Frontier Communications Parent Inc (FYBR) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Frontier Communications Q4 2021 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Bethany, and I'll be your operator for today's call. (Operator Instructions) I will now hand the call over to Spencer Kurn, Head of Investor Relations. Spencer, over to you.

大家好，歡迎參加 Frontier Communications 2021 年第四季財報電話會議。我叫貝瑟尼，我是今天電話的接線生。 （操作員指示）我現在將把電話轉給投資者關係主管 Spencer Kurn。史賓塞，交給你了。

Good morning, and welcome to Frontier Communications' Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. This is Spencer Kurn, Frontier's Head of Investor Relations. And joining me on the call today is John Stratton, Executive Chairman of the Board; Nick Jeffery, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Beasley, Chief Financial Officer. Today's presentation can be followed within the webcast and is available in the Webcast and Events section of our Investor Relations website.

早安，歡迎參加 Frontier Communications 的 2021 年第四季財報電話會議。我是 Spencer Kurn，Frontier 投資人關係主管。今天與我一起參加電話會議的是董事會執行主席約翰‧斯特拉頓 (John Stratton)；尼克傑弗瑞 (Nick Jeffery)，總裁兼執行長；和首席財務官斯科特·比斯利。您可以透過網路廣播觀看今天的演示，也可以在我們投資者關係網站的網路廣播和活動部分查看。

Let me now refer you to Slide 2, which contains our safe harbor disclaimer and remind you that this conference call may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed today.

現在讓我向您介紹投影片2，其中包含我們的安全港免責聲明，並提醒您本次電話會議可能包含涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性陳述，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與今天所表達的結果存在重大差異。

In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are defined and reconciled in our earnings presentation, press release, and trending schedule. With that, I'll turn the call over to John.

此外，在本次電話會議中，我們將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標，這些指標在我們的收益報告、新聞稿和趨勢表中進行了定義和調整。這樣，我就把電話轉給約翰。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's discussion. Our business continues to be well positioned to win in key markets, and we continue to execute on a unique opportunity to create significant shareholder value.

大家早安，感謝您參加今天的討論。我們的業務繼續處於有利地位，能夠在關鍵市場中獲勝，我們將繼續利用獨特的機會來創造顯著的股東價值。

We have a strong foundation of fiber assets and infrastructure, a significant customer base and strong competitive positioning. In the last 12 months, we've generated $6.4 billion of revenue and $2.5 billion of adjusted EBITDA, which represents a 39% adjusted EBITDA margin. And driving this performance are our 2.8 million broadband customers across both consumer and commercial businesses.

我們擁有堅實的光纖資產和基礎設施基礎、龐大的客戶群和強大的競爭地位。在過去 12 個月中，我們創造了 64 億美元的營收和 25 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，即調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 39%。推動這項業績的是我們的 280 萬消費者和商業寬頻客戶。

And as we've said before, fiber is the future of Frontier. $1.1 billion of our EBITDA in the last 12 months have been generated by our fiber products, and we're investing to grow our fiber EBITDA rapidly. We have approximately 400,000 businesses within 250 feet of our fiber network and over 23,000 towers within 1 mile of our fiber. As we continue to build out our network, we expect to grow and convert these attractive in footprint opportunities.

正如我們之前所說，光纖是 Frontier 的未來。過去 12 個月，我們的 EBITDA 中有 11 億美元來自我們的纖維產品，我們正在投資以快速成長我們的纖維 EBITDA。我們的光纖網路 250 英尺範圍內約有 40 萬家企業，光纖網路 1 英里範圍內有超過 23,000 個塔。隨著我們繼續建立我們的網絡，我們期望擴大和轉化這些有吸引力的足跡機會。

On to Slide 5 and looking back to review 2021, we made significant progress on our transformation of Frontier. It began when Nick Jeffery joined in March, and we recruited a talented new Board of Directors with high levels of subject matter expertise across key areas, including digital transformation, brand development, capital investment, operational efficiency, and telecom strategy.

回到投影片 5，回顧 2021 年，我們在 Frontier 轉型方面取得了重大進展。一切始於尼克傑弗瑞(Nick Jeffery) 三月加入時，我們招募了一支才華橫溢的新董事會，他們在數位轉型、品牌發展、資本投資、營運效率和電信策略等關鍵領域擁有高水準的主題專業知識。

We emerged from bankruptcy at the end of April and listed on the NASDAQ Exchange on May 4. We refocused the company around a simple but powerful purpose, Building Gigabit America. And at our Investor Day in August, we announced our accelerated build plan to reach 10 million locations with fiber by 2025.

我們在 4 月底擺脫了破產困境，並於 5 月 4 日在納斯達克交易所上市。在 8 月的投資者日上，我們宣布了加速建設計劃，計劃在 2025 年將覆蓋 1,000 萬個光纖點。

The third quarter was the first full quarter at Frontier for most of our executive team. And since that new team has been in place, we've consistently set new records on growing our fiber footprint and our broadband customer base.

對我們大多數執行團隊來說，第三季是 Frontier 的第一個完整季度。自從新團隊就位以來，我們在光纖覆蓋範圍和寬頻客戶群的成長方面不斷創造新記錄。

In addition, just yesterday, we launched 2 gigabit per second broadband speeds across our entire fiber network. And we believe it's a very compelling offer with a large suite of value-added services, which positions us extremely well to provide the absolute best broadband service to satisfy our customers' growing demand for faster data speeds.

此外，就在昨天，我們在整個光纖網路上推出了每秒 2 吉比特的寬頻速度。我們相信，這是一項非常引人注目的產品，提供大量增值服務，使我們能夠提供絕對最佳的寬頻服務，以滿足客戶對更快數據速度不斷增長的需求。

There are several inflection points that will be critical to our transformation, and we've discussed these as our key indicators of success throughout the process. The core driver of our business is broadband customer growth, which is ultimately what will drive revenue, EBITDA, and free cash flow growth.

有幾個拐點對我們的轉型至關重要，我們已經將這些拐點作為整個過程中成功的關鍵指標進行了討論。我們業務的核心驅動力是寬頻客戶的成長，最終將推動收入、EBITDA 和自由現金流的成長。

Rapidly expanding our fiber footprint is the first critical step in achieving broadband customer growth. We executed on accelerating the pace of our build in the second quarter of 2021, almost immediately after our new management team began to form.

快速擴大光纖覆蓋範圍是實現寬頻客戶成長的關鍵第一步。我們在 2021 年第二季加快了建設步伐，幾乎是在我們的新管理團隊開始組建之後。

In the third quarter of 2021, we demonstrated that we can accelerate the pace of fiber broadband net adds, and we reached a point where our fiber broadband customers overtook our copper broadband customer base. And then in the fourth quarter of 2021, we grew our fiber broadband net adds in excess of our copper broadband losses, reaching the key inflection point in total broadband customer growth.

2021年第三季度，我們證明了我們可以加快光纖寬頻網路新增的步伐，我們的光纖寬頻客戶數量超過了銅纜寬頻客戶群。然後在 2021 年第四季度，我們的光纖寬頻網路增量超過了銅纜寬頻損耗，達到了寬頻客戶總量成長的關鍵拐點。

We expect that these 3 critical inflection points will soon drive inflection points in our financial metrics. And while we still face headwinds from legacy products, we expect to drive sequential EBITDA growth for the total company in late 2022 and drive year-over-year revenue and EBITDA growth in 2023.

我們預計這三個關鍵拐點將很快推動我們的財務指標出現轉折點。儘管我們仍然面臨傳統產品的阻力，但我們預計將在 2022 年底推動整個公司 EBITDA 的環比增長，並在 2023 年推動收入和 EBITDA 的同比增長。

We remain encouraged by the long-term secular tailwinds behind our fiber-centric strategy. Demand for high-speed broadband is increasing at an accelerating pace. Between 2020 and 2025, usage is expected to triple and fiber is clearly the best product to meet this rising demand. Fiber's performance is vastly superior to cable today with 34% faster download speeds, roughly 18x faster upload speeds and 42% lower latency level than cable.

我們仍然對以光纖為中心的策略背後的長期長期有利因素感到鼓舞。高速寬頻的需求正在加速成長。 2020 年至 2025 年間，使用量預計將增加兩倍，而纖維顯然是滿足這一不斷增長的需求的最佳產品。光纖的效能遠優於現今的電纜，下載速度比電纜快 34%，上傳速度快約 18 倍，延遲水準比電纜低 42%。

We're seeing the demand in real time across our network. In January of this year, our average fiber broadband customer consumed 828 gigabytes of data on our 500 megabit speed tier and 1.1 terabytes of data on our 1 gigabit speed tier, representing increases of more than 30% since pre-pandemic levels across both speed tiers.

我們正在透過我們的網路即時查看需求。今年1 月，我們的光纖寬頻客戶在500 兆位元速度層上平均消耗了828 GB 數據，在1 千兆位元速度層上消耗了1.1 TB 數據，這兩個速度層自疫情爆發前的水平以來增長了30% 以上。

We're uniquely positioned to capitalize on these demand trends with a 20% cost advantage in building fiber and a clear low-cost path to extending our leadership in broadband to 10 gigabits service and beyond. And we're encouraged that the government is aligned with our purpose of building Gigabit America. The government has already passed legislation that will drive an estimated 5 to 6x increase in broadband stimulus over the next few years.

