Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to Charter Communications' Fourth Quarter 2022 Investor Call. (Operator Instructions) Also, as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加Charter Communications 2022年第四季投資人電話會議。 （操作說明）另請注意，本次會議正在錄音。 （操作說明）

I will now turn the call over to Stefan Anninger. Sir, please begin.

現在我將把電話轉給斯特凡·安寧格先生。先生，請開始。

Good morning, and welcome to Charter's Fourth Quarter 2022 Investor Call. The presentation that accompanies this call can be found on our website, ir.charter.com, under the Financial Information section.

早安，歡迎參加Charter公司2022年第四季投資人電話會議。本次電話會議的簡報可在本公司網站ir.charter.com的「財務資訊」欄位下找到。

Before we proceed, I would like to remind you that there are a number of risk factors and other cautionary statements contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K filed this morning. We will not review those risk factors and other cautionary statements on this call. However, we encourage you to read them carefully.

在繼續之前，我想提醒各位，我們向美國證券交易委員會（SEC）提交的文件中包含一些風險因素和其他警示性聲明，包括我們今天早上提交的最新10-K表格。本次電話會議我們不會對此類風險因素和其他警示性聲明進行詳細討論。但是，我們建議您仔細閱讀這些文件。

Various remarks that we make on this call concerning expectations, predictions, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from historical or anticipated results. Any forward-looking statements reflect management's current view only, and Charter undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements or to make additional forward-looking statements in the future.

我們在本次電話會議中就預期、預測、計畫和前景所作的各種表述均構成前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受風險和不確定性因素的影響，可能導致實際結果與歷史結果或預期結果有差異。任何前瞻性陳述僅反映管理階層目前的觀點，Charter公司不承擔任何義務修訂或更新此類陳述，也不承擔未來作出其他前瞻性陳述的義務。

During the course of today's call, we will be referring to non-GAAP measures, as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. These non-GAAP measures, as defined by Charter, may not be comparable to measures with similar titles used by other companies. Please also note that all growth rates noted on this call and in the presentation are calculated on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise specified.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將提及非GAAP財務指標，這些指標的定義和調整說明已在我們的獲利文件中列出。這些非GAAP財務指標由Charter公司定義，可能與其他公司使用的類似指標不具可比性。另請注意，除非另有說明，本次電話會議和簡報中提及的所有成長率均按同比計算。

On today's call, we have Chris Winfrey, our CEO; Tom Rutledge, our Executive Chairman; and Jessica Fischer, our CFO.

今天的電話會議有：我們的執行長克里斯溫弗瑞；我們的執行董事長湯姆拉特利奇；以及我們的財務長傑西卡費雪。

With that, let's turn the call over to Chris.

那麼，讓我們把電話交給克里斯吧。

Thanks, Stefan. We continued to execute well within a challenging market backdrop in 2022, we remain excited about the industry's future and Charter's in particular. We added over 340,000 Internet customers in 2022 despite the previous pandemic pull forward and a low activity environment.

謝謝 Stefan。 2022 年，儘管市場環境充滿挑戰，我們依然保持了良好的表現。我們對產業的未來，尤其是 Charter 的未來充滿信心。儘管先前受疫情影響，市場活動較為低迷，但我們在 2022 年仍新增了超過 34 萬網路用戶。

We also continued to see very strong mobile line growth with full year line net additions of over 1.7 million. As of the end of 2022, we had 5.3 million total mobile lines. So we're growing mobile lines fast even in a low-volume environment by saving customers hundreds and often thousands of dollars per year. That growth creates value for Charter and supports broadband growth.

我們也持續看到行動線路的強勁成長，全年淨增線超過170萬條。截至2022年底，我們的行動線路總數達到530萬條。因此，即使在低流量環境下，我們仍然能夠快速成長行動線路，每年為客戶節省數百甚至數千美元。這種成長為Charter創造了價值，並支持了寬頻業務的發展。

For the full year, we grew our consolidated revenue by 4.5% and our adjusted EBITDA by close to 5%. The planned December management transition with Tom moving to Executive Chairman is also going very well, and I'm pleased Tom will join us in today's Q&A.

全年來看，我們的合併收入成長了4.5%，調整後EBITDA成長了近5%。原計劃於12月進行的管理層交接，湯姆將升任執行董事長，目前進展非常順利，我很高興湯姆能參加今天的問答環節。

In 2023 and the coming years, we remain primarily focused on 3 broadband initiatives: evolution, expansion and execution. Each of these initiatives is designed to drive customer growth and long-term cash flow growth.

2023年及未來幾年，我們將繼續主要聚焦於三大寬頻計畫：演進、擴展與執行。每一項計劃都旨在推動客戶成長和長期現金流成長。

Starting with evolution. Already in 2023 and over the next 3 years, we will evolve our network to ubiquitously offer symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds. We'll deploy these new speed offerings at a much faster pace and at much cheaper cost than our competitors, just $100 per passing. And we'll maintain our marketing speed claims.

從演進開始。從2023年開始，在接下來的三年裡，我們將逐步升級網絡，實現對稱式和多千兆速度的全面覆蓋。我們將以遠低於競爭對手的速度和更低的成本部署這些新的高速服務，每次只需100美元。同時，我們將始終保持先前宣傳的速度。

We're also evolving our go-to-market approach with increasing convergence. We recently launched Spectrum One, which combines our Internet, Advanced WiFi and mobile products for the fastest, seamless connectivity. During the fourth quarter, we saw continued sell-in of mobile to our large Internet base, and our Spectrum One converged offering helped drive our strongest quarter yet for mobile lines.

隨著融合程度的提高，我們也不斷改善市場策略。近期，我們推出了Spectrum One，它將我們的互聯網、高級Wi-Fi和行動產品整合在一起，提供最快速、無縫的連接。第四季度，我們持續向龐大的網路用戶群銷售行動產品，而Spectrum One融合產品也助力我們實現了行動線路銷售迄今最強勁的季度表現。

The potential for mobile to be a significant driver of new Internet sales is still largely untapped as we educate nonsubscribers of the Spectrum One value proposition. With nearly 5.3 million lines created over a 4-year period, it is clear that our converged customers have meaningfully lower Internet and customer relationship churn. And while some of that churn benefit may be self-selection, mobile drives better churn and, ultimately, acquisitions for Charter.

行動端作為網路新用戶成長的重要驅動力，其潛力尚未充分挖掘，我們仍在努力向非用戶普及Spectrum One的價值主張。在過去四年中，我們新增了近530萬條線路，這清楚地表明，我們的融合用戶在網路和客戶關係方面的流失率顯著降低。雖然部分流失率降低可能源自於用戶的自主選擇，但行動端確實能有效降低流失率，並最終為Charter帶來更多新用戶。

Our second area of focus is the expansion of our footprint. Line extension construction is an important part of our 2023 growth plan and beyond and offers good growth and returns visibility. We hope to complete our RDOF build ahead of the original commitment and that faster completion is good for our returns, the communities where we build, obviously, and it creates credibility for future subsidized builds and option value for future growth.

我們的第二個重點領域是擴大商業版圖。線路延伸建設是我們2023年及以後成長計畫的重要組成部分，能夠帶來良好的成長和可觀的回報。我們希望提前完成RDOF計畫的建設，這不僅有利於我們的收益，也有利於我們建設所在地的社區，還能為未來的補貼計畫和未來的成長奠定基礎。

As we also mentioned in December, we've been successful in winning a number of other state and local grants in 2022 and expect the same in 2023. And we expect, assuming a reasonable regulatory framework, to participate in the $42.5 billion BEAD program.

正如我們在 12 月所提到的，我們在 2022 年成功獲得了許多其他州和地方政府的撥款，並預計 2023 年也是如此。而且，假設監管框架合理，我們預計能夠參與 425 億美元的 BEAD 計劃。

The initial results of our rural construction initiative had been very promising. We constructed over 200,000 new rural passings in 2022, and penetration of passings open at least 6 months is ahead of our expectations at about 40%. Over time, we expect our rural construction initiative to be a significant contributor to our customer growth with attractive mid- to high-teen internal rates of return.

我們的鄉村道路建設計畫初步成果顯著。 2022年，我們新建了超過20萬條鄉村道路通道，通行至少6個月的通道普及率也超出預期，達到約40%。我們預計，隨著時間的推移，鄉村道路建設項目將成為客戶成長的重要推動力，並帶來可觀的15%至10%的內部報酬率。

And finally, we remain focused on executing on our core operating strategy, all to further improve customer experience, raise customer satisfaction and drive customer growth. We're doing that in a number of ways, including the continued digitization of our customer service model in ways that enhance the customer experience; accelerating our proactive maintenance initiative to address service issues before customers even see an impairment; and investing in training and tenure for our employees to continue to improve our service and sales capabilities.

最後，我們將繼續專注於執行核心營運策略，以進一步提升客戶體驗、提高客戶滿意度並推動客戶成長。我們正透過多種方式實現這一目標，包括持續推進客戶服務模式的數位轉型，從而提升客戶體驗；加快主動維護計劃的實施，在客戶察覺到服務故障之前就解決問題；以及加大對員工培訓和職業發展的投入，以持續提升我們的服務和銷售能力。

Longer tenure leads to better execution with higher sales, lower service transactions, lower churn and more products per customer over time. So we have a large growth opportunity in front of us through network evolution, convergence and continued operational execution and a very unique opportunity to expand our footprint.

更長的客戶生命週期意味著更佳的執行力，從而帶來更高的銷售額、更少的服務交易、更低的客戶流失率以及隨著時間的推移，每位客戶購買的產品數量更多。因此，透過網路演進、融合和持續的營運執行，我們面前蘊藏著巨大的成長機遇，以及拓展業務版圖的獨特機會。

We have a successful operating model to address the opportunities in front of us. It's the same strategy that we've deployed for years. It's about having the fastest connectivity and products and pricing and packaging that's difficult for customers to replicate and putting that all together so that we provide more product into the household, more penetration across our passings and then marrying that with high-quality service with fewer service transactions and lower churn. That all drives higher long-term recurring cash flow.

我們擁有成功的營運模式來應對眼前的機會。這與我們多年來一直奉行的戰略相同。其核心在於提供最快的連接速度、產品、價格和包裝，讓客戶難以複製，並將所有這些優勢整合起來，從而為更多家庭提供產品，提高產品在我們各個渠道的滲透率，同時提供高品質的服務，減少服務交易次數，降低客戶流失率。所有這些都將帶來更高的長期經常性現金流。

We then take that sustainable cash flow model and put it together with an innovative capital structure and a disciplined approach to ROI-driven capital allocation between organic investment, expansion and/or M&A and buybacks, and you get Charter. So we have a great path in front of us to deliver long-term shareholder value creation, which means delivering for our customers, employees and local communities.

