogent with no acquisitions organically grew at 10.2% a year. Our growth rate went negative when we acquired the Sprint business as was planned. We initially thought we could only return to [$5 million to $7 million].

再次提醒投資者，從 2005 年到 2020 年，Cogent 在沒有收購的情況下每年有機成長率為 10.2%。當我們按計劃收購 Sprint 業務時，我們的成長率出現了負值。我們最初以為我們只能回到[500萬到700萬美元]。

We've become comfortable that we've groomed out the undesirable revenue. The rate of revenue decline sequentially improved from $5.2 million negative to $800,000, and should be flat to slightly positive in Q3 and positive from that point going forward. And because we have demonstrated post-closing more than 200 basis points a year of margin expansion. And in fact, we delivered 200 basis points sequentially in a quarter this last quarter, we feel comfortable that's the right goalpost going forward.

我們很高興已經消除了不良收入。營收下降率連續改善，從負 520 萬美元降至 80 萬美元，第三季營收下降率應持平至略為正，此後應為正。而且因為我們已經證明，收盤後利潤率每年將增加 200 個基點以上。事實上，上個季度我們的收益率連續第二個季度實現了 200 個基點，我們確信這是未來的正確目標。

Hopefully, that was helpful, Tim.

希望這對你有幫助，蒂姆。

Thanks.

謝謝。

As we have no further questions for today. That concludes the Q&A session. And I would now like to turn the call back over to Dave Shaffer for closing remarks.

今天我們沒有其他問題。問答環節到此結束。現在我想將電話轉回給戴夫謝弗 (Dave Shaffer) 做最後發言。

I'd like to thank everyone for being on today's call. Hopefully, we were clear in answering your questions. We look forward to seeing investors at some upcoming conferences and remain extremely encouraged around our growth prospects and our ability to expand our free cash flow. And maybe most importantly, our commitment to return capital to shareholders. Take care, all, we'll talk soon. Bye-bye.

我要感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。希望我們能夠清楚回答您的問題。我們期待在即將召開的會議上見到投資者，並對我們的成長前景和擴大自由現金流的能力感到非常鼓舞。也許最重要的是，我們承諾向股東返還資本。大家保重，我們很快再談。再見。

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a pleasant day, everyone.

會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路了。祝大家有個愉快的一天。