我們擁有獨特的優勢，能夠充分利用這些需求趨勢，在建造光纖方面具有 20% 的成本優勢，並提供清晰的低成本途徑，將我們在寬頻服務領域的領先地位擴展到 10 Gb 及以上服務。我們感到鼓舞的是，政府與我們建設「千兆美國」的目標一致。政府已經通過立法，預計未來幾年寬頻刺激措施將增加 5 至 6 倍。

We believe that government funding should be targeted at the locations that would be uneconomic to pass with private capital alone. We've been active in existing government programs within our footprint and will remain active as funds related to the broadband infrastructure build are released.

我們認為，政府資金應該針對那些僅靠私人資本不經濟的地區。我們一直積極參與我們範圍內的現有政府計劃，並且隨著與寬頻基礎設施建設相關的資金釋放，我們將繼續積極參與。

And importantly, I'd like to reaffirm our commitment to ESG as we build the future backbone of our nation's connectivity infrastructure. This commitment aligns well with growing pools of capital directed at ESG investments. We continue to invest in products that connect underserved communities and rural areas in our footprint helping to bridge the digital divide. We're committed to creating a safe, healthy, and inclusive workplace in which our people can thrive.

重要的是，在我們建立國家互聯基礎設施的未來支柱時，我想重申我們對 ESG 的承諾。這項承諾與不斷增長的 ESG 投資資本池相吻合。我們繼續投資於連接服務不足的社區和農村地區的產品，幫助彌合數位落差。我們致力於創造一個安全、健康和包容的工作場所，讓我們的員工能夠茁壯成長。

We're also committed to investing in the communities where our employees live and work. We recognize our responsibility as stewards of the environment and our opportunity to lead on sustainability in the industry. Fiber is a passive technology, and it uses less energy than competing technologies like cable. As we upgrade our copper network to fiber, we'll be on a path to reduce our greenhouse gas footprint significantly.

我們也致力於投資員工生活和工作的社區。我們認識到我們作為環境管理者的責任以及引領產業永續發展的機會。光纖是一種被動技術，與電纜等競爭技術相比，它使用的能源更少。當我們將銅網路升級為光纖網路時，我們將走上顯著減少溫室氣體足跡的道路。

And lastly, we're committed to modeling the highest standards of governance. We have a board with diverse backgrounds and relevant experiences and skills with separate Chairman and CEO roles. We have implemented comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, and we have built a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy into our executive compensation programs. We look forward to providing more details on our ESG commitments as we continue to make progress on our ESG journey.

最後，我們致力於建立最高標準的治理模式。我們的董事會具有不同的背景和相關經驗和技能，並具有不同的董事長和執行長角色。我們實施了全面的合規和道德計劃，並將績效付費的薪酬理念融入我們的高階主管薪酬計劃中。隨著我們在 ESG 之旅上不斷取得進展，我們期待提供有關我們 ESG 承諾的更多詳細資訊。

We've built our strategy around 4 key levers of value creation. Expanding our fiber footprint is at the core of our strategy. We plan to accelerate our fiber deployment to be able to reach over 10 million homes by the end of 2025. Along with growing our footprint, we'll be launching new best-in-market products to meet customer demands and increased penetration in our fiber footprint.

我們圍繞著價值創造的 4 個關鍵槓桿制定了我們的策略。擴大我們的光纖足跡是我們策略的核心。我們計劃加快光纖部署，到 2025 年底覆蓋超過 1000 萬個家庭。

How we engage with customers is also critical to our success. Our goal is to deliver an exceptional experience throughout all of our interactions with customers. And lastly, we continue to identify opportunities to simplify how we operate and focus our operations across all parts of the company.

我們如何與客戶互動對於我們的成功也至關重要。我們的目標是在與客戶的所有互動中提供卓越的體驗。最後，我們繼續尋找機會來簡化我們的營運方式，並將營運重點集中在公司的各個部門。

I'll now turn the call over to Nick to review how we performed against these initiatives in the third quarter. Nick?

現在我將把電話轉給尼克，回顧我們在第三季對這些舉措的執行情況。缺口？

Thanks, John. Before I get started, I want to acknowledge that many analysts and investors have said that Frontier is an execution story. So on this call, we're going to go deeper into the key actions that have contributed to our strong results.

謝謝，約翰。在開始之前，我想承認許多分析師和投資者都說過 Frontier 是一個執行故事。因此，在這次電話會議上，我們將更深入地探討為我們取得強勁業績做出貢獻的關鍵行動。

In Q4, our team executed extremely well against our strategic priorities. We built a record of 192,000 new fiber locations, reaching our target of 4 million total fiber locations at the end of 2021. We added a record of 45,000 fiber broadband customer net additions, which is nearly a fivefold increase over the same period a year ago and a 50% increase compared with our previous record from last quarter.

在第四季度，我們的團隊在我們的策略重點方面執行得非常好。新增光纖站點19.2萬個，創歷史新高，實現2021年底光纖站點總數400萬個的目標。相比增加了50%。

Our fiber net adds this quarter were greater than our copper losses, resulting in positive total broadband net adds for the first time in more than 5 years. We earned record high Net Promoter Scores and record low churn, both across fiber and copper.

本季我們的光纖網路新增量大於銅纜損耗，導致寬頻網路總新增量在 5 年多來首​​次出現正值。我們在光纖和銅纜方面獲得了創紀錄的高淨推薦值和創紀錄的低流失率。

And importantly, our fiber NPS turned positive for the first time ever this quarter. And just yesterday, we launched the first and only network-wide 2 gigabit per second symmetrical fiber service, which further extends our leadership in offering the best possible broadband products in our market.

重要的是，我們的纖維 NPS 本季首次轉為正值。就在昨天，我們推出了第一個也是唯一一個全網每秒 2 GB 的對稱光纖服務，這進一步擴大了我們在市場上提供最佳寬頻產品的領先地位。

Moving to our first strategic initiative, fiber deployment. On Slide 12, our fiber deployment continues to increase, and we built fiber to a record 192,000 locations this quarter.

轉向我們的第一個策略舉措：光纖部署。在投影片 12 中，我們的光纖部署持續增加，本季我們在 192,000 個地點建立了創紀錄的光纖。

To put the year into perspective, we passed 6x the number of locations in 2021 that we passed in 2020. Our team has demonstrated our ability to accelerate our fiber build and to do so within our established cost target, whilst also navigating global supply chain and COVID-related disruption.

回顧這一年，我們在2021 年通過的地點數量是2020 年的6 倍。全球供應鏈和與新冠肺炎相關的干擾。

We're excited to continue accelerating our build to reach 1 million plus locations in 2022. This will put us at 5 million fiber locations by the end of 2022 and on pace to reach our previously announced target of 10 million fiber locations by the end of 2025.

我們很高興能夠繼續加速建設，到2022 年達到100 萬個以上的光纖站點。站點的目標。

With all the disruption that I just mentioned, I'd like to reflect on the foundation that we've established throughout 2021, which gives us conviction in our ability to accelerate our fiber build and enhance network performance over the coming years.

考慮到我剛才提到的所有乾擾，我想回顧一下我們在 2021 年建立的基礎，這使我們相信我們有能力在未來幾年加速光纖建設並增強網路效能。

We expanded our pool of suppliers for both labor and material, providing us with redundancy if any particular supplier has issues at a given point in time. We secured multiyear agreements with key partners to secure supply while meeting cost targets, and we've improved our permitting processes to reduce our time to market. And we continue to push the boundaries on fiber technology with our industry-leading trial of 25 gigabit per second broadband speed.

我們擴大了勞動力和材料的供應商庫，如果任何特定供應商在給定時間點出現問題，我們就能獲得冗餘。我們與主要合作夥伴達成了多年協議，以確保供應，同時滿足成本目標，並且我們改進了許可流程，以縮短上市時間。我們透過業界領先的每秒 25 吉比特的寬頻速度試驗，繼續突破光纖技術的界限。

With our fiber build humming, I'd like to touch on our second strategic initiative, fiber penetration. We've made incredible progress in consumer broadband this year, simply by focusing on getting the basics right. We've streamlined our offers to 3 clearly defined prices designed to provide the fastest speed, best value, and best performance, all while eliminating organizational complexity and customer confusion.

隨著我們的纖維建設蓬勃發展，我想談談我們的第二個策略舉措：纖維滲透。今年，我們僅透過專注於做好基礎工作，就在消費者寬頻方面取得了令人難以置信的進步。我們將報價簡化為 3 種明確定義的價格，旨在提供最快的速度、最佳的價值和最佳的效能，同時消除組織複雜性和客戶困惑。

We enhanced our industry-leading broadband product with value-added services like eero, YouTube TV and DIRECTV Stream to relieve critical pain points for our customers.

我們透過 eero、YouTube TV 和 DIRECTV Stream 等加值服務增強了業界領先的寬頻產品，以緩解客戶的關鍵痛點。

We established digital customer acquisition capabilities through our partnership with Red Ventures, -- not only do these capabilities open a previously untapped channel through which we can acquire customers, but also our consumer e-cart, A-powered (sic -- AI) AB testing and mix optimization analytics enable more effective customer targeting, resulting in higher customer additions at a lower cost.

我們透過與 Red Ventures 的合作建立了數位客戶獲取能力，這些能力不僅打開了我們獲取客戶的以前未開發的管道，而且還打開了我們的消費者電子車 A-powered（原文如此——AI）AB測試和組合最佳化分析可以實現更有效的客戶定位，從而以更低的成本增加更多的客戶。

And lastly, our brand was arguably tarnished before we began implementing our new strategy. And we have already seen a sharp increase in Net Promoter Scores with fiber NPS up 33 points since January of 2021 and turning positive for the first time ever this quarter.