然後，我們將這種可持續的現金流模式與創新的資本結構以及以投資回報率為導向的嚴謹資本配置方法相結合，這些方法涵蓋了內生式投資、擴張和/或併購以及股票回購，最終成就了Charter。因此，我們面前有一條通往長期股東價值創造的光明道路，這意味著我們將為客戶、員工和當地社區帶來價值。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jessica.

接下來，我將把電話交給潔西卡。

Thanks, Chris. Before getting started, I want to remind you that we will be making a couple of changes to our reporting beginning next quarter.

謝謝，克里斯。在開始之前，我想提醒你，從下個季度開始，我們的報告方式將進行一些更改。

First, as we noted in our investor meeting in December, we'll include mobile service revenue and residential and SMB revenue as appropriate. We will no longer report mobile expenses separately, and both of these changes better reflect the converged and integrated nature of our mobile business and our operations and our offer structure.

首先，正如我們在12月的投資者會議上所提到的，我們將酌情計入行動服務收入以及住宅和中小企業收入。我們將不再單獨列報行動業務支出，這兩項調整都能更能反映我們行動業務、營運與產品結構的整合與整合。

Second, we will provide additional line extension capital and rural disclosures. And finally, I want to note that while our fourth quarter results contain some modest impacts from Hurricane Ian, the overall impact of the hurricane on our financials and customer numbers was very small and doesn't warrant separate disclosure.

其次，我們將提供額外的線路擴展資金，並揭露農村地區的業務資訊。最後，我想指出，雖然颶風伊恩對我們第四季度的業績造成了一些輕微影響，但颶風對我們的財務狀況和客戶數量造成的總體影響非常小，無需單獨披露。

Let's turn to our customer results on Slide 5. Including residential and SMB, we added 105,000 Internet customers in the fourth quarter and added 344,000 over the last 12 months. Video customers declined by 144,000 in the fourth quarter. Wireline voice declined by 233,000, and we added a record 615,000 mobile lines. For the full year, we added 1.7 million mobile lines.

讓我們來看看幻燈片5中的客戶表現。包括住宅用戶及中小企業用戶在內，我們在第四季新增了10.5萬網路用戶，過去12個月共新增了34.4萬網路用戶。第四季視訊用戶減少了14.4萬。固話用戶減少了23.3萬，而行動線路新增量創下61.5萬條的紀錄。全年來看，我們共新增了170萬條移動線路。

Although our Internet customer growth continued to be positive in the fourth quarter, activity levels remain low. During the quarter, we saw both lower Internet churn and lower Internet connects than in the fourth quarters of 2021, 2020 and 2019. Total churn, voluntary churn and non-paid churn were all lower year-over-year, and we're at all-time lows for the fourth quarter.

儘管第四季度我們的網路用戶成長持續為正，但活躍度仍然較低。本季度，網路用戶流失率和網路連線數均低於2021年、2020年和2019年第四季的水準。總流失率、自願流失率和非付費流失率均較去年同期下降，且均創歷史新低。

[Move] return remains well below pre-pandemic levels, which also reduces our selling opportunities. Gross additions remain down across the footprint by similar amounts in overbuild and non-overbuild areas, similar to what we've seen in the past few quarters.

[搬遷]回報率仍遠低於疫情前水平，這也減少了我們的銷售機會。無論是超額建設區域還是非超額建設區域，新增房屋總量都出現了類似的下降，與過去幾季的情況類似。

In terms of competitive impact, some of the lower gross additions we see probably relate to DSL conversion going to a new entrant, fixed wireless, instead of coming to us. But given the issues with fixed wireless, product reliability and scalability, we expect those customers to find their way to us over the long term.

就競爭影響而言，我們看到的一些新增用戶數量較少，可能是因為原本使用DSL寬頻的用戶轉而選擇了新進入市場的固定無線網絡，而不是我們。但考慮到固定無線網路在產品可靠性和可擴展性方面的問題，我們預計從長遠來看，這些用戶最終會選擇我們。

In addition, we've seen a slightly higher pace of fiber overbuild recently. And I would also note that we've seen a small amount of market share return to mobile-only service over the past several quarters, the reversal of some COVID effects.

此外，我們最近也看到光纖網路建設速度略有加快。我還想指出，在過去幾個季度，行動端專屬服務的市場份額略有回升，這在一定程度上逆轉了新冠疫情的影響。

Despite these challenges with lower market activity, our Spectrum One product is working. We remain in the early stages of offering converged packages of products and refinement to our approach continues, but we're very pleased with the results.

儘管市場活動低迷帶來了一些挑戰，但我們的Spectrum One產品運作良好。我們仍處於提供融合產品組合的早期階段，我們的方案也不斷完善，但我們對目前的成果非常滿意。

Moving to financial results, starting on Slide 6. Over the last year, residential customers grew by 0.2% year-over-year. Residential revenue per customer relationship was flat year-over-year with promotional rate step-ups and rate adjustments, offset by a higher mix of non-video customers and a higher mix of lower-priced video packages within our base.

接下來是財務表現部分，從第6頁開始。過去一年，住宅用戶較去年同期成長0.2%。由於促銷價格上調和價格調整，住宅用戶每客戶關係收入與上年持平，但非視頻用戶比例增加以及低價視頻套餐用戶比例增加抵消了部分影響。

Also keep in mind that our residential revenue and ARPU does not reflect any mobile revenue, although that will change next quarter when we make the reporting adjustments I discussed a moment ago. In addition, we're allocating a portion of Spectrum One-related customer revenue from Internet to mobile revenue under GAAP. As Slide 6 shows, total residential revenue grew by 0.4% year-over-year.

另請注意，我們的住宅用戶收入和每用戶平均收入（ARPU）目前不包含任何行動用戶收入，不過下個季度我們將進行剛才提到的報告調整，屆時情況將有所改變。此外，根據美國通用會計準則（GAAP），我們將Spectrum One相關客戶的部分網路收入分配至行動用戶收入。如投影片6所示，住宅用戶總收入年增0.4%。

Turning to commercial. SMB revenue grew by 2.4% year-over-year, reflecting SMB customer growth of 3%. Enterprise revenue was up by 4.9% year-over-year. And excluding wholesale revenue, enterprise revenue grew by 9.1%, and enterprise PSUs grew by 4.4% year-over-year.

再來看商業業務。中小企業營收年增2.4%，反映出中小企業客戶成長了3%。企業營收年增4.9%。剔除批發收入後，企業營收成長9.1%，企業電源單元（PSU）較去年同期成長4.4%。

Fourth quarter advertising revenue grew by 25% year-over-year, primarily driven by political revenue. Core ad revenue was down by 3% with lower national and local advertising revenue, driven by the softening ad market, offset by our growing advanced advertising capabilities.

第四季廣告營收年增25%，主要得益於政治廣告收入的成長。核心廣告收入下降3%，其中全國性和地方性廣告收入減少，主要受廣告市場疲軟的影響，但我們不斷增強的高級廣告能力抵消了部分影響。

Mobile revenue totaled $876 million, with $401 million of that revenue being device revenue. And other revenue grew by 4.9% year-over-year, mostly driven by higher rural construction initiative subsidies, partly offset by lower processing fees and lower video CPE sold to customers. In total, consolidated fourth quarter revenue was up 3.5% year-over-year and up 4.5% for the full year 2022.

行動業務收入總計 8.76 億美元，其中設備收入為 4.01 億美元。其他業務收入年增 4.9%，主要得益於農村建設補貼增加，但部分被手續費下降和視訊 CPE 設備銷售量減少所抵銷。第四季合併營收年增 3.5%，2022 年全年營收年增 4.5%。

Moving to operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA on Slide 7. In Q4, total operating expenses grew by $359 million or 4.6% year-over-year. Programming costs declined by 3.3% year-over-year due to a decline in video customers year-over-year and a higher mix of lighter video packages, partly offset by higher programming rates. Looking at the full year 2023, we expect programming cost per video customer to be approximately flat year-over-year.

接下來請看投影片7中的營運費用和調整後EBITDA。第四季度，總營運費用年增3.59億美元，增幅為4.6%。由於視訊用戶數量年減以及輕量級視訊套餐佔比增加，節目製作成本較去年同期下降3.3%，但部分被更高的節目單價所抵消。展望2023年全年，我們預計每位視訊用戶的節目製作成本將與去年基本持平。

Regulatory, connectivity and produced content declined by 5.3%, primarily driven by lower regulatory and franchise fees and lower video CPE sold to customers. Cost to service customers increased by 5.8% year-over-year, driven by higher labor costs, higher fuel and freight costs and higher bad debt, partly offset by productivity improvements. Excluding bad debt from both years, cost to service customers grew by 4.9%. And while bad debt was higher year-over-year, it remained below pre-COVID level.

監管、連接和內容製作成本下降了5.3%，主要原因是監管和特許經營費用降低以及售予客戶的視訊CPE設備減少。客戶服務成本年增5.8%，主要原因是勞動成本、燃料和貨運成本以及壞帳增加，部分被生產率的提高所抵銷。若剔除兩年的壞賬，客戶服務成本成長了4.9%。儘管壞帳年比有所增加，但仍低於新冠疫情前的水平。

As we noted in our December investor meeting, we're making very targeted adjustments to job structure, pay and benefits and career paths inside of our operations teams in order to build an even higher skilled and more tenured workforce, which drove the higher labor costs.

正如我們在 12 月的投資者會議上所指出的，我們正在對營運團隊內部的職位結構、薪資福利和職業發展路徑進行有針對性的調整，以建立一支技能更高、資歷更老的員工隊伍，這也導致了更高的勞動力成本。

These adjustments will add some pressure year-over-year to cost to service customers expense growth in the first half of this year. But that year-over-year growth should moderate in the second half of 2023. And we continue to expect additional efficiencies in cost to service customers over time as a result of the continued digitization of service, productivity improvements and our network evolution investments.

這些調整將在今年上半年對客戶服務成本的年增率帶來一定壓力。但預計到2023年下半年，這種年增率將放緩。我們預計，隨著服務數位化進程的不斷推進、生產力的提升以及我們在網路升級方面的投資，客戶服務成本將持續降低。

Marketing expense grew by 6.9% year-over-year, primarily due to the higher staffing levels I mentioned and wages, which included targeted adjustments in our sales channels. Mobile expenses totaled $982 million and were comprised of mobile device cost tied to device revenue, customer acquisition and service and operating costs.