最後，在我們開始實施新策略之前，我們的品牌可以說已經被玷污。我們已經看到淨推薦值急劇上升，纖維 NPS 自 2021 年 1 月以來上升了 33 個點，並在本季度首次轉為正值。

All of these improvements have driven a sharp increase in fiber broadband customer net activation. We added a record 44,000 consumer fiber broadband customers this quarter, driving an acceleration in our fiber broadband customer growth to nearly 8% year-over-year.

所有這些改進都推動了光纖寬頻客戶網路活化量的急劇增加。本季我們新增了創紀錄的 44,000 名消費者光纖寬頻客戶，推動光纖寬頻客戶年增至近 8%。

To put this into perspective, we are the only fixed broadband provider in our footprint to have higher net adds this quarter than last quarter, which truly underscores our ability to gain market share as we continue to improve on all of the initiatives that I described in the prior slide.

從這個角度來看，我們是本季唯一一家淨增加量高於上季的固定寬頻供應商，這真正凸顯了我們在繼續改進我在上一張投影片。

On Slide 17, we look more deeply into our fiber broadband customer base. And we showed that we didn't just gain customers from deploying fiber into low penetrated markets, but we also gain customers in our mature fiber markets on what we refer to as our base fiber footprint.

在投影片 17 中，我們更深入地了解了我們的光纖寬頻客戶群。我們表明，我們不僅透過在滲透率較低的市場部署光纖來贏得客戶，而且還透過我們所謂的基礎光纖足跡在成熟的光纖市場中贏得客戶。

In our base line footprint, penetration increased 40 basis points sequentially to nearly 42%. A. Again, this represents a sequential increase in net adds, whereas all of our competitors show decline. Our base fiber footprint serves as the target for where we expect to drive penetration in our expansion fiber footprint, and we expect to steadily grow penetration to at least 45% over time.

在我們的基準足跡中，滲透率連續成長了 40 個基點，達到近 42%。答：同樣，這代表淨增加量連續增加，而我們所有的競爭對手均出現下降。我們的基礎光纖足跡是我們期望推動擴展光纖足跡滲透率的目標，我們預計隨著時間的推移，滲透率將穩定成長到至少 45%。

Our 2020 expansion cohort continues to outperform our expectations with penetration of 22% at the 12-month mark. Last quarter, this metric was 30%, but we cautioned that it represented a small sample size of just 26,000 locations -- bringing in another 60,000 locations this quarter, which is more representative of a scale build, penetration for our 2020 build cohort reached 22% at the 12-month mark, which outperformed our target penetration of 15% to 20%.

我們 2020 年的擴張群體持續超越我們的預期，12 個月的滲透率達到 22%。上個季度，這一指標為30%，但我們警告說，它代表的樣本量很小，只有26,000 個地點- 本季度又引入了60,000 個地點，這更能代表規模建設，我們2020 年建設群體的滲透率達到22 12 個月的滲透率超過了我們 15% 至 20% 的目標滲透率。

We continue to expect penetration of 25% to 30% at the 24-month mark and to rise further from there towards our terminal penetration of 45%. Our existing 500 Megabit per second and 1 gigabit per second consumer offering with symmetrical upload and download speed and lower latency were already superior to Cable. And our recent launch of 2 gigabits per second speeds across our entire fiber network further extends our network advantage.

我們繼續預期 24 個月後滲透率將達到 25% 至 30%，並在此基礎上進一步上升，達到 45% 的終端滲透率。我們現有的每秒 500 兆位元和每秒 1 吉位的消費者產品具有對稱的上傳和下載速度以及較低的延遲，已經優於電纜。我們最近在整個光纖網路中推出了每秒 2 千兆位元的速度，進一步擴展了我們的網路優勢。

With 2 gigabit per second services, we will enable next-generation experiences such as augmented and virtual reality, cloud-based gaming, and multiple 8K TV streams. And we're including a suite of value-added services to customers that opt into our 2-gig service such as My Premium Tech and multi-device security.

借助每秒 2 GB 的服務，我們將實現擴增實境和虛擬實境、基於雲端的遊戲和多個 8K 電視串流等下一代體驗。我們也為選擇使用 2g 服務的客戶提供了一套增值服務，例如 My Premium Tech 和多裝置安全。

Our 2 gigabits per second launch is a big step forwards for Frontier, and we plan to continue rolling out faster speeds over time and are already in advanced planning to launch a 5 to 10 gigabit per second ultra-high-speed offering. Our 10-gig speeds will revolutionize how broadband can be used, including advanced digital health care procedures such as telesurgical operations and supporting the widespread use of hologram like 3D video conferencing.

我們每秒2 吉比特的推出對於Frontier 來說是向前邁出的一大步，我們計劃隨著時間的推移繼續推出更快的速度，並且已經在提前計劃推出每秒5 至10 吉比特的超高速產品。我們的 10G 速度將徹底改變寬頻的使用方式，包括先進的數位醫療保健程序，例如遠端手術，以及支援 3D 視訊會議等全像圖的廣泛使用。

At the same time, as we improve our consumer segment, we're also making significant progress to turn around our business and wholesale segments. In SMB, we took a complex offer with generic marketing campaigns and limited ways to engage with customers to a simple 3-tier attractively priced offer with specific tailored marketing campaigns, which expand the channels to reach more customers that are likely to engage with them. And a proactive strategy to migrate fiber eligible copper customers to fiber.

同時，隨著我們改善消費者細分市場，我們在扭轉業務和批發細分市場方面也取得了重大進展。在中小型企業中，我們採用了包含通用行銷活動的複雜報價和與客戶互動的有限方式，改為包含特定客製化行銷活動的簡單的三層有吸引力的價格報價，從而擴大了接觸更多可能與其互動的客戶的管道。以及將符合光纖條件的銅客戶遷移到光纖的積極策略。

In Enterprise, we took an undefined coverage model with outdated products and fragmented sales operations to a refined segmentation and coverage model to focus on the highest potential value customer, a simplified portfolio focused on strategic products, and a robust CRM platform to optimize sales operations and customer management.

在企業業務中，我們將過時產品和分散銷售營運的未定義覆蓋模型轉變為精細化細分和覆蓋模型，以專注於最高潛在價值客戶，簡化的產品組合專注於策略性產品，以及強大的CRM平台來優化銷售營運和用戶管理。

In wholesale, we took a declining business that lacked key relationships through a multiyear strategic agreement with AT&T to improve our win share in enterprise and fiber for the power customers. Taken together, these actions are already showing early signs of improvement, and we aim to take share of an estimated $8 billion market opportunity within our footprint.

在批發方面，我們透過與 AT&T 達成多年戰略協議來應對缺乏關鍵關係的下滑業務，以提高我們在企業和電力客戶光纖領域的贏利份額。總而言之，這些行動已經顯示出改善的早期跡象，我們的目標是在我們的足跡中分享估計 80 億美元的市場機會。

Now we still have a long way to go to further differentiate our business with best-in-class products, value-added services, and industry-leading partnerships. So clearly stay tuned for more updates here, which we'll cover in future earnings calls.

現在，我們還有很長的路要走，要透過一流的產品、增值服務和行業領先的合作夥伴關係進一步使我們的業務脫穎而出。因此，請繼續關注這裡的更多更新，我們將在未來的財報電話會議中介紹這些更新。

Now I'd like to move on to our next strategic initiative, the customer experience. I've often said that there is no single silver bullet to improve the customer experience and that it requires hundreds and even thousands of small changes rooted in attention to detail and a determined execution across the business to quickly remove these pain points.

現在我想繼續討論我們的下一個策略舉措：客戶體驗。我常說，改善客戶體驗沒有單一的靈丹妙藥，它需要數百甚至數千個基於對細節的關注和整個企業堅定執行的小改變才能快速消除這些痛點。

We made enormous progress on transforming the customer experience this year. We took inconsistent paper bills and have radically simplified them, making them paperless and introducing AutoPay, which significantly improves the customer lifetime value.

今年我們在轉變客戶體驗方面取得了巨大進展。我們採用了不一致的紙質帳單，並從根本上簡化了它們，使其無紙化並引入了自動支付，這顯著提高了客戶的終身價值。

We took our manual customer communications operations and streamlined our IDR, automated and simplified our SMS and e-mail communication and introduced a whole range of customer self-help tools, which have increased customer satisfaction whilst lowering call center volumes by 20%.

我們採用手動客戶通訊操作，簡化了 IDR，自動化並簡化了簡訊和電子郵件通信，並推出了一整套客戶自助工具，這些工具提高了客戶滿意度，同時將呼叫中心的工作量降低了 20%。

We introduced next-day install across our footprint to reduce cancellations arising from long installation. Instead of requiring technicians to pick up or our customers to drop off equipment, we simplified and automated the return process with a mail in option and a simple QR code.

我們在整個範圍內引入了隔日安裝，以減少因長時間安裝而導致的取消。我們不再要求技術人員取走設備或讓客戶歸還設備，而是透過郵寄選項和簡單的二維碼簡化並自動化了退貨流程。

The improvements made in 2021 are already delivering excellent results, which I'll speak to in just a minute, but it's important to keep in mind that we're still at an early stage in our transformation. Customer care is a constantly evolving mission for us. Our executive team meets 2 hours every single week to review all aspects of the customer journey and build clear actionable plans to improve them. We are constantly refining, automating, and simplifying our systems and processes for interacting with customers and rigorously measuring our progress as we go.

2021 年所做的改進已經取得了出色的成果，我稍後會談到這一點，但重要的是要記住，我們仍處於轉型的早期階段。客戶關懷是我們不斷發展的使命。我們的執行團隊每週召開 2 小時會議，審查客戶旅程的各個方面，並制定明確的可行計劃來改進它們。我們不斷改進、自動化和簡化我們與客戶互動的系統和流程，並嚴格衡量我們的進展。

Now on to the excellent initiatives that our customer care initiative [submitted] this quarter. Our Fiber Net Promoter Score increased 33 points from January to December of 2021 and turned positive for the first time ever in November. Our NPS scores have continued to climb in 2022, and importantly, shorter tenured customers have significantly higher NPS scores than longer tenured customers, which suggests that our overall NPS score have a long way to run as we grow our customer base.

現在談談我們本季[提交的]客戶服務計劃的出色舉措。 2021 年 1 月至 12 月，我們的 Fiber 淨推薦值增加了 33 分，並在 11 月首次轉正。我們的NPS 分數在2022 年繼續攀升，重要的是，任期較短的客戶的NPS 分數明顯高於任期較長的客戶，這表明隨著我們擴大客戶群，我們的整體NPS 分數還有很長的路要走。

Additionally, broadband churn across both fiber and copper customers continues to fall, each down more than 20 basis points versus the fourth quarter last year. Churn tends to be higher for the first 90 days of the customer's life cycle than it is across the total customer base. So early churn is an important metric that we track internally to measure customer satisfaction.

此外，光纖和銅纜客戶的寬頻流失率持續下降，與去年第四季相比均下降了 20 個基點以上。客戶生命週期的前 90 天的流失率往往高於整個客戶群的流失率。因此，早期流失是我們內部追蹤以衡量客戶滿意度的重要指標。

90-day churn continues to be down 30% since the same period last year and down 25% since March of this year, which indicates that the changes we are making to the customer experience are driving real results across the business.

90 天客戶流失率自去年同期以來持續下降 30%，自今年 3 月以來下降了 25%，這表明我們對客戶體驗所做的改變正在推動整個企業取得實際成果。

I'll now turn the call over to Scott to run through our fourth quarter financial performance and our performance against our fourth strategic pillar of operational efficiency.

現在我將把電話轉給史考特，讓他回顧我們第四季的財務表現以及我們第四個策略支柱營運效率的表現。

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. As I have done on the last several calls, in order to more clearly describe the performance of our business versus previous time periods, I will reference pro forma numbers in 2020 that have been adjusted for fresh start accounting changes.

謝謝你，尼克，大家早安。正如我在最近幾次電話會議中所做的那樣，為了更清楚地描述我們的業務表現與之前時期相比，我將參考2020 年的預計數據，這些數據已根據新開始的會計變化進行了調整。

Turning to results on Slide 24, revenue was $1.54 billion in the quarter, driven by roughly flat sequential data revenue, but lower voice revenue. We earned $189 million of net income and $585 million of adjusted EBITDA. $273 million of our adjusted EBITDA came from fiber products. This was roughly flat year-over-year as strong consumer fiber broadband growth offset declines in voice and other. We generated $468 million of cash from operations in the quarter, helping to add to our strong liquidity.

轉向幻燈片 24 上的結果，該季度的收入為 15.4 億美元，主要受到連續數據收入大致持平但語音收入下降的推動。我們的淨利潤為 1.89 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 5.85 億美元。我們調整後的 EBITDA 中有 2.73 億美元來自纖維產品。由於消費者光纖寬頻的強勁成長抵消了語音和其他業務的下降，這一數字與去年同期基本持平。本季我們從營運中產生了 4.68 億美元的現金，有助於增強我們強大的流動性。

Turning to Slide 25, our total revenue declined 6% this quarter, consistent with declines from last quarter. Fiber revenue declined 1% year-over-year as consumer broadband revenue growth of 11% and business broadband revenue growth of 8%, were offset by declines in video, voice and other.

轉向投影片 25，本季我們的總收入下降了 6%，與上季的降幅一致。光纖收入年減 1%，消費者寬頻收入成長 11%，商業寬頻收入成長 8%，但被視訊、語音和其他業務的下降所抵消。

Two notes on fiber revenue. First, Q4's year-over-year consumer fiber broadband ARPU growth of 4% was in line with our long-term expectations of 3% to 4% ARPU growth. ARPU declined slightly sequentially as we introduced 2 strategic initiatives in the second half of the year, our $5 AutoPay discount and gift cards for new customers. Both are value-creating initiatives that will be a headwind to ARPU growth for a couple of quarters. We do not expect these to be material headwinds to ARPU growth once we lap these impacts in the second half of 2022.

關於光纖收入的兩個註解。首先，第四季消費光纖寬頻 ARPU 年增 4%，符合我們 3% 至 4% ARPU 成長的長期預期。由於我們在下半年推出了兩項策略舉措，即 5 美元自動支付折扣和麵向新客戶的禮品卡，ARPU 環比略有下降。這兩項舉措都是創造價值的舉措，將在幾個季度內阻礙 ARPU 的成長。一旦我們在 2022 年下半年消除這些影響，我們預計這些不會對 ARPU 成長構成重大阻力。

Second, as I mentioned on the last several calls, we made the decision to stop marketing video to new customers in early 2021, which has contributed to revenue declines, but has had minimal impact on profit due to high content costs. Copper revenue growth was flat sequentially at negative 9% as both consumer and business faced expected headwinds.

其次，正如我在最近幾次電話會議中提到的，我們決定在 2021 年初停止向新客戶營銷視頻，這導致了收入下降，但由於內容成本高昂，對利潤的影響很小。由於消費者和企業都面臨預期的阻力，銅收入成長持平，為負 9%。

In 2022, we expect fiber revenue growth to accelerate into positive territory as the year progresses, driven by strong growth in consumer fiber and stabilization in business and wholesale. We expect copper declines to moderate slightly as our customer experience initiatives take hold, but we still expect overall declines in copper due to legacy product headwinds.

2022 年，在消費纖維強勁成長以及業務和批發穩定的推動下，我們預期纖維收入成長將加速進入正值區間。我們預計，隨著我們的客戶體驗計畫的實施，銅價的跌幅將略有放緩，但我們仍然預計，由於傳統產品的不利因素，銅價將整體下跌。

As a final note on revenue, the fourth quarter was the final quarter where we received subsidy revenue from the CAF II program. While we expect to be an active participant in the recently announced $43 billion infrastructure investment and Jobs Act, these funds are unlikely to be significant in 2022. Therefore, we expect a range of $10 million to $20 million of subsidy revenue per quarter in 2022, with Q1 as the low point because of delayed timing of several awards.

關於收入的最後一點是，第四季是我們從 CAF II 計畫獲得補貼收入的最後一個季度。雖然我們預計將積極參與最近宣布的430 億美元基礎設施投資和就業法案，但這些資金在2022 年不太可能產生重大影響。之間，由於多個獎項的推遲，第一季成為最低點。

Turning to Slide 26, total EBITDA declined 13% this quarter, again, driven by declines in copper. Fiber EBITDA was roughly flat year-over-year as strong consumer fiber broadband growth and margin improvements were offset by revenue declines in voice and other.

轉向投影片 26，由於銅價下跌，本季 EBITDA 總額再次下降 13%。光纖 EBITDA 年比大致持平，因為消費者光纖寬頻的強勁成長和利潤率的提高被語音和其他收入的下降所抵消。

Frontier is a fiber-first company. Fiber represents 54% of our adjusted EBITDA and will increasingly drive the growth trajectory of the overall company. Copper EBITDA declined consistent with our expectations, and we expect sequential declines to moderate over the next several quarters as a result of our improved customer experience.

Frontier 是一家光纖優先的公司。纖維占我們調整後 EBITDA 的 54%，並將日益推動整個公司的成長軌跡。銅 EBITDA 的下降符合我們的預期，由於我們改善了客戶體驗，我們預計未來幾季連續下降的幅度將有所放緩。

Turning to Slide 28. Our Fit for the Future program remains on track to exceed our initial goal of $250 million of gross annual cost savings by 2023. When we kicked off the program this past summer, we set out to achieve $25 million of gross run rate cost savings in 2021.

轉向幻燈片 28。年節省成本。

I'm pleased to note that we have already surpassed that number and realized more than $90 million of gross and realized cost savings with more than $40 million in year savings captured in 2021. This puts us on track to exceed our long-term goals, and I am encouraged by our culture of simplification as we continue to identify areas of efficiency throughout our organization.

我很高興地註意到，我們已經超過了這個數字，並實現了超過9000 萬美元的總成本和成本節約，2021 年實現了超過4000 萬美元的年度成本節約。 ，當我們繼續在整個組織中尋找效率領域時，我對我們的簡化文化感到鼓舞。

On Slide 29, I'll highlight 4 key simplification initiatives that will help free up stranded cash as well as structurally lower our cost base. The first is divesting nonproductive real estate. We have identified an opportunity to consolidate and exit over 30 locations in our administrative footprint, representing more than 1 million square feet of office space. In 2021 alone, we sold 18 properties for cash proceeds of $42 million, giving us a solid start towards our goal of achieving at least $150 million of proceeds by 2023.