行銷費用年增 6.9%，主要原因是先前提到的人員增加和薪資上漲，其中包括對銷售管道的針對性調整。行動業務費用總計 9.82 億美元，包括與設備收入相關的行動裝置成本、客戶獲取成本以及服務和營運成本。

And other expenses increased by 6.6%, primarily driven by higher labor costs and higher advertising sales expense related to higher political revenue. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 1.9% year-over-year in the quarter and 4.8% for the full year 2022.

其他支出增加了6.6%，主要原因是勞動成本上升以及與政治收入增加相關的廣告銷售支出增加。經調整後的EBITDA在本季年增1.9%，2022年全年較去年同期成長4.8%。

Turning to net income on Slide 8. We generated $1.2 billion of net income attributable to Charter shareholders in the fourth quarter compared to $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, with higher income tax and interest expense more than offsetting higher adjusted EBITDA.

請參閱第 8 頁的淨收入。第四季歸屬於 Charter 股東的淨收入為 12 億美元，而去年第四季為 16 億美元，較高的所得稅和利息支出超過了調整後 EBITDA 的成長。

Turning to Slide 9. Capital expenditures totaled $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter and $9.4 billion for the full year 2022. Our total CapEx for the year reflects the timing of more accelerated equipment inventory receipts in December than expected.

請看第 9 張投影片。 2022 年第四季資本支出總額為 29 億美元，全年資本支出總額為 94 億美元。我們全年的資本支出總額反映了 12 月份設備庫存到貨時間比預期提前的情況。

Fourth quarter capital spending of $2.9 billion rose above last year's fourth quarter spend of $2.1 billion, primarily driven by higher line extension spend driven by our rural construction initiative. Capital expenditures, excluding line extensions, increased from $1.6 billion in last year's fourth quarter to $2 billion this quarter, driven by investment in network evolution, higher customer premise equipment spend on Advanced WiFi equipment and timing of spend.

第四季資本支出為29億美元，高於去年同期的21億美元，主要原因是受農村建設項目推動的線路延伸支出增加。若不計線路延伸支出，本季資本支出從去年同期的16億美元增加至20億美元，主要原因是網路升級投資、客戶終端設備（包括高級Wi-Fi設備）支出增加以及支出時機選擇等因素。

For the full year 2023, we continue to expect capital expenditures, excluding line extensions, to be between $6.5 billion and $6.8 billion. So excluding line extensions, we expect a small increase year-over-year in capital spend driven by the acceleration of network evolution spending and partly offset by declines in other areas.

我們預計2023年全年資本支出（不包括線路擴建）仍將在65億美元至68億美元之間。因此，剔除線路擴建項目後，我們預計資本支出將同比小幅增長，主要原因是網路升級支出加速，但部分增長將被其他領域的支出下降所抵消。

Following the expected completion of our network evolution initiative at the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, CapEx, excluding line extensions as a percentage of revenue, should decline to below 2022 levels and continue to decline thereafter.

預計我們的網路演進計畫將於 2025 年底或 2026 年初完成，屆時資本支出（不包括線路擴展）佔收入的百分比將下降到 2022 年以下水平，並在此後繼續下降。

Turning to line extensions. In 2023, we expect line extension capital expenditures to reach approximately $4 billion. We expect 2024 and 2025 line extension CapEx to look similar to our outlook for 2023 at approximately $4 billion per year. And our 2024 and 2025 line extension capital expenditure expectations assume we win funding for or otherwise commit to additional rural spending.

接下來談談生產線延伸。我們預計2023年生產線延伸資本支出將達到約40億美元。我們預期2024年及2025年的生產線延伸資本支出與2023年的預期類似，約為每年40億美元。我們對2024年和2025年生產線延伸資本支出的預期是基於我們能夠獲得資金或以其他方式承諾增加農村地區支出的前提。

We also expect most BEAD money to begin to be appropriated in the 2024 time frame with 4-year build time lines from grants. At that time, we expect that our RDOF spend will begin to ramp down. We expect the BEAD program to present a unique and attractive opportunity for us to expand our network with subsidies, generating significant returns that solidly exceed our cost of capital.

我們預計大部分BEAD資金將於2024年左右開始撥付，建設週期為四年。屆時，我們預計RDOF支出將開始逐步減少。我們預期BEAD計畫能為我們提供一個獨特且極具吸引力的機會，透過補貼擴大我們的網絡，從而產生遠超資本成本的豐厚回報。

For our additional subsidized passings, we expect our net rural construction cost per passing to be closer to the roughly $3,000 per passing that we've incurred in our recent subsidized state and local builds than to our RDOF per passing costs. Our 6-month penetration of passings in our newly built rural areas continues to be around 40%, and we expect penetrations in these areas to continue to grow.

對於我們額外補貼的通道，我們預計每條通道的農村淨建設成本將更接近我們近期在州和地方政府補貼的建設項目中每條通道約 3,000 美元的成本，而不是 RDOF 的每條通道成本。我們新建農村地區的通道覆蓋率在過去 6 個月內保持在 40% 左右，我們預計這些地區的覆蓋率將繼續增長。

If you use the cost per passing that I mentioned a moment ago, a high broadband penetration assumption, which we think is reasonable, our current ARPU, excluding mobile, a high incremental margin based on low incremental overhead costs and a reasonable terminal multiple or perpetuity growth rate, you can clearly see the very attractive IRRs associated with our rural builds.

如果採用我剛才提到的每次通過成本，假設寬頻普及率高（我們認為這是合理的），我們目前的 ARPU（不包括行動網路），基於低增量管理費用的高增量利潤率，以及合理的終端倍數或永續增長率，那麼你就可以清楚地看到我們農村建設項目極具吸引力的內部收益率。

Turning to Slide 10. We generated $1.1 billion of consolidated free cash flow this quarter versus $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. The decline was primarily driven by higher capital expenditures, mostly the result of our rural construction initiative and by higher cash tax payments.

請看第10張投影片。本季我們實現了11億美元的合併自由現金流，去年第四季為23億美元。下降的主要原因是資本支出增加，這主要得益於我們的農村建設項目以及更高的現金稅支出。

For the full year, we generated $6.1 billion of free cash flow versus $8.7 billion in 2021. However, excluding cash taxes and our rural construction initiative, our full year free cash flow grew by 4%.

全年自由現金流為 61 億美元，而 2021 年為 87 億美元。但是，如果扣除現金稅和我們的農村建設計劃，我們全年的自由現金流增加了 4%。

We finished the quarter with $97.4 billion in debt principal. Our current run rate annualized cash interest is $5 billion. As of the end of the fourth quarter, our ratio of net debt to last 12-month adjusted EBITDA was 4.47x. We intend to stay at or just below the high end of our 4 to 4.5x target leverage range.

本季末，我們的債務本金為974億美元。目前的年化現金利息支出為50億美元。截至第四季末，我們的淨負債與過去12個月調整後EBITDA比率為4.47倍。我們計劃將槓桿率維持在4至4.5倍的目標區間上限或略低於該區間。

During the quarter, we repurchased 3.6 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units totaling about $1.3 billion at an average price of $344 per share. For the full year, we repurchased 23.8 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units totaling approximately $11.7 billion.

本季度，我們以每股平均344美元的價格回購了360萬股Charter股票和Charter Holdings普通股，總額約13億美元。全年來看，我們共回購了2,380萬股Charter股票和Charter Holdings普通股，總額約117億美元。

We have a proven operating, balance sheet and capital allocation model that drives customer and financial growth and shareholder value. We've always prioritized investments that generate long-term growth, and those investments ultimately protect and extend our return of capital to shareholders. We continue to generate significant free cash flow and intend to both invest for long-term growth and simultaneously return excess capital to shareholders in the form of buybacks.

我們擁有成熟的營運、資產負債表和資本配置模式，能夠推動客戶和財務成長，並提升股東價值。我們始終優先考慮能夠帶來長期成長的投資，而這些投資最終將保障並延長我們對股東的資本回報。我們持續產生可觀的自由現金流，並計劃在進行長期成長投資的同時，以股票回購的形式將剩餘資本返還給股東。

Operator, we're now ready for Q&A.

操作員，我們現在可以進入問答環節了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Jonathan Chaplin with New Street.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自 New Street 的 Jonathan Chaplin。

I'm wondering if you could give us a little bit more context around the strength we saw in wireless this quarter. How much of that is coming from selling into your existing base of customers versus new customers that you're bringing in the door? And really, what I'm sort of trying to unpack is some way to kind of analyze the pull-through effect that the Spectrum One is having on broadband acquisition, separate from sort of the impact it has on lowering churn.

我想請您更詳細地解釋一下本季無線業務的強勁表現。其中有多少成長來自現有客戶的消費，又有多少來自新客戶的拓展？實際上，我真正想分析的是，Spectrum One 對寬頻用戶成長的拉動效應，以及它在降低用戶流失率方面的影響。

And then you said that the opportunity for sort of driving this converged bundle is really untapped at this stage. Can you remind us of what penetration is of accounts with wireless at the moment and where you think that could sort of potentially get to in the long term?

然後您提到，目前推動這種融合套餐的潛力尚未完全挖掘。您能否簡要介紹一下目前無線帳戶的普及率，以及您認為從長遠來看，這個數字可能會達到什麼程度？

Sure. And on the second question, Jonathan, I don't have the exact in front of me, but it's 3 million relationships roughly that have mobile and take the residential base of, what, 28 million, I guess you got to take SMB together, so 30 million. So that gives you a sense there.

當然。關於第二個問題，喬納森，我手頭上沒有確切數據，但大概有300萬個行動用戶，加上住宅用戶，大概有2800萬，我想你還得把中小企業用戶也算進去，所以應該是3000萬。這樣你就能有個大概了解了。

On the impact of Spectrum One, I think the potential here for acquisition remains the biggest opportunity in terms of driving Internet net adds. Our wireless net additions in the quarter were largely driven by existing Internet upgrades still. So 75%, 80% of the lines came from existing Internet customers upgrading, which means they're paying lines, maybe get the second line for free or the third line paid, but for the majority of those being paying lines, which means the inverse of that is that new connects are also attaching with mobile as well.

關於Spectrum One的影響，我認為其潛在的收購機會仍然是推動網路用戶淨成長的最大動力。本季我們的無線網路新增用戶主要還是來自現有網路用戶的升級。因此，75%到80%的新增線路來自現有網路用戶的升級，這意味著他們是付費用戶，可能第二條線路免費，或第三條線路付費，但其中絕大多數是付費用戶。反過來，這意味著新增用戶也同時連接了行動網路。

Even new connects -- new Internet connects are connected with mobile as well, although we're in a low transaction environment, which means we have lower gross adds. So there's a mathematical opportunity to increase both our Internet net adds and our convergence with even more mobile line adds as the market picks up.

即使是新增用戶——即新增網路用戶——也與行動裝置相連，儘管目前交易量較低，這意味著新增用戶總數較少。因此，隨著市場回暖，我們有機會同時提升網路淨新增用戶數量，並進一步擴大與行動線路的整合。

But there's the bigger opportunity, which is as we continue to message into the marketplace the value and the benefits of a converged product, which really, across our footprint, we're the only provider who can have those claims and have that better product and have that what we call gig-powered wireless, I think the real opportunity for Spectrum One, convergence and wireless is to have a meaningful impact over time on Internet net additions.

但更大的機會在於，隨著我們不斷向市場宣傳融合產品的價值和優勢，在我們覆蓋的範圍內，我們是唯一一家能夠做出這些承諾、擁有更好的產品以及我們稱之為千兆無線技術的供應商，我認為 Spectrum One、融合和無線技術的真正機遇在於，隨著時間的推移，對互聯網網絡新增用戶產生有意義的影響。

But it's early on. And I think because it's a completely new category, it's going to take a little while to educate into the marketplace. And the bulk of our wireless gains today are still coming from existing Internet customer upgrades.

但現在還處於早期階段。我認為，由於這是一個全新的類別，因此需要一些時間才能將其推廣到市場上。而且，我們目前無線業務的成長主要來自現有網路用戶的升級。

Chris, do you have a sense of how many of the broadband adds you might not have got, but for the Spectrum One offer with wireless?

克里斯，你有沒有想過，如果不是因為 Spectrum One 的無線套餐，你可能無法獲得多少寬頻廣告？

It's a tricky question because the customers are going in for a sale, and we're attaching mobile and Internet at the same time. So I think the easier way to think about it is to think about our progression between Q3 and Q4 with a few caveats. One is there's always seasonality. Those are decent quarters typically in a year.

這是一個棘手的問題，因為顧客是來購買產品的，而我們同時還要推銷行動端和網路服務。所以我認為更簡單的思考方式是，在考慮以下幾點前提條件的情況下，來分析我們第三季到第四季的發展。首先，季節性因素總是存在的。通常來說，第三季和第四季是一年中業績比較好的幾個季度。

The second caveat is that when you have a large amount of adds and a large amount of disconnects inside the business, which all of us do, that can create outsized variability and outsized conclusions on your net adds because a small -- a very small difference in your gross adds or a small difference in your churn can have an outsized impact on your net adds. Now as we hopefully return to a higher net add growth rate and that variability declines, but that mass still remains.

第二個要注意的地方是，當新增用戶數量龐大，而企業內部又存在大量脫節時（這種情況我們都會遇到），淨新增用戶數的波動性會非常大，由此得出的結論也會非常片面。因為即使是總新增用戶數或流失率的微小差異，都可能對淨新增用戶數產生巨大的影響。雖然隨著淨新增用戶數成長率有望回升，這種波動性也會降低，但這種影響仍然存在。

So from a Q4 perspective, we still have low transaction volume for all the reasons that Jessica mentioned, and we have the other factors that Jessica mentioned. So people should go back to that. But the bridge between 75,000 roughly Internet net adds in Q3, we had a little more rural that was behind us, and Spectrum One was contributing as well. And I think both of those were contributors to the small uptick that we saw in Q4.

所以從第四季來看，由於傑西卡提到的所有原因，以及她提到的其他因素，我們的交易量仍然很低。因此，大家應該重新檢視一下。但是，第三季新增網路用戶約7.5萬，這得益於一些農村地區的成長，以及Spectrum One的貢獻。我認為這兩方面都促成了第四季的小幅成長。

The bigger issue we face, as we keep on saying, is just the lower transaction volume in the marketplace, these fewer selling opportunities, which means fewer selling opportunities for Spectrum One and, at the same time, as we educate the marketplace on the benefits of that converged product.

正如我們一直強調的，我們面臨的更大問題是市場交易量下降，銷售機會減少，這意味著 Spectrum One 的銷售機會減少，同時，我們也需要向市場普及這種融合產品的優勢。

Our next question will come from Vijay Jayant with Evercore ISI.

下一個問題將來自 Evercore ISI 的 Vijay Jayant。

A couple of follow-ups for Jessica. Just wanted to confirm that the $4 billion of line extension you're calling out for '24, '25, that's sort of the other limit, assuming that you win in BEAD and it could be potentially low? Is that sort of a budgeting sort of expectation? Just for clarification.

潔西卡，我還有幾個後續問題。我想確認一下，你提到的2024年和2025年40億美元的產品線延伸預算，是指另一個上限嗎？假設你在BEAD競標中勝出，實際金額可能會低於這個上限？這是預算方面的預期嗎？只是想確認一下。

And then given the higher sort of CapEx you have the next few years, can you help us think about what it means on taxes? Is there sort of a new shield that we can get from the build?

鑑於未來幾年較高的資本支出，您能否幫我們分析一下這對稅收意味著什麼？我們能否從建設中獲得某種新的稅收減免？

Yes. So the $4 billion, Vijay, I do think that it's kind of a budgeting exercise, but it's our expectation and it's on the higher end of our expectations. But it all matters how much we win in subsidized builds. And so it really is a matter of sort of what's available and what makes sense from an ROI perspective for us to spend and to try to get additional passings and generate additional returns. But I think the $4 billion is where we think that we will be based on our expectation of what will happen right now. So that's probably the way to think about that.

是的。所以，Vijay，40億美元這個數字，我認為確實是一種預算估算，但這是我們的預期，而且是預期中較高的一個數字。但關鍵在於我們能在補貼建設項目上爭取到多少資金。因此，這實際上取決於可用的資金，以及從投資回報率的角度來看，哪些支出是合理的，這樣才能爭取更多項目的通過，並產生更多收益。但我認為，根據我們對當前情況的預期，40億美元是我們預期的最終目標。所以，這或許是思考這個問題的正確方式。

On the cash tax, our cash tax liability is always dependent on a number of different variables. We're a full cash taxpayer now. We've previously given guidance on taxes if you look back, I think, at what we said in Q4 of 2021. And there's more CapEx in the plan now, which generally should reduce that liability. But because you don't have 100% deductibility, you don't get 100% credit for that anymore.

關於現金稅，我們的現金稅負始終取決於許多不同因素。我們現在是完全現金納稅人。回顧我們在2021年第四季發布的公告，我們之前已經就稅務問題給予指導。而且，目前的計劃中增加了資本支出，這通常應該會降低我們的稅負。但由於不再享有100%的抵扣，也無法再獲得100%的稅收抵免。

As a result, I would look back at that guidance. And we might be slightly above the percentages that we gave there, maybe 1% or 2% higher, but you can generally sort of look back to that to think about how to estimate cash tax.

因此，我會參考先前的指導意見。我們目前的稅率可能略高於當時給出的百分比，也許高出1%或2%，但一般來說，你可以參考當時的指引來估算現金稅。

So Vijay, on the rural build, clearly, we've disclosed what we've won so far on the state grants that primarily come out of ARPA and NTIA funds. The BEAD process is still in process. And so the rules have not been fully clarified. They need to be right in order for it to make sense for us to invest, and we think they will.

所以，Vijay，關於農村建設，我們已經明確披露了迄今為止獲得的州政府撥款，這些撥款主要來自ARPA和NTIA的資金。 BEAD流程仍在進行中。因此，相關規則尚未完全明確。只有規則完善，我們才會考慮投資，我們相信最終會得到完善。

But then once the maps are clarified, contested, then there will be grants given out to the states in terms of how the funds are distributed. And then the states will have their own process in terms of how they allocate that. So in some sense, our outlook here is really dependent on the rules that get set, the timing of the allocation to the states and then how the states distribute.

但是，一旦地圖劃分明確、爭議解決後，就會發放撥款，具體分配方式也將另行商定。各州隨後將按照各自的流程分配這些資金。因此，從某種意義上說，我們目前的前景實際上取決於制定的規則、撥款給各州的時間以及各州如何分配這些資金。

And so we're trying to do our best to provide some outlook based on the best view that we have today. But a lot of that is not entirely in our hands, and we're going to do the best we can. And we'll continue to provide updates along the way to the extent that we have better information.

因此，我們正盡力根據目前掌握的最佳資訊提供一些展望。但很多因素並非完全由我們掌控，我們會盡力而為。我們將持續更新訊息，並在獲得更準確的資訊後及時發布。

Our next question will come from Craig Moffett with SVB MoffettNathanson.

我們的下一個問題將來自 SVB MoffettNathanson 的 Craig Moffett。

Two questions, if I could. First, let's drill down on margins a little bit. I think it's hard for all of us to sort of make sense of the wireless margins given how fast the subscriber base is growing and, therefore, how high customer acquisition costs might be. How should we think about, particularly since we're not going to see it reported separately anymore, how should we think about the margin trajectory for wireless and, therefore, the margin trajectory for the business overall as you go forward?

如果可以的話，我想問兩個問題。首先，我們來深入探討一下利潤率。考慮到無線用戶成長如此迅速，獲客成本可能很高，我認為我們很難準確地理解無線業務的利潤率。尤其是在無線業務不再單獨列報的情況下，我們該如何看待無線業務的利潤率走勢，以及未來整個業務的利潤率走勢？

And then just one more operating question. Can you just talk about the decision in your upgrade of your physical plant to not go all the way to symmetrical speeds, but to keep your downstream speeds higher than your upstream speeds?

還有一個運行方面的問題。您能否談談在升級設備時，為什麼決定不完全實現對稱速度，而是保持下行速度高於上行速度？

So Craig, on the margins question, I would tell you, first off, we wouldn't be willing to do the Spectrum One offer if we didn't have some space in margin. And so our margins in that business, if you exclude the subscriber acquisition costs, continue to be quite good. And they're getting better over time because we continue to drive down some of those business expenses on a per customer basis, things like the operating cost, what does it take to run billing and customer care.

克雷格，關於利潤率的問題，首先我要說的是，如果我們沒有足夠的利潤空間，我們是不會推出Spectrum One服務的。所以，如果排除用戶獲取成本，我們這項業務的利潤率仍然相當不錯。而且隨著時間的推移，利潤率還在不斷提高，因為我們持續降低每位用戶的營運成本，例如營運成本、計費和客戶服務等費用。

And actually, the reason that we're pushing those into our broader reporting is that we continue to integrate the business into our broader business. And so a lot of that activity -- we're dealing with a customer as one customer. When you have a sales call, you're selling mobile and cable on the same call. When you have somebody call in with a question, you have agents who will be capable of dealing with both things.