在投影片 29 上，我將重點介紹 4 項關鍵的簡化舉措，這些舉措將有助於釋放滯留現金並從結構上降低我們的成本基礎。首先是剝離非生產性房地產。我們已經確定了一個機會來整合和退出我們行政區域中的 30 多個地點，這些地點代表著超過 100 萬平方英尺的辦公空間。光是 2021 年，我們就出售了 18 處房產，獲得了 4,200 萬美元的現金收益，為我們實現到 2023 年實現至少 1.5 億美元收益的目標奠定了堅實的基礎。

The second initiative was the closure of our retail stores in order to meet the shift in consumer preferences towards digital engagement. In the second half of 2021, we closed more than 50 retail stores, allowing us to redeploy our attention into more efficient forms of customer interaction.

第二項措施是關閉我們的零售店，以滿足消費者偏好向數位參與的轉變。 2021 年下半年，我們關閉了 50 多家零售店，讓我們能夠將注意力重新部署到更有效的客戶互動形式上。

The third initiative was the sale of our CPE business, which did not align with our strategy of focusing on higher-margin core connectivity services. We closed this sale in Q4. The CPE divestiture will reduce annual revenues by roughly $50 million but will have minimal impact on EBITDA.

第三個舉措是出售我們的CPE業務，這與我們專注於更高利潤的核心連結服務的策略不符。我們在第四季完成了這次銷售。 CPE 剝離將導致年收入減少約 5,000 萬美元，但對 EBITDA 的影響微乎其微。

And lastly, we have transformed our procurement team and processes to help drive simplification across our supplier base. Under a newly centralized team, we have diversified our labor and material supplier base for our fiber build, while at the same time, consolidating our overall vendor base. Our actions in procurement have already led to more efficient supplier relationships with lower cost and better reliability, and we are still in the early stages of this transformation.

最後，我們改變了採購團隊和流程，以幫助推動整個供應商群體的簡化。在新的集中團隊的領導下，我們實現了光纖建設的勞動力和材料供應商基礎的多元化，同時鞏固了我們的整體供應商基礎。我們在採購方面的行動已經帶來了更有效率的供應商關係、更低的成本和更好的可靠性，但我們仍處於這項轉型的早期階段。

We'll move to capital allocation on Slide 30. The underlying cash flow generation of the business remains strong. We generated $468 million in net cash from operating activities in the fourth quarter. We're committed to managing our balance sheet in a disciplined manner with net leverage in the mid-3s.

我們將轉向幻燈片 30 上的資本配置。我們第四季的經營活動產生了 4.68 億美元的淨現金。我們致力於以嚴格的方式管理我們的資產負債表，淨槓桿比率在 3 左右。

Finally, we are committed to rigorous capital allocation decision making. Our fiber build will be the primary focus of capital allocation over the next several years. Our projected build cost per location that we have communicated to you over the last few quarters, $900 to $1,000 from 2022 to 2025 remains unchanged.

最後，我們致力於嚴格的資本配置決策。我們的光纖建設將是未來幾年資本配置的主要重點。我們在過去幾季向您傳達的預計每個地點的建設成本（從 2022 年到 2025 年為 900 美元到 1,000 美元）保持不變。

Including the roughly $1 billion of debt that we raised in October, we ended 2021 with $2.1 billion in cash and $529 million of available capacity on our revolver, totaling $2.6 billion of liquidity to fund our fiber build and normal operations.

包括我們 10 月籌集的約 10 億美元債務，到 2021 年末，我們擁有 21 億美元現金和 5.29 億美元的左輪手槍可用容量，總計 26 億美元的流動資金為我們的光纖建設和正常運作提供資金。

In addition to this strong liquidity, we also have ample balance sheet flexibility. Our net leverage remained low at 2.4x at the end of the quarter, giving us healthy headroom under our mid-3s net leverage target. We do not have any significant maturities earlier than 2027. This maturity time line provides us a clear runway throughout our Wave 2 fiber build.

除了強大的流動性之外，我們還擁有充足的資產負債表靈活性。本季末，我們的淨槓桿率仍保持在 2.4 倍的低水平，這為我們在 3 倍左右的淨槓桿率目標下提供了健康的空間。我們沒有任何早於 2027 年的重要成熟度。

Additionally, as a result of our build plan, we do not expect to be a significant federal cash taxpayer throughout Wave 2. As I stated before, we will pursue a disciplined financial policy that will enable us to manage through a range of economic scenarios.

此外，根據我們的建設計劃，我們預計不會在第二波浪潮中成為重要的聯邦現金納稅人。

I'll now turn to our 2022 financial guidance. For 2022, we expect capital expenditures of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion. The increase versus 2021's $1.7 billion is primarily driven by the acceleration of our fiber build, where we expect to pass at least 1 million new locations in 2022. Additionally, we expect higher success-based CapEx as we connect more customers to fiber across consumer, business, and wholesale.

我現在談談我們的 2022 年財務指引。 2022 年，我們預計資本支出為 24 億至 25 億美元。與2021 年的17 億美元相比，這一增長主要是由於我們光纖建設的加速，我們預計到2022 年將通過至少100 萬個新地點。光纖，我們預期基於成功的資本支出會更高，經營、批發。

2 other notes on CapEx. First, we expect our build pages throughout 2022 to follow a typical seasonal pattern with the better weather quarters of Q2 and Q3 at a faster pace than the winter quarters of Q1 and Q4. Additionally, as we are accelerating our build from 2022 into 2023, we will have CapEx in the latter part of this year that has pulled forward from 2023 for material and build costs related to locations that will not be open for sale until 2023. We displayed a similar trend in the latter part of 2021.

2 關於資本支出的其他說明。首先，我們預計 2022 年的建置頁面將遵循典型的季節性模式，第二季和第三季天氣較好的季度比第一季和第四季的冬季季度更快。此外，由於我們正在加速從2022 年到2023 年的建設，我們將在今年下半年進行資本支出，該支出將從2023 年開始提前，用於與2023 年之前不會開放銷售的地點相關的材料和建設成本。

Next, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $2.0 billion to $2.15 billion. Our outlook assumes a loss of roughly $275 million of revenue and EBITDA related to subsidies versus 2021. But by the end of the year, we expect an inflection point in EBITDA as we return to sustained EBITDA growth.

接下來，我們預計調整後 EBITDA 為 20 億美元至 21.5 億美元。我們的前景假設與 2021 年相比，與補貼相關的收入和 EBITDA 損失約 2.75 億美元。

The loss of subsidy-related revenue and EBITDA will result in a sequential step down in margins of approximately 350 basis points from Q4 of 2021 into Q1 of '22, but we expect this to be the low point of margins for the year. We expect margins to be flat to up for the first 3 quarters of 2022 before inflecting more significantly in the latter part of the year.

補貼相關收入和 EBITDA 的損失將導致利潤率從 2021 年第四季到 22 年第一季連續下降約 350 個基點，但我們預計這將是今年利潤率的最低點。我們預計 2022 年前三個季度的利潤率將持平或上升，然後在今年下半年出現更顯著的變化。

I'll now close by bringing the Frontier investment thesis altogether. First, there is strong and growing demand for fiber, driven by expanding household data consumption. As John mentioned in his opening remarks, we are seeing rapid increases in data consumption across our network. And as new use cases emerge, we expect these trends will continue.

現在我將以前沿投資論文作為結束語。首先，在家庭數據消費不斷擴大的推動下，光纖需求強勁且不斷成長。正如約翰在開場白中提到的那樣，我們看到整個網路的數據消耗迅速增加。隨著新用例的出現，我們預計這些趨勢將持續下去。

Fiber is a superior product for a number of reasons, including symmetrical upload and download speeds that far exceed cable's capability, lower cost of ownership driven by fiber's passive technology, and lower latency levels that enable important uses like video conferencing and gaming.

光纖是一種卓越的產品，原因有很多，包括遠遠超過電纜能力的對稱上傳和下載速度、光纖被動技術驅動的較低擁有成本，以及支援視訊會議和遊戲等重要使用的較低延遲水平。

We have a clear strategy and purpose. We are building Gigabit America to connect Americans to the digital economy. We have ample liquidity and a strong balance sheet, providing us with access to capital to fund our strategy. Last, we've attracted a strong and experienced leadership team who are singularly focused on executing our 4-part strategic plan. I'll now turn the call over to Spencer to open up the line for questions.

我們有明確的策略和目標。我們正在建立“千兆美國”，將美國人與數位經濟連接起來。我們擁有充足的流動性和強大的資產負債表，使我們能夠獲得資金來支持我們的策略。最後，我們吸引了一支強大且經驗豐富的領導團隊，他們專注於執行我們由四個部分組成的策略計畫。我現在將把電話轉給斯賓塞以開通提問熱線。

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

接線員，我們現在準備好進行問答了。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Phil Cusick at JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Phil Cusick。

Two things first. Maybe first talk about the confidence in maintaining positive subscriber momentum from here. You've talked about copper churn coming down, fiber momentum increasing. Should we look for positive net adds each quarter going forward?

首先有兩件事。也許先談談從這裡保持正面的訂戶動能的信心。您談到了銅流失率下降，光纖勢頭增加。我們是否應該在未來每季尋找正的淨增加？

Yes. Phil, do you want us to go one by each or do you want to provide both questions, and we'll figure out which one we would prefer to answer first?