實際上，我們之所以將這些資訊納入更廣泛的報告範圍，是因為我們正不斷將這項業務整合到我們更廣泛的業務體系中。因此，很多業務活動－我們都是把客戶視為一個整體來處理。例如，在銷售電話中，我們會同時銷售行動和有線電視服務。當有人來電諮詢時，我們的客服人員也能夠處理這兩種業務。

But I think the overall trajectory, we make margin on the customers today. We have offers in the mix that we're using to drive both mobile and broadband activity, but they work well for that. And I think we should think about them as being related to both that mobile and broadband activity.

但我認為從整體發展趨勢來看，我們目前是從客戶身上賺取利潤的。我們推出了一系列優惠活動，旨在推動行動和寬頻業務的成長，而且這些活動在這方面效果顯著。我認為我們應該將這些優惠活動視為與行動和寬頻業務成長都相關的策略。

But we expect the margins to continue to grow. I think we gave some numbers in the presentation in December, and you can kind of see the trajectory that we're on there. I think that margin expansion continues when you think about the broader product.

但我們預期利潤率會繼續成長。我想我們在12月的報告中給了一些數據，大家可以從中大致看出我們目前的發展趨勢。我認為，從整個產品來看，利潤率的擴張勢頭會持續下去。

I'll comment a little bit on the network question. And then the -- so your question was whether the choice to not upgrade to symmetrical. Just as a reminder for everybody, the first 15% of the upgrade is going to be with DOCSIS 3.1 high-split using integrated CMTS. That will give us 2 -- up to 2 by 1, 15% of the footprint. So if we can make that one by one, we could make that somewhere in between and make it symmetrical. But -- so we have the capabilities. It's just based on our assessments of where the market value is. 5 by 1 in the 50% of the footprint. And then what we think is a base case is 10 by 1 using 1.8 gigahertz DOCSIS 4.0 RPD in 35% of the footprint.

我先簡單談談網路方面的問題。然後——你的問題是，為什麼不選擇不升級到對稱網路。提醒大家一下，升級的前15%將採用DOCSIS 3.1高分割模式，使用整合CMTS。這將使我們覆蓋2×1的頻寬，也就是15%的面積。如果我們能逐步實現，就可以在兩者之間找到一個平衡點，最終實現對稱網路。但是——我們有能力做到這一點。這只是基於我們對市場價值的評估。在50%的面積上採用5×1的模式。然後，我們認為一個基本方案是在35%的面積上採用10×1的模式，使用1.8 GHz的DOCSIS 4.0 RPD。

Now the reason we're choosing that, you can mix and match where you allocate your bandwidth based on what you think the customer demand, the marketing claims and the actual product and device capabilities are. So we have flexibility to make -- for example, you can make a 5-symmetrical-speed product out there, depending on where you set the split. And those options remain available to us.

我們之所以選擇這種方式，是因為你可以根據你對客戶需求、市場宣傳以及產品和設備實際性能的判斷，靈活地分配頻寬。因此，我們擁有很大的靈活性——例如，你可以打造一款五路對稱頻寬的產品，這取決於你如何設定頻寬分配。這些選項對我們來說仍然可用。

It's our view right now that the upstream demand today is much more of a marketing campaign as opposed to any real product demand. And we want to lead in those marketing claims, which is why we're doing what we're doing. We also have from a marketing claims perspective, from a symmetrical, that what we'll be deploying here allows a -- it allows a fiber drop in the -- as a Remote OLT inside of the node. So that gives us marketing claims across the entire footprint for 25 symmetrical and, over time, 50- or 100-gig symmetrical.

我們目前認為，上游需求更多是行銷宣傳，而非真正的產品需求。我們希望在這些行銷宣傳中佔據領先地位，這就是我們採取這些行動的原因。從行銷宣傳的角度來看，就對稱頻寬而言，我們將要部署的方案允許在節點內部以遠端 OLT 的形式存取光纖。因此，我們可以在整個覆蓋範圍內提供 25Gbps 的對稱頻寬，並且隨著時間的推移，還可以提供 50Gbps 或 100Gbps 的對稱頻寬。

Hard to imagine what, when and how that would ever be needed, but it gives us the opportunity to do that and market it at least in these communities to have that type of speed, not different from what we do with enterprise already today. So we have a lot of flexibility. That's what I think we really like about this plan. We can go fast. We can do it at a low cost. We can reset the up and downstream, and we can pivot where we need to go at a very attractive price. We can do it at a faster pace and a cheaper cost than all of our competitors and be out in front of any potential overbuild with a better product for the long term.

很難想像什麼時候、以何種方式需要這種東西，但這給了我們機會，至少在這些社群中，我們可以以這種速度進行推廣，這與我們目前在企業級市場所做的並無二致。因此，我們擁有很大的靈活性。我認為這正是我們真正喜歡這個計劃的原因。我們可以快速行動，成本低廉，可以重置上下游流程，並且可以以極具吸引力的價格根據需求進行調整。我們可以比所有競爭對手更快地完成，成本更低，並且憑藉更好的產品，在長期發展中領先於任何潛在的過度建設。

And Craig, this is Tom. I just want to add one thought to you with the margin. The gross margin of the mobile business is actually a high-margin business. And it's improving with penetration, and it improves both at the gross level and the operating level.

克雷格，我是湯姆。關於利潤率，我想補充一點。行動業務的毛利率其實很高。而且隨著市場滲透率的提高，毛利率和營運利潤率都在提升。

And relative to video, which is a low-margin business and declining, but has an impact on -- as the revenues decline in video, has an impact on margin in a positive way. Even more dramatically is the impact of the increased revenues that are coming in from mobile and the high margins associated with them. So the overall margin in the business is improving going forward.

相對於利潤率較低且呈下滑趨勢的影片業務而言，影片收入的下降反而會對整體利潤率產生正面影響。而行動業務收入的成長及其帶來的高利潤率，則更為顯著。因此，該業務的整體利潤率預計將在未來得到提升。

Our next question will come from Phil Cusick with JPMorgan.

下一個問題將來自摩根大通的菲爾·庫西克。

I wonder if, Chris -- two, if I can. One, Chris, can you just talk about the broadband market? Is penetration in your legacy footprint growing? And talk about the -- what you mentioned was incremental fiber competition and how that sort of evolves over time.

克里斯，我想問兩點。第一，克里斯，你能談談寬頻市場嗎？在你所在的傳統網路覆蓋區域，寬頻滲透率是否在成長？還有，你剛才提到的光纖網路競爭加劇以及這種競爭如何隨著時間而演變。

And then second, Jessica, you gave a ton of detail on costs, and I appreciate it. Can you just quantify a little bit for us that increase in cost of service in the first half as well as the programming cost commentary, a lot of people wondering how are some programming numbers are flat in '23?

其次，傑西卡，你詳細地介紹了成本方面的情況，我很感激。你能否為我們量化一下上半年服務成本的成長情況，以及節目製作成本的說明？很多人都想知道為什麼2023年有些節目的預算持平？

So Phil, the -- let me parse the market a little bit in the broadband market. Clearly, in areas where we don't have a gig overlap, we are growing and continue to grow despite a low transaction volume marketplace and despite some of the rollback to -- post-pandemic rollback to mobile-only that Jessica described. I don't think it will go all the way back, but we're all seeing a little bit of that taking place. So growing in that space.

菲爾，讓我稍微分析一下寬頻市場。顯然，在沒有千兆網路重疊的地區，儘管市場交易量較低，而且正如傑西卡所描述的，疫情後出現了一些向行動端為主的趨勢，但我們仍然在成長並持續成長。我認為這種趨勢不會完全消失，但我們都看到了一些跡象。因此，我們在這個領域仍在成長。

Typically, in a gig overlap area, you have newly minted overbuild and you have existing overbuild. And existing overbuild, we're growing. And newly minted, you have a small setback upfront because you have just have a new competitor in the marketplace. And to the extent you have a higher amount of that, that mix impacts where you're going.

通常情況下，在就業市場重疊區域，既有新增的過剩就業崗位，也有原有的過剩就業崗位。原有過剩就業機會正在成長，而新增就業機會則會在初期造成一些阻礙，因為市場上出現了一個新的競爭對手。這種過剩就業比例越高，就越會影響市場的發展方向。

In the fourth quarter, based on all the passings analysis that we look at, we actually grew despite that higher fiber overbuild inside of our footprint in the fourth quarter. We actually grew in that space despite the mix contribution of additional overbuild. So I think that's positive.

根據我們對所有傳輸數據的分析，第四季度儘管我們覆蓋區域內的光纖網路建設有所超額完成，但我們的實際業務量仍然實現了成長。儘管超額建設對整體業務量有所貢獻，但我們在該領域的業務量仍然實現了成長。所以我認為這是一個積極的信號。

And so that's -- it's small as you can tell through the net add numbers. But I think it's promising for the future, and that's even prior to having the benefit of additional marketing claims through the network evolution as well as having clearly the wind behind our sales over time of additional network expansion and the promise of having a fundamentally different and better product than any of our competitors can have through a converged offering that has gig-powered wireless.

所以，正如您從新增用戶數量所見，目前規模還很小。但我認為這對未來充滿希望，這甚至還沒考慮到網路演進帶來的額外行銷優勢，以及隨著網路擴展，我們的銷售業績將持續成長，而且我們承諾透過融合千兆無線技術的產品和服務，提供比任何競爭對手都更出色、更根本的不同的產品。

So those initiatives, they won't happen inside of Q1 or Q2, but they'll continue to steadily increase and improve our position and ability to grow. The biggest one would be -- if we can get market volume coming back, that would actually be the biggest contributor of growth more than any of the things that I just mentioned.

所以這些舉措不會在第一季或第二季落實，但它們會持續穩定提升我們的地位和成長能力。其中最重要的一點是——如果我們能夠恢復市場交易量，那將比我剛才提到的任何其他因素都更能推動成長。

I'd note as a tangential and somebody will ask it, and so I'll comment on it, we have not -- as we've talked about, we've not seen any demonstrable impact on our churn as it relates to fixed wireless access. And we think it could have had some impact on our gross adds, particularly on adds that we would have pulled from DSL.

我順便提一下，肯定會有人問到，所以我就簡單說一下：正如我們之前討論過的，我們沒有看到固定無線接入對用戶流失率有任何明顯影響。我們認為這可能會對我們的新增用戶總數產生一些影響，特別是那些原本會從DSL接入分流出來的用戶。

But when some pricing actions were taken in December, we saw for the first time a very limited impact on our voluntary churn, but not where you would have expected it. It's actually in our non-gig overlap and in our MDU footprint where you have higher churn to customers, higher tendency to move around, higher tendency to non-pay.

但12月採取的一些定價措施，首次對我們的自願流失率產生了非常有限的影響，但並非發生在您預期的地方。實際上，在我們非零工業務重疊區域和多戶住宅（MDU）區域，客戶流失率更高，他們更容易更換服務商，也更容易拖欠費用。

And so it was a -- maybe it's just a blip, but there's 2 linings to that. One is that, for the first time, we saw a small amount of churn related to that. And the flip side is those customers tend to be very mobile, if you will, and I think given the experience of that product, even more so, are used for the return of them coming back to a proper broadband product with or without convergence. So anyway, that's just food for thought around that. I hope that answers your question.

所以，這或許只是個小插曲，但其中有兩面性。一方面，我們首次看到了與此相關的少量用戶流失。另一方面，這些用戶往往流動性很強，而且我認為，鑑於他們使用該產品的體驗，他們更有可能重新選擇合適的寬頻產品，無論是否採用融合方案。總之，這只是我的一些思考。希望我的回答能解答你的疑問。

So on your other 2 questions, in cost to serve, quarter-over-quarter growth in Q4 was 5.8%. I would expect Q1 to look more like -- to look a bit like that and then for it to -- sort of the year-over-year growth to decrease across the year until you're more in line with the sort of growth trajectory that we've seen before, which is really largely flat.

關於你的另外兩個問題，就服務成本而言，第四季較上季成長5.8%。我預計第一季的情況會更接近這個水平，然後同比增速會逐年下降，直到更接近我們之前看到的成長軌跡，也就是基本持平的趨勢。

For programming per sub cost, the reason that they remain flat year-over-year, that that's our expectation, really has to do with customer mix and whether customers are taking sort of packages that have larger channel sets or more premiums or whether they continue to be priced out of those packages and come into some skinnier packages where the programming cost per sub is less. And so it's a mix issue, certainly not an issue that programmers are no longer raising rates.

就每用戶節目費用而言，之所以同比保持不變（這也是我們的預期），實際上與用戶構成有關，取決於用戶是否選擇頻道數量更多或增值服務更多的套餐，還是因為價格原因而放棄這些套餐，轉而選擇每用戶節目費用更低的精簡套餐。因此，這完全是用戶構成的問題，而不是節目製作商不再提價的問題。

Do you have some room on? We used to talk about them.

你還有空位嗎？我們以前經常談論它們。

Go ahead. We thought you were done.

請繼續。我們以為你已經做完了。

Sorry. No, I was just going to ask, do you have some room on? We used to talk about the sort of small video package mix and how that might peak out at some point. Is that an issue anymore? Or can you kind of put people wherever you want in terms of packages?

不好意思。不，我只是想問一下，你們還有空位嗎？我們以前討論過那種小型視訊套餐組合，以及這種組合可能會在某個時候達到飽和。現在還有這個問題嗎？還是說在套餐安排方面，你們可以隨意安排人員？

Maybe we'll ham and egg this between Tom and myself. But I want to go into talking about what -- we have headroom, and then we have the ability to still create packages that create value for consumers. Our philosophy has always been to give the customers what they want. And typically, they want more programming. We try to do that the best price we can. And so -- also based on their capacity of their wallet.

或許我和湯姆會就此爭論一番。但我想先談談──我們還有發展空間，我們有能力繼續打造能為消費者創造價值的套餐。我們的理念始終是滿足客戶的需求。通常情況下，他們想要更多的節目。我們會盡力以最優惠的價格滿足他們的需求。當然，這也要考慮他們的預算。

And so having some of these packages actually allows us to sell more video product, which is to the benefit of the programmers. And that's -- you can see it in the results that we have. There is still losses, but it's a lot lower losses than other people in the marketplace. And that's a result of our ability to drive video based on what the consumer wants and what they can pay, and sometimes those are in conflict.

因此，這些套餐實際上幫助我們銷售了更多視訊產品，這對節目製作方來說是有利的。這一點——你可以從我們的業績看出。雖然仍有虧損，但虧損額遠低於市場上的其他競爭對手。這得益於我們能夠根據消費者的需求和支付能力來推廣影片內容，而這兩者有時是相互衝突的。

So I think the -- that model has worked. It will continue to work. But I also think it already is for -- if we look to the video space in the future, programmers need to see what we're doing and say, given where we are and given what they're doing themselves with direct-to-consumer and OTC, effectively unbundling themselves.

所以我認為——這種模式已經奏效了，而且會繼續奏效。但我也認為，如果我們展望未來的視訊領域，鑑於我們目前的處境以及他們自己正在做的直接面向消費者和OTC業務，實際上已經實現了業務拆分，節目製作人需要了解我們正在做的事情並提出意見。

But if we had that package flexibility further than we do today, I think we could actually solve some of the problem that exists in the video space and grow for the benefit of programmers. But it's difficult for them to get their heads wrapped around that.

但如果我們能比現在擁有更大的軟體包靈活性，我認為我們實際上可以解決視訊領域存在的一些問題，並最終造福程式設計師。但他們很難理解這一點。

It is. So I guess I'm the ham or the egg, I'm not sure what you want. Yes, we still have limitations on what we can do contractually, but we've been moving those limitations as we renew contracts. But the industry is structurally in a bad place from a video perspective, and you've got a really high-priced fat package with everything in it.

確實如此。所以我想我就像是火腿還是雞蛋，我不太確定你想要什麼。是的，我們在合約方面仍然受到一些限制，但我們一直在續約時逐步放寬這些限制。但從影片的角度來看，整個產業的結構性問題很嚴重，而你現在擁有的卻是一個價格高昂、包羅萬象的龐大套餐。

And there are a lot of content companies whose pricing is a lot less and is separated out from that package. It can create a lot of value for consumers. But obviously, it's a different model. It requires different selling.

還有很多內容公司的定價要低得多，而且這些內容是單獨出售的，不包含在套餐內。這能為消費者創造很多價值。但顯然，這是一種不同的模式，需要不同的銷售方式。

And so we've been trying, within those limitations, to do what Chris said, which is to have the best product we can. But I would say that it's not a solved situation in terms of the way the marketplace is structured. And it's still structured in a way that continues to make video an expensive product for most consumers.

因此，在這些限制條件下，我們一直在努力實踐克里斯所說的，那就是打造我們所能提供的最佳產品。但我認為，就市場結構而言，這個問題尚未解決。目前的市場結構仍然使得視訊對大多數消費者來說仍然是昂貴的產品。

I agree. I think Zumo could help. That's the design. Zumo can help a lot with that. If you take the very best of the Comcast platform, including the voice remote and pair that up in our footprint with Spectrum TV app and live video with all the different packages that we have, that can be tailored to a consumer's both appetite as well as their budget.

我同意。我認為Zumo可以提供幫助。這就是設計思路。 Zumo在這方面能發揮很大的作用。如果能將Comcast平台最優秀的功能，包括語音遙控器，結合我們覆蓋範圍內的Spectrum TV應用程序和直播視頻，以及我們提供的各種套餐，就能根據消費者的需求和預算進行定制。

And combined with what they're probably already paying through SVOD, DTC, et cetera, in a single platform that allows them to consume the video product in a single place with unified search, discovery, voice remote, both live as well as all the other content they have, I think that's pretty powerful. And to the extent that we're able to continue to change the requirements that Tom talked about in our programming agreements, I think we can sell more.

結合他們可能已經透過SVOD、DTC等方式支付的費用，在一個平台上，他們可以集中觀看視訊產品，享受統一的搜尋、發現、語音遙控功能，包括直播和其他所有內容，我認為這非常強大。如果我們能夠繼續修改湯姆提到的節目協議中的要求，我認為我們可以賣出更多內容。

Our next question will come from Kutgun Maral with RBC Capital Markets.

下一個問題將來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場部的庫特根·馬拉爾。

I just wanted to follow up on the programming cost discussion, and then I had a quick housekeeping item on mobile, if I can. So on programming costs, the guide for it to be flat year-over-year is quite remarkable in many ways. Jessica, I know you just characterized it as a mix issue. I wanted to see if you're seeing an acceleration in subs taking these lighter packages or cord-shaving overall.

我只是想跟進一下關於節目製作成本的討論，然後如果可以的話，我還想簡單說一下手機上的一些雜事。關於節目製作成本，預計同比持平這一點在很多方面都相當令人驚訝。傑西卡，我知道你剛才把它描述為組合問題。我想了解的是，你是否觀察到用戶加速選擇這些更精簡的套餐，或者整體上出現「剪線族」（放棄有線電視服務）的趨勢。

And relatedly, you've been very vocal about the tensions with programmers for many years now. Is there anything else to call out in terms of Charter maybe taking a harder line with programmers and recent renegotiations, whether it's in terms of pricing or even carriage of certain networks overall? Or maybe again, we shouldn't read into it and it's purely just a consumer mix shift issue.

另外，您多年來一直公開談論與節目製作方之間的緊張關係。關於Charter是否可能對節目製作方採取更強硬的立場，以及最近的重新談判，無論是在定價方面還是在某些頻道的播出方面，還有什麼需要指出的嗎？或者，也許我們不應該過度解讀，這只是消費者結構改變的問題。

And quickly, just a housekeeping question on wireless. As we all try to better understand the industry-wide postpaid phone trends, any chance you could help size how much of your 5.3 million mobile lines are phone versus tablets?

最後，還有一個關於無線通訊的例行問題。鑑於我們都在努力更了解整個產業的後付費手機趨勢，您能否幫忙統計一下，在你們的530萬條行動線路中，手機和平板電腦分別佔多少？

I don't have it in front of me that split on the 5.3 million, but the vast, vast majority, we're in the connectivity business, and so we're selling mobile service. And to the extent that a customer wants additional devices, of course, we have that and we make it available. But our view here is driving Internet both acquisition as well as Internet churn and to drive profitability, but having overall higher ARPU, and you get that through selling the mobile service combined with the broadband service.

我手頭上沒有關於那530萬用戶的具體細分數據，但絕大多數用戶都來自我們這樣的網路連線公司，所以我們主要銷售行動服務。當然，如果客戶需要其他設備，我們也能提供。但我們的目標是推動網路用戶成長，降低用戶流失率，提高獲利能力，最終實現更高的每用戶平均收入（ARPU），而這可以透過將行動服務與寬頻服務結合來實現。

And maybe you start with programming and I just jump...