是的。菲爾，您希望我們逐一討論還是您想同時提供兩個問題，然後我們將弄清楚我們更願意先回答哪一個？

Okay. Second question is, can you give us an update on the Wave 3 progress? Is this sort of a situation where you're building books now and maybe look for a sale later in the year? Or are we not that far along?

好的。第二個問題是，您可以為我們介紹第3波的最新進展嗎？您現在正在製作書籍，也許會在今年晚些時候尋求銷售，這是否屬於這種情況？或者我們還沒走得那麼遠？

I'm going to ask Nick -- it's John. I'm going to ask Nick to take the question about subscriber momentum and then maybe Nick, I'll [probably] handle Wave 3.

我要問尼克——我是約翰。我將請尼克回答有關訂戶動力的問題，然後也許尼克，我將[可能]處理第三波。

Good question. Look, if I step back a little bit from the question of momentum and look at it from a what have we been doing on fundamentals over the last year as we built the new team, we very systematically, as we've said on previous earnings calls, focused on operational execution of the basics.

好問題。看，如果我從動力問題上退一步，從去年我們在建立新團隊時在基本面方面所做的事情來看待它，我們非常系統地，正如我們在之前的收益中所說的那樣調用，重點專注於基礎知識的操作執行。

We've simplified our pricing to make ourselves competitive at an entry level and ARPU accretive at a 1 gig and now 2 gig level. We have put in place hundreds if not thousands of operational changes to make the customer experience better. We've implemented new channels, improved customer communications, improved brand communications, all of which is a buildup to the results you're seeing here.

我們簡化了定價，使自己在入門級具有競爭力，並在 1 演出和現在的 2 演出級別增加 ARPU。我們已經實施了數百甚至數千項營運變革，以改善客戶體驗。我們實施了新的管道，改善了客戶溝通，改善了品牌溝通，所有這些都是您在這裡看到的結果的累積。

So I've got every expectation that we'll continue to make those operational improvements, continue to execute well. And therefore, we'll see market momentum where, again, if we take a step back, we're now, I believe, gaining market share in all of our fiber markets against every single one of our competitors. And that isn't a sort of moment in time or an aberration. That's the result of strong operational execution across many, many dimensions, and I think we'll see that carry forward into the future.

因此，我完全期望我們將繼續進行這些營運改進，並繼續良好執行。因此，我們將看到市場勢頭，如果我們退後一步，我相信我們現在正在所有纖維市場上贏得與每個競爭對手相比的市場份額。這並不是某個時刻或異常現象。這是在許多方面強有力的營運執行的結果，我認為我們將看到這種情況延續到未來。

Phil, to your question about Wave 3, one of the things that our naming convention, Wave 1, Wave 2, Wave 3 almost suggest is that it's sort of a sequential pattern. You do one, then you do the other, then you do the third. In fact, Wave 3 is running simultaneous with the work that we're doing on Wave 2.

Phil，對於你關於第 3 波的問題，我們的命名約定（第 1 波、第 2 波、第 3 波）幾乎顯示它是一種順序模式。你做一個，然後做另一個，然後做第三個。事實上，Wave 3 與我們在 Wave 2 上所做的工作同時進行。

And just for better detail, when we announced in August of 2021, our intentions to build to a total of 10 million homes by the end of 2025, I think we surprised the market a bit in the size of that build and the pace with which it would be accomplished.

更詳細地說，當我們在 2021 年 8 月宣布，我們打算在 2025 年底之前建造總共 1000 萬套住房時，我認為我們的建設規模和建設速度讓市場感到有點驚訝。

But that was basically our Wave 2 announcement. It was this 6 million additional homes from the $4 million we intended to have at the end of 2021. And those were for us the no doubt about it, pin back your ears and just go as hard and as fast as you can. So that is well underway.

但這基本上就是我們的第二波公告。我們計劃在 2021 年底之前建造 400 萬美元的住房，而這就是 600 萬套住房。所以這一切正在順利進行中。

But the Wave 3, which is the balance of our passing, the last 5 million locations are being worked simultaneously. And we're progressing actually quite well, and it's a matter of working through the specifics of those locations to determine the best approach to either build it out. Is there an opportunity to partner? Is there some divestiture? What is the sort of mix of solutions that allows you to sort of optimize value there?

但第 3 波，也就是我們經過的平衡點，最後 500 萬個地點同時在運作。我們實際上進展得相當不錯，關鍵是要研究這些地點的具體情況，以確定建造它的最佳方法。有合作機會嗎？是否有一些剝離？什麼樣的解決方案組合可以讓您優化價值？

So this is something that we're working in the next couple of quarters. We'll expect to be more specific. We'll come to the market with an explanation of precisely what we plan to do with that remaining 5 million households. But it's not going to be sort of after we finish Wave 2, but rather very much here shortly this year.

這是我們在接下來的幾個季度中要做的事情。我們預計會更加具體。我們將帶著準確的解釋來到市場，解釋我們計劃如何處理剩下的 500 萬個家庭。但這不會在我們完成第二波之後發生，而是在今年不久就會發生。

The next question comes from Jonathan Chaplin at New Street.

下一個問題來自新街的喬納森·卓別林。

2 questions from me as well, if I may. The NPS improvement you guys reported is stunning. It took Comcast and T-Mobile about 4 years to generate an NPS improvement of that magnitude. Does the improvement that you've seen with the brand that you've got obviate the need for a new brand, at least at the product level? Or is that something that's still in the works?

如果可以的話，我也問兩個問題。你們報告的 NPS 改進是驚人的。康卡斯特和 T-Mobile 花了大約 4 年的時間才實現瞭如此大幅度的淨推薦值 (NPS) 改善。您所看到的品牌的改進是否消除了對新品牌的需求，至少在產品層面？或者說這件事仍在進行中？

And on the -- sort of the opportunity with stimulus funding for closing the broadband device, I agree with the comment that you made at the beginning of the call that to get this done you need to attack private capital alongside stimulus money and that it should be focused on markets with no broadband today.

關於用刺激資金關閉寬頻設備的機會，我同意您在電話會議開始時發表的評論，即要完成這項工作，您需要與刺激資金一起攻擊私人資本，並且應該這樣做專注於當今沒有寬頻的市場。

When during the course of this year, do you think your discussions with the states will have progressed to a point where you've got clarity on how the -- sort of the biggest, most important states in your footprint, are you going to handle the allocation of the stimulus money?

在今年的過程中，你認為你與各州的討論是否會進展到你已經清楚地了解你將如何處理你足跡中最大、最重要的州？

Jonathan, it's Nick. Perhaps, I'll take the first and, John, you could pick up the second. First of all, John, thank you for your observation on the speed of our NPS turnaround. I have to say we are, and I am very pleased with the progress we've made. I think it's also fair just for transparency and honesty's sake to say that we are coming on a low base, of course.

喬納森，我是尼克。也許我會選擇第一個，約翰，你可以選擇第二個。首先，John，感謝您對我們 NPS 週轉速度的觀察。我不得不說我們是的，而且我對我們所取得的進展感到非常滿意。當然，我認為，出於透明度和誠實的考慮，說我們的基礎較低也是公平的。

But look, why have we been able to move it so far so quickly. And I think a big part of that is the leadership team that we put together. It's a very experienced leadership team. And at the risk of sounding a bit like the techs and I am fast becoming, this isn't the first NPS horse we've ridden.

但是看看，為什麼我們能夠這麼快地把它推進這麼遠。我認為其中很大一部分是我們組成的領導團隊。這是一個非常有經驗的領導團隊。冒著聽起來有點像技術人員的風險，我很快就成為了這樣的人，這並不是我們騎的第一匹 NPS 馬。

We've taken a lot of time to really deconstruct the underlying drivers of NPS, of which you'll know, there are many hundreds, and figure out the ones that really make the biggest difference to our customers. And then bring all of our operational expertise to bear on the small number of things that really make a big difference to our customers.

我們花了很多時間來真正解構 NPS 的潛在驅動因素（您會知道，其中有數百個），並找出真正對我們的客戶產生最大影響的驅動因素。然後利用我們所有的營運專業知識來解決真正對我們的客戶產生重大影響的少數事情。

And sure enough, mathematically, we're seeing the flow-through from that into improved NPS. I would say I'm pleased with the progress we made. I'd also say we're at the beginning of that journey. There is still a long way to go.

果然，從數學角度來看，我們看到了由此帶來的 NPS 改進。我想說我對我們所取得的進展感到滿意。我還想說，我們正處於這段旅程的開始。還有很長的路要走。

Now I'm encouraged by the fact that the NPS of our newer customers is also higher on average than the NPS of our base or legacy market customers, which is also improving, by the way. But the fact that we're building at a very aggressive rate means that we've probably got some NPS upside to see into the future as well as we have more new customers relative to our base customers.

現在，令我感到鼓舞的是，我們新客戶的 NPS 平均也高於我們的基礎或傳統市場客戶的 NPS，順便說一句，這也在改善。但事實上，我們正​​在以非常積極的速度進行建設，這意味著我們可能有一些 NPS 上行空間來展望未來，並且相對於我們的基礎客戶，我們擁有更多的新客戶。

And we continue the weekly focus on driving improvement actions inch by inch, yard by yard, and mile by mile and that's what we're going to continue doing. So good progress, a lot more to be done, but really based in the science of understanding the drivers of NPS and then strong operational execution.