也許你可以從程式設計入手，而我直接跳進去…

Yes. To clarify, on the guidance, it's programming cost per sub that is flat year-over-year. And the mix shift is not that significantly different from what we have seen previously. The base is smaller. And so as the base -- the mix of incoming customers does differ from the base, but the mix shift isn't -- it's not that substantially different.

是的。澄清一下，根據指導意見，每個訂閱用戶的節目製作成本與去年同期持平。而且，使用者結構的變化與我們之前看到的情況並沒有顯著差異。使用者基數較小。因此，雖然新用戶的結構與先前的基數有所不同，但這種變化並不顯著。

And in terms of position with programmers, Tom mentioned the margin issue that exists inside of video. And we've talked about the availability of that content really almost anywhere, in some cases -- in many cases, for free because of piracy. And we've been a long proponent, and Tom has been around the problems related to that.

談到與程式設計師的關係，湯姆提到了影片領域存在的利潤率問題。我們也討論過，由於盜版猖獗，這些內容幾乎隨處可得，在某些情況下——甚至在很多情況下——都是免費的。我們一直倡導正版，而湯姆也一直關注著與此相關的問題。

So I guess it's fair to say, I don't know about harder line, it's just more indifferent about carriage of certain content at a higher increasing price when it's available all across the market at cheaper rates or even for free. And so that's not a harder line, that's just a reality of where we're at.

所以我覺得可以這麼說，我不知道這算不算更強硬的立場，只是對於某些內容在市場上隨處可見，價格卻越來越高，甚至免費的情況，我們顯得更加漠不關心。所以這不算是更強硬的立場，這只是我們目前所處的現實。

The 2 biggest issues inside of the content category continue to be retrans, which is free over-the-air content, which we're forced to pass on as significant cost to our customers, and the development of sports. And the other channels are important and fit into what I was just describing, but those are the 2 biggest drivers of cost increases to consumers.

內容方面最大的兩個問題仍然是轉播，也就是免費的無線電視內容，我們不得不將其轉嫁給客戶，增加成本；以及體育賽事的開發。其他頻道也很重要，也符合我剛剛描述的內容，但這兩個問題是導致消費者成本增加的最主要因素。

Our next question will come from Doug Mitchelson with Credit Suisse.

下一個問題將來自瑞士信貸的道格·米切爾森。

I think at the Analyst Day, it was suggested that broadband net adds would be better in 2023 than 2022 and that 2023 would have EBITDA growth. And so I'm just wondering, I think, Chris, on the broadband net add side, kind of what gives you confidence that 2023 could be better than 2022?

我認為在分析師日上，有人提出2023年寬頻淨新增用戶數將優於2022年，且2023年EBITDA也將成長。所以我想問的是，克里斯，關於寬頻淨新增用戶數，你為什麼有信心2023年會比2022年更好？

And then I guess, jump ball, but maybe for Jessica, on EBITDA, did I remember that right, the expectation is EBITDA growth in 2023? And I know you guys aren't a fan of guidance, but any -- what are the swing factors that can impact that? And any thoughts on cadence? If you're willing to offer, it would be helpful.

然後我想，這有點像拋磚引玉，但也許可以問傑西卡關於EBITDA的問題，我記得沒錯的話，預計2023年EBITDA會增長？我知道你們不太喜歡給出業績指引，但有哪些因素會影響這個數字？關於業績指引的頻率，你們有什麼想法嗎？如果你們願意分享，那就太好了。

And then -- sorry, just I'll ask it all at once. Chris, I'm just curious, as a follow-up, you said the pricing action, it was maybe just a blip that it was like the first time. But you've -- when you've had pricing actions in the past, you've had churn, right? So I wasn't sure what was -- what you saw for the first time when you mentioned a blip in churn.

然後——抱歉，我就一次問完吧。克里斯，我只是想補充一點，你說價格調整可能只是個小波動，就像第一次那樣。但你以前也遇到過價格調整的情況，都伴隨著客戶流失，對吧？所以我不太確定你第一次提到的客戶流失波動具體指的是什麼。

Yes. On the 2023 broadband net adds, I said our goal is to have higher broadband net adds this year, and I think we will. And the biggest variable that's out there is what's taking place in terms of market transaction volume, and that's the only one that gives me angst because it's the one you can't control.

是的。關於2023年的寬頻淨新增用戶數，我說我們的目標是今年實現更高的寬頻淨新增用戶數，而且我認為我們能夠做到。目前最大的變數是市場交易量，這也是唯一讓我感到擔憂的因素，因為它是我們無法控制的。

But we have a lot of things going in our favor. The -- starting with a lot of these initiatives that I've talked about. So clearly, with a bigger base of rural passings behind us and constructed increasing during the course of the year, I think the early -- small but early success of Spectrum One in driving Internet is only going to grow as that product takes hold.

但我們有很多有利因素。首先就是我之前提到的這些措施。顯然，隨著農村地區用戶基數的擴大，以及今年網路建設的不斷推進，我認為Spectrum One在推動互聯網普及方面取得的早期成功——儘管規模不大——只會隨著該產品的普及而不斷擴大。

And I think the investments that we've made in our personnel, not to get too much into the weeds, but that labor cost increase that Jessica talked about, there are some pretty big actions that we took that were targeted. They were not peanut-butter wage increases. They were targeted to drive an ROI, which means having longer-tenured employees who result in the sales force having better yields, selling better. And in the service infrastructure, by having a longer tenure, they tend to do a better and faster job in addressing customer issues and avoid repeats, which not only reduces transactions, but reduces customer churn over time.

我認為，我們對員工的投資——雖然不想過多贅述細節——針對傑西卡提到的勞動成本上漲，我們採取了一些非常重要的、有針對性的措施。這些措施並非小幅提高薪資，而是旨在提高投資報酬率，這意味著員工的長期任職能夠提升銷售團隊的業績，帶來更高的收益。在服務基礎設施方面，員工的長期任職也意味著他們能夠更快、更好地解決客戶問題，避免重複投訴，這不僅能減少交易次數，還能長​​期降低客戶流失率。

And those benefits, because of where the labor market was for everybody last year, in order to get tenured, that's just the passage of time. But we've seen the lowest attrition rates at the back end of Q4 that I've seen in a very, very long time, if ever, in our service and sales functions. And I think that's going to -- that's a function of both the market as well as the investments that we've made.

鑑於去年勞動市場的狀況，要想獲得終身教職，就只能靠時間累積。但我們在服務和銷售部門看到了近年來最低的員工流動率，甚至可以說是前所未有的。我認為這既得益於市場環境，也得益於我們所做的投資。

But ultimately, those investments collectively tie into both gross adds as well as to lower churn. And I'll go back to where I started, which is the biggest driver for us and the biggest uncertainty is market volume. But all else equal, that's our goal is to increase net adds this year.

但歸根究底，這些投資共同作用，既能增加新增用戶，又能降低用戶流失率。我還要回到最初的問題，那就是市場規模是我們最大的驅動力，也是最大的不確定因素。但在其他條件不變的情況下，我們今年的目標是增加淨新增用戶。

On the EBITDA side, as you said, we don't give EBITDA guidance. But certainly, we do expect growth in 2023. I think I'd drive it out of a few things. We have continued to have customer growth. I think we've talked about it. So on the rate side, we have taken some small rate actions recently. And then we continue to believe that we have -- or we continue to expect rates to be good across those customers, so driving revenue growth.

關於 EBITDA，正如您所說，我們不提供 EBITDA 指引。但我們確實預計 2023 年將實現成長。我認為這主要源自於以下幾個面向。首先，我們的客戶數量持續成長。我想我們之前也討論過這一點。其次，在費率方面，我們近期採取了一些小幅的費率調整措施。我們仍然相信，或者說我們仍然預期，這些客戶的費率將保持良好水平，從而推動收入成長。

I would remind you that we lapped last year's rate increases in April. So to your comment around timing, the second quarter is probably the space in which that's most challenged. But -- and then as Chris said, we've made these investments in tenure. We expect to gain better efficiencies both out of the 10-year initiative, out of the continued digitization of the process that we have. We continue to improve in our operational efficiency, which drives sort of relative costs out of the business. And so I think we're pretty confident in generating that EBITDA growth year-over-year.

我想提醒各位，我們已於四月完成了去年的升息。所以，關於您提到的時間安排問題，第二季可能是最具挑戰性的時期。但是——正如克里斯所說，我們已經對長期服務進行了投資。我們期望透過十年計畫以及持續推進的流程數位化，獲得更高的效率。我們不斷提升營運效率，進而降低業務成本。因此，我認為我們非常有信心實現 EBITDA 的年成長。

You mentioned pricing action, and maybe there was some confusion there, but I'll start with what we've done. We -- our philosophy hasn't changed. We're focused on trying to provide competitive products at the best price in the market and best packaging so that we can grow faster. But given what's happened in the video space, we continue to pass through rate increases for the programming increases that we've seen.

您提到了定價策略，可能這方面存在一些誤解，但我先從我們採取的措施說起。我們的理念始終不變。我們專注於以市場最優的價格和最佳的包裝提供具有競爭力的產品，從而實現更快的成長。但鑑於影音領域的現狀，我們將繼續把節目製作成本的上漲轉嫁給消費者。

And if you look back to the middle of last year, you can see it's pretty dramatic. Given where the economy was and if you're on people's mind, we did a pass-through in the middle of the year. You saw a big downgrade in video and voice. We've done some additional pass-through as well as a small increase on Internet, lower than our competitors to maintain our competitiveness. And we did that for Internet-only inside of Q4, and we wanted to wait until you could combine that from a service experience, not to have the bill change twice for customers.

回顧去年年中，你會發現情況相當戲劇性。考慮到當時的經濟狀況以及人們對你的關注度，我們在年中進行了價格調整。你會看到視訊和語音通話服務的價格大幅下調。為了保持競爭力，我們在網路服務方面也進行了一些額外的價格調整，但略微上調了價格，低於競爭對手。我們僅在第四季度對網路服務進行了價格調整，我們希望等到用戶能夠將服務體驗與視訊通話合併後再進行調整，以免帳單出現兩次變動。

So bundled Internet customers is just taking place at the beginning of bundled video with Internet customers taking place at the beginning of this year. The reaction there has been pretty muted. It's very low-call volume. And given where the rest of the market has been and what we're doing is still maintaining our competitiveness, I'm not seeing a big uptick in churn related to the price actions that we passed through.

所以，捆綁式網路服務目前正處於捆綁式視訊服務的初期階段，而捆綁式視訊服務也是在今年年初推出的。這方面的反應相當平淡，諮詢量也很低。考慮到其他市場的狀況，以及我們目前採取的措施仍在保持競爭力，我認為我們先前的價格調整不會導致客戶流失率大幅上升。

Our next question will come from Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的本·斯溫伯恩。

A few questions on the rural build. Jessica, thanks for all that detail at the beginning on the sort of non-RDOF pieces. I think you talked about $3,000 of passing net. So I guess a couple of things. Should we think about that as $5,000 gross? And do you guys have visibility into the timing of when you'll receive those subsidies and also sort of the accounting treatment revenue versus CapEx, so we can think about trying to give you those benefits as we layer on the spending?

關於鄉村建設項目，我有幾個問題。潔西卡，非常感謝你一開始詳細講解非RDOF（鄉村發展基金）計畫的情況。我記得你提到過3000美元的淨收益。所以我想問幾個問題。我們應該把這3000美元看成是5000美元的總收益嗎？你們能否事先了解補貼到帳時間，以及收入與資本支出之間的會計處理方式？這樣我們就可以在增加支出的同時，考慮如何讓你們獲得相對應的收益。

And then I don't know if you're willing to tell us what you think you'll build in '23. I'm guessing, no, but we can make our own assumptions. If we think you're going to build to, say, 500,000 rural passings in '23, is there any way to help us think about how many of those you'll sell into over the course of the year? I assume at this point, you guys are getting better at turning this stuff on and getting to market. So any help on the time line and lag from what you've learned so far would be helpful.

然後，我不知道您是否願意告訴我們您預計在 2023 年會建造什麼。我猜您不會，但我們可以自己做一些假設。假設我們認為您計劃在 2023 年建造覆蓋 50 萬輛次鄉村車輛的線路，您能否幫我們估算一下您一年內能賣出多少輛？我假設現在你們在啟動專案和推向市場方面已經越來越熟練了。所以，如果您能根據目前的經驗提供一些關於時間表和滯後時間的信息，那就太好了。

Yes. So I'm going to start at the bottom of the list, Ben. We expect to build around 300,000 subsidized rural passings in 2023, which are mostly RDOF and they're incremental to the normal business-as-usual pace of build.

是的。那我就從清單的最後開始講吧，本。我們預計在2023年建造約30萬個受補貼的農村通道，其中大部分是農村發展基金（RDOF）項目，而且這些建設是在正常建設速度之外逐步進行的。

What I would do with those is we've given you information on how much penetration we get of those passings, the 40% at 6 months. We continue to grow after we hit that 40% at 6 months, but you can time them in that way. Our pace coming into the end of the year was in the 15,000 to 20,000 passings per month range. And I would expect -- we're starting the year at that pace, and we're going to end at a faster pace to get to that total 300,000 number.

我的想法是，我們已經提供了關於這些傳播滲透率的信息，即6個月時達到40%。在達到6個月40%的滲透率之後，我們會繼續成長，但您可以根據這個時間來判斷。到年底，我們的傳播速度在每月15,000到20,000次之間。我預計－我們以這個速度開始今年，並且年底速度會更快，最終達到300,000次的總量目標。

The $3,000 per passing, so just to be clear, I think what I said was that we would be closer to the $3,000 that we've been in the more recent subsidized builds than to our RDOF amount. So I wouldn't be totally prescriptive around $3,000 exactly, but that is a net number. Our expectation on state subsidized and on the BEAD build is that those programs are likely to be structured in a way where the expenses count -- or where the subsidies are accounted for as a capital offset and not as revenue. So we're going at it with net numbers.

每次通過3000美元，所以為了更清楚地說明，我剛才說的是，我們最終的補貼金額會更接近最近幾期政府補貼項目的3000美元，而不是RDOF的金額。因此，我不會完全確定具體的3000美元，但這確實是一個淨額。我們預計，州政府補貼項目和BEAD項目在結構上可能會將支出計入——或者說，補貼會被作為資本抵消而不是收入來核算。所以我們最後會採用淨額計算。

Gross build costs, I think, are a lot harder. And so we understand quite a bit now about what we need to -- about what we want in terms of driving economics and also sort of as it had some experience in bidding these passings and are seeing what's happening in the marketplace. But what you win impacts a lot about what those gross build costs are, and they could be in a pretty wide range. So I don't have a number on that side.

我認為，總建設成本的估算要困難得多。我們現在對我們需要做什麼——以及我們想要什麼——有了相當多的了解，例如如何推動經濟效益，同時我們也累積了一些投標經驗，了解了市場動態。但是，最終得標結果會極大地影響總建設成本，而且成本範圍可能相當大。因此，我目前無法給出一個具體的數字。

Just in terms of how we look at it, Ben, if you go back to the presentation that we used in December, I threw up an unnamed market with a footprint overlap so you could take a look at how our strategy evolves between, I think the colors were gray, gold and blue, between our existing footprint, RDOF and the way that state grants and now BEAD and other grants will be done.

就我們看待這個問題的方式而言，本，如果你回顧一下我們在 12 月份使用的演示文稿，我舉了一個未命名的市場，其業務範圍與我們現有業務範圍重疊，這樣你就可以了解我們的戰略是如何演變的，我認為當時的顏色是灰色、金色和藍色，指的是我們現有的業務範圍、RDOF 以及州政府撥款、現在的 BEAD 和其他撥款方式的方式。

And so we can make the gross cost of our bill lower as a result of the strategy in terms of how we approach the market and how we put these together. And so we can have a lower gross cost and, therefore, lower net cost than our competitors because of the existing footprint that we have, the existing RDOF footprint that we're building. And I think that makes us not only a better economic participant, but a better and more reliable, trustworthy builder for the states in the build because we're the largest rural builder today.

因此，透過我們獨特的市場策略和整合方式，我們可以降低帳單的總成本。由於我們現有的業務規模，特別是我們正在建造的農村發展基金（RDOF）項目，我們的總成本和淨成本都低於競爭對手。我認為這不僅使我們成為更優秀的經濟參與者，也使我們成為各州更可靠、更值得信賴的建設商，因為我們是目前最大的農村建設者。

We've been successful at it. We're moving at a fast pace. We can get broadband to their constituents at a faster pace at a competitive price, with great products, Internet and mobile. And most of these bidders aren't going to have mobile and they're not going to have a converged product, and that's something that we can bring to these communities.

我們在這方面取得了成功。我們正快速推進。我們可以以具有競爭力的價格，更快地為他們的用戶提供寬頻服務，並提供優質的網路和行動產品。而且，大多數競標者不會提供行動服務，也不會提供整合產品，而這正是我們可以為這些社群帶來的。

That's very helpful. Can I just ask a clarification from your comment? I think you guys talked about nonpaid churn, all forms of churn at record lows in Q4, including non-pay. But I think you also mentioned bad debt was coming back up. Just any comment on sort of the consumer, the low-end consumer. Some of your competitors have talked about non-pay churn normalizing. Was it -- didn't sound like we're seeing that, but I wanted to hear your thoughts.

這很有幫助。我可以就您剛才的評論再問一個問題嗎？我記得你們提到第四季所有形式的客戶流失率（包括非付款流失）都創下了歷史新低。但你們也提到壞帳正在回升。我想請您談談低端消費者的情況。你們的一些競爭對手也提到非付款流失率正在恢復正常。聽起來我們似乎還沒有看到這種情況，所以我想聽聽您的看法。

I think I'll let Jessica comment. It's still dramatically -- well, it's still much lower than it was pre-pandemic, and the churn is low. Bad debt has been slowly building back up. It's nowhere near back to where it was, but it has an impact on a year-over-year basis.

我想還是讓潔西卡來評論吧。雖然壞帳仍然遠低於疫情前的水平，而且客戶流失率也很低，但壞帳一直在緩慢回升。雖然遠未恢復到疫情前的水平，但對同比數據確實產生了影響。

In January, we typically don't talk intra-quarter, we don't like to, but we're starting to see, and that may be the bridge between what some of our peers and competitors are saying, it's not dramatic, but we have seen a step up both in non-pay as well as bad debt. And I think that just reflects the overall economy.

一月我們通常不談季度內數據，我們也不喜歡這樣做，但我們開始注意到，這或許能解釋一些同業和競爭對手的說法。雖然情況並不嚴重，但我們確實看到未支付款項和壞帳都有所增加。我認為這反映了整體經濟情勢。

In some sense, if you look at that, the upfront impact of that is negative. You don't like it. On the other hand, it's one of the indicators that the market is starting to normalize in terms of transaction volumes. You have a delay from when the bad news comes in and when the selling opportunity arise. So it's a double-edged sword.

從某種意義上說，如果你仔細分析，這件事的直接影響是負面的。你肯定不喜歡這樣。但另一方面，這也是市場交易量開始恢復正常的指標。壞消息傳來和賣出機會出現之間存在時間差。所以，這是一把雙面刃。

Yes. The other piece I would remind you, we've talked about before, we're a big participant in ACP and a big proponent of that program. I think for our customers that are more prone to non-pay, we have -- we've endeavored to make sure that they recognize that, that program is available to them. And to be part of the solution, we're making Internet affordable for them.

是的。還有一點我想提醒您，我們之前也談過，我們是ACP計畫的積極參與者和大力支持者。我認為對於那些更容易拖欠費用的客戶，我們一直努力確保他們了解這項計劃對他們是適用的。為了成為解決方案的一部分，我們正在努力讓他們能夠負擔得起網路費用。

It has 2 impacts. One is that those customers don't churn as much as before. The other impact, though, is that on some of those customers that convert into the ACP program, we might be carrying a balance related to those customers that then ends up sort of flushing through in our bad debt computation. So while bad debt is higher on a numerical value basis, it's not necessarily connecting into a non-pay churn where we've converted the customer to being an ACP customer.

它有兩個影響。一是這些客戶的流失率比以前低。但另一個影響是，對於一些轉為 ACP 計畫的客戶，我們可能會保留一些與這些客戶相關的欠款，這些欠款最終會在我們的壞帳計算中被沖走。因此，雖然壞帳金額增加，但這並不一定意味著客戶因為未付款而流失，因為我們已將客戶轉換為 ACP 客戶。

Thanks, Ben. Operator, that concludes our call.

謝謝，本。接線員，通話結束了。

Thank you, everyone.

謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call, and we appreciate your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

謝謝各位。今天的電話會議到此結束，感謝各位的參與。您可以隨時斷開連線。