我們繼續每週專注於推動改善行動，一寸一寸、一碼一碼、一英里一英里，這就是我們將繼續做的事情。進展如此之好，還有很多工作要做，但真正基於了解 NPS 驅動因素的科​​學以及強大的營運執行力。

Now how that reads across into brand is a great link, and I'm glad you made it because, as we've said on previous earnings calls, a brand is what a brand does. So our effort is to completely focus on what the brand is doing. That would suggest from the early results that the brand is repairable and indeed is repairing quite rapidly.

現在，如何解讀品牌是一個很好的鏈接，我很高興你做到了，因為正如我們在之前的財報電話會議上所說，品牌就是品牌所做的事情。所以我們的努力就是完全專注於品牌正在做的事情。從早期結果來看，這表明該品牌是可以修復的，而且修復速度確實相當快。

You'll also see from our launch of our national network-wide 2 gigabit service yesterday that we're experimenting now with the new brand tonality, let's just say, new color pallets, new fonts, and so on to make the brand more modern, more relevant, more tech-oriented and more appealing to a wider segment of the market. And we'll be monitoring that very closely as we come to the wider decision on what do we do with the brand and the name in the future. And that decision we'll be taking to our Board in coming quarters.

大家也可以從我們昨天推出的全國全網2G業務中看到，我們現在正在嘗試新的品牌調性，比如說新的調色板、新的字體等等，讓品牌更加現代。更以技術為導向，對更廣泛的市場領域更具吸引力。當我們就未來如何處理該品牌和名稱做出更廣泛的決定時，我們將密切關注這一情況。我們將在未來幾季向董事會提交這項決定。

Maybe if I can John, I'm just going to build on Nick's point here. One of the most important things for any leadership team, and particularly a new one, is not the words that they say but what they do. And what I would say just sort of observing Nick in his beginning at Frontier, the very first sort of recurring meetings that he put on the calendar was a very close review of what was broken in the business, what were the issues that were causing customer pain. And it's literally every week with every member of his senior team.

也許如果可以的話，約翰，我會在尼克的觀點的基礎上繼續闡述。對於任何領導團隊，尤其是新領導團隊來說，最重要的事情之一不是他們所說的話，而是他們所做的事情。我想說的是，尼克在 Frontier 剛開始時的觀察，他安排在日曆上的第一種定期會議是對業務中出現的問題、導致客戶的問題進行了非常仔細的審查。事實上，他的高級團隊的每一位成員每週都會參加。

So as new leaders joined the company in the last 6, 7 months of 2021, they recognized that this was the #1 priority for the CEO and therefore, it became important to them as well. And I think that cascades a message and a very positive shadow out to the organization about why this is important, why it matters.

因此，隨著新領導在 2021 年最後 6、7 個月加入公司，他們認識到這是執行長的第一要務，因此這對他們來說也變得非常重要。我認為這向組織傳達了一條訊息和一個非常積極的陰影，說明為什麼這很重要，為什麼它很重要。

I would also say that, as Nick described, it was very negative. And so the first thing is the improvement is coming off an sustainably low base. But what that reflects also is we were just going out of our way to break the promise that we made to our customers to do things that would really sort of irritate them. Moving to a point where you're no longer doing that gets you to sort of neutral buoyancy.

我還要說，正如尼克所描述的那樣，這是非常消極的。因此，首先，這種改善是在持續較低的基數基礎上實現的。但這也反映出我們只是不遺餘力地違背了我們對客戶所做的承諾，做一些真正激怒他們的事情。當你不再這樣做時，你就會達到中性浮力。

What I'm most excited about is we're not breaking into clearly positive territory, and you see that continuing to grow. And the ambition for the firm is to not be just okay here, not just to be a neutral point but rather to be a leader in terms of how consumers view the way the business values their business. So anyway, good progress there, and hopefully it will continue.

最讓我興奮的是我們並沒有進入明顯正面的領域，而且你會看到這種情況還在持續成長。該公司的目標不僅僅是在這裡安然無恙，不僅僅是成為一個中立點，而是在消費者如何看待企業評估其業務的方式方面成為領導者。所以無論如何，那裡取得了良好的進展，希望它能繼續下去。

You asked a question about stimulus funding. We think this is really important. This mission of building Gigabit America is something we talk about all the time inside the company and out to the market. And yet in some parts of the United States, it's very difficult for private companies to create those networks in an economical way. So this notion that there is some level of funding subsidization at the federal and state level is something I think that will help us to heal this continuing divide.

您問了有關刺激資金的問題。我們認為這非常重要。建立千兆美國的使命是我們在公司內部和市場上一直在談論的話題。然而，在美國的某些地區，私人公司很難以經濟的方式創建這些網路。因此，我認為聯邦和州一級提供一定程度的資金補貼的概念將有助於我們彌合這種持續存在的分歧。

It's complicated. And I think the rules of engagement both at the federal and state level are still being worked. Our expectation is this probably is a very late 2022 into 2023 reality in terms of a meaningful flow of subsidies into the market. Scott can speak more to the specific numbers that we sort of have built in here.

情況很複雜。我認為聯邦和州一級的參與規則仍在製定中。我們的預期是，就有意義的補貼流入市場而言，這可能要到 2022 年底到 2023 年才會成為現實。斯科特可以更多地談論我們在這裡建立的具體數字。

But our thought process is this is a '23 and onwards in terms of it becoming something that starts to scale and really address this opportunity that's in front of us. We will be active in terms of our participation in those processes in the states that we do business. And hopefully, we'll see an "our fair share" or better outcome in terms of our success in whatever auction process is put in place.

但我們的思考過程是，從 23 年開始，它就會開始規模化，並真正抓住我們面前的這個機會。我們將積極參與我們開展業務的州的這些流程。希望我們在任何拍賣過程中都能取得成功，從而看到「我們的公平份額」或更好的結果。

The next question comes from Brett Feldman at Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的布雷特·費爾德曼。

Just 2. First, Scott, you talked about the company's strong balance sheet and liquidity position, but it certainly looks like you are inevitably going to want to go raise some additional capital to complete the Wave 2 build. So I was hoping you could share your current thinking around timing and some of the financing options that are going to be available to the company.

2.首先，斯科特，您談到了公司強勁的資產負債表和流動性狀況，但看起來您不可避免地會想要籌集一些額外的資金來完成第二波建設。因此，我希望您能分享您目前對時間安排以及公司可用的一些融資方案的想法。

And I'm curious whether your assessment of your Wave 3 options, if one of the objectives there is to use the Wave 3 portion of your footprint maybe as a tool for financing the Wave 2 build-out or if those are distinct processes.

我很好奇您是否對第 3 波選擇進行評估，目標之一是否是將您足跡中的第 3 波部分用作為第 2 波擴建提供資金的工具，或者這些是否是不同的流程。

And then on wholesale, I just want to clarify, are we at the point where some of the pressures you experienced because of the repricing are fully in that sort of quarterly run rate we've seen as we were exiting 2021? And then maybe bigger picture, you obviously have the strategic agreement with AT&T. How are you thinking about the opportunity to add more strategic wholesale partners as we move into this year?

然後在批發方面，我只想澄清一下，我們是否正處於這樣的階段：您因重新定價而經歷的一些壓力是否完全體現在我們退出 2021 年時所看到的那種季度運行率中？從更大的角度來看，您顯然與 AT&T 達成了戰略協議。隨著今年的到來，您如何看待增加更多策略批發合作夥伴的機會？

Brett, this is Scott. Thanks for the question. On your first one about funding. So we did our $1 billion debt offering in October, which positions us very well until mid-2023. And then for the rest of Wave 2, beyond mid-2023, we said we have a wide range of options, some of which you mentioned.

布雷特，這是史考特。謝謝你的提問。關於你的第一個關於資金的問題。因此，我們在 10 月發行了 10 億美元的債券，這使我們在 2023 年中期之前處於有利地位。然後，對於 2023 年中期之後的第 2 波的其餘部分，我們表示我們有多種選擇，其中一些是您提到的。

First, we have internal cash flow, including the Fit for the Future cost savings and real estate dispositions. We have potential government funding that John mentioned as part of the $42 billion infrastructure bill. Wave 3 presents a range of options. And then we do have access to additional new capital if we need it. So overall, a really solid range of options for funding beyond mid-2023, and we'll continue to evaluate those and update you all as we can.

首先，我們有內部現金流，包括適應未來成本節約和房地產處置。我們有潛在的政府資金，約翰提到這是 420 億美元基礎設施法案的一部分。 Wave 3 提供了一系列選擇。如果需要的話，我們確實可以獲得額外的新資本。整體而言，2023 年中期後的融資選擇範圍非常廣泛，我們將繼續評估這些選擇並盡可能向大家通報最新情況。

On your second question on wholesale and kind of cadence of that in 2022. We still do have a bit of headwind in 2022, at least through the first several quarters in wholesale due to contracts that we lost prior to this management team, they're still kind of flowing through and then the repricing that we announced late last year, some of those impact 2022. So a bit of a headwind through the year. But by the end of the year, we expect wholesale and business to be stabilized and then kind of returning to growth by the end of 2022.

關於你關於批發的第二個問題以及 2022 年的節奏。一些流動，然後是我們去年年底宣布的重新定價，其中一些影響到2022 年。但到今年年底，我們預計批發和業務將趨於穩定，然後在 2022 年底前恢復成長。

Just in terms of additional opportunities in the market for wholesale partners?

只是為了批發合作夥伴在市場上獲得更多機會嗎？

We do think there are. Yes. We signed obviously a big strategic agreement. We think there are other opportunities with other carriers. John mentioned the stats on the number of towers in our fiber footprint. Carriers will continue to add towers, and I think we're very well positioned to win more than our fair share there.

我們確實認為有。是的。我們顯然簽署了一項重大戰略協議。我們認為與其他運營商還有其他機會。約翰提到了我們光纖足跡中塔數量的統計數據。營運商將繼續增加塔樓，我認為我們處於非常有利的位置，可以贏得比我們應得的份額更多的份額。

The next question comes from Greg Williams at Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Greg Williams。

I have 2 questions, if I may. You posted solid fiber broadband, you preannounced it, and you did mention low churn. So I'm just trying to understand how much of the fiber wins was migration from your existing DSL subscribers versus outright stealing share?

如果可以的話，我有兩個問題。您發布了固定光纖寬頻，您預先宣布了它，並且您確實提到了低流失率。所以我只是想了解有多少光纖收益是從現有 DSL 用戶遷移而來，而不是直接竊取份額？

Second question is just on Altice. They announced an aggressive fiber-to-the-home plan, particularly in [southerly] territories and a few Texas territories. Do you have a sense of the overlap in your footprint, specifically that Texas territory?

第二個問題是關於 Altice 的。他們宣布了一項積極的光纖到戶計劃，特別是在[南部]地區和德克薩斯州的一些地區。您是否感覺到您的足跡有重疊，特別是德克薩斯州的領土？

Greg. I'll take the first question. So we did have very solid fiber broadband net adds in Q4 of 45,000. We said the vast majority of those were new to Frontier, so either share that we won against competitors or new household formation.

格雷格.我來回答第一個問題。因此，我們在第四季度確實增加了 45,000 個非常穩定的光纖寬頻網路。我們說過，其中絕大多數都是 Frontier 的新手，因此要麼分享我們戰勝競爭對手的成果，要麼分享新的家庭組成。

We did have really healthy migration from our copper base that provides a nice base load. And that's usually the first set of customers that you seek to address because you own the customer relationship, and it's easier to migrate them. But the vast majority of the customers in Q4 were new to Frontier.

我們確實從銅基進行了非常健康的遷移，提供了良好的基本負載。這通常是您尋求解決的第一批客戶，因為您擁有客戶關係，並且遷移他們更容易。但第四季的絕大多數客戶都是 Frontier 的新客戶。

I'd also point out, while we're on that note, that we had healthy growth in both the base markets and the expansion markets, and we talked through those dynamics in the prepared remarks, but a real healthy base of growth there.

我還想指出的是，我們在基礎市場和擴張市場都有健康的成長，我們在準備好的發言中討論了這些動態，但那裡有真正健康的成長基礎。

The second question on Altice's overlap. So across our entire footprint, there's kind of a 6% to 9% overlap with Altice. So it's not our largest competitive overlap. We don't have perfect clarity as to their -- I think your question was on where their build will be. Obviously, we don't have clarity there, but they have about a 6% to 9% overlap overall.

第二個問題是關於Altice的重疊。因此，在我們的整個足跡中，與 Altice 有 6% 到 9% 的重疊。所以這不是我們最大的競爭重疊。我們對他們的情況還沒有完全的了解——我認為你的問題是他們的構建將在哪裡。顯然，我們對此並不清楚，但它們總體上有大約 6% 到 9% 的重疊。

The next question comes from Frank Louthan at Raymond James.

下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Frank Louthan。

Just wanted to talk on the cost savings. How much of that is coming from headcount? Have you done any risk since the last earnings call? And then the follow-up of the 1 million homes that you're targeting for this year, is that in line with the expectations for '22 that you laid out at the Analyst Day?

只是想談談節省成本。其中有多少是來自員工人數？自上次財報電話會議以來，您是否承擔過任何風險？那麼，您今年目標的 100 萬套房屋的後續情況是否符合您在分析師日上提出的 22 年預期？

Let me take your first question on cost savings. A very small portion of it is related to headcount. We haven't had any significant headcount reductions since the last earnings call. We will -- as we continue to get more productive, we'll likely have a lower employee base per customer.

讓我回答你關於節省成本的第一個問題。其中很小一部分與員工人數有關。自上次財報電話會議以來，我們尚未大幅裁員。隨著我們繼續提高生產力，我們的每位客戶的員工數量可能會減少。

But the vast majority of it is from operational initiatives to lower our structural cost base, whether it's real estate rationalization, energy efficiency, becoming more efficient in our fleet. That's where the vast majority of cost savings are coming from.

但其中絕大多數來自於降低我們的結構性成本基礎的營運舉措，無論是房地產合理化、能源效率，或是提高我們機隊的效率。這就是絕大多數成本節省的來源。

Scott, thanks. It's Nick here. Frank, if I can pick up the second part of that question. Perhaps build a little bit also, Scott, on your answer. You're quite right, of course, the majority of the cost savings come from us being operationally more efficient and executing well against those plans.

斯科特，謝謝。尼克在這裡。弗蘭克，我可以回答這個問題的第二部分嗎？斯科特，也許你也可以根據你的答案來建立一點。當然，您說得很對，大部分成本節省來自我們提高營運效率並根據這些計劃良好執行。

On headcount, it is also true, of course, that we're going to need to reprofile our headcount base. So as we become more digital, more tech-oriented with stronger distribution, stronger branding, stronger marketing skills, there will be a natural reprofiling of our workforce, but within the overall envelope of increased efficiencies that Scott talked about.

在員工人數方面，當然，我們也確實需要重新調整我們的員工基礎。因此，隨著我們變得更加數位化、更加以技術為導向，擁有更強大的分銷、更強的品牌、更強的營銷技能，我們的員工隊伍將會自然地重新定位，但在斯科特談到的提高效率的整體範圍內。

In terms of the 1 million homes passed in line with our expectations, the short answer is yes, absolutely in line with our plans and what we previously announced.

就100萬套房屋通過符合我們的預期而言，簡短的答案是肯定的，絕對符合我們的計劃和我們之前宣布的內容。

The next question comes from Simon Flannery at Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙·弗蘭納裡。

Just following up on Frank's question there on the 1 million homes, what's the ability or what's the focus on potentially accelerating the pacing? Because you're looking to take that up to 1.6 million, 1.7 million over the next couple of years. But clearly, you've mentioned several times the broadband -- the infrastructure fund money that you'll be looking for, but so will others presumably. You've got fixed wireless rollouts ramping as well.

繼續弗蘭克關於 100 萬戶家庭的問題，有哪些能力或重點可能會加快步伐？因為你希望在未來幾年內將這一數字增加到 160 萬、170 萬。但顯然，您多次提到了寬頻——您將尋求的基礎設施基金資金，但其他人想必也會如此。您還獲得了固定的無線部署。

So is there an opportunity here to perhaps compress some of this build-out plan and get the opportunity and the market share quicker? And I guess that ties into -- it's good to hear that we haven't really talked a lot about supply chain and cost inflation on this call, but any perspective there would be great.

那麼，是否有機會壓縮部分擴建計劃並更快地獲得機會和市場份額？我想這與——很高興聽到我們在這次電話會議上沒有真正談論太多關於供應鏈和成本通膨的問題，但任何觀點都會很棒。

Nick here. So yes, the 1 million homes we said we're going to build this year is in line with our plan. If you perhaps wind back to, I think, our second earnings call when we announced our plans to accelerate our build to 10 million homes and to do it by 2025 in a very rapid time frame. I think there are 2 things that perhaps stood out now.

尼克在這裡。所以，是的，我們說今年要建造的 100 萬套住房符合我們的計劃。我想，如果你回想一下我們的第二次財報電話會議，當時我們宣布了計劃加快建設 1000 萬套住房，並在 2025 年之前在非常短的時間內實現這一目標。我認為現在有兩件事可能很突出。

One is the scale of the build and have lots of ambition early on before, frankly, everyone else was also talking about building fiber. And second is speed with which we are planning to do it, we really recognize the value of a fast build and have built an operational team and an operational engine to go as fast as we can.

一是建設規模，之前很早就有很大的野心，坦白說，其他人也都在談論建設光纖。其次是我們計劃的速度，我們真正認識到快速構建的價值，並建立了一個營運團隊和一個營運引擎來盡可能快地進行。

Now we need to do that in a balanced way. We need to make sure that it's sustainable, accelerated growth because the last thing we want to do is build up resources for 1 or 2 quarters then have to take them down in the following 1 or 2 quarters. So sustainable acceleration of our build is exactly what we're targeting and to go as fast as we can within the constraints of high quality build that really delivers to customers and delivers for our shareholders.

現在我們需要以平衡的方式做到這一點。我們需要確保它是可持續的、加速的成長，因為我們最不想做的就是為一兩個季度累積資源，然後在接下來的一兩個季度內將其削減。因此，可持續地加速我們的建設正是我們的目標，並在高品質建設的約束下盡可能快地進行，真正為客戶和股東提供服務。

On the supply chain question, I think we were lucky to start our accelerated build earlier perhaps than the rest of the industry. And through hiring people like Veronica Bloodworth, and others in her team, we're able to gain the sort of wisdom of their experience over time, which led us to securing multiyear supply contracts, both for equipment, for fiber, and for labor earlier than I believe the rest of the industry was able to do.

在供應鏈問題上，我認為我們很幸運能夠比產業其他公司更早開始加速建設。透過僱用像維羅妮卡·布拉德沃斯（Veronica Bloodworth）和她團隊中的其他人這樣的人，我們能夠隨著時間的推移獲得他們的經驗智慧，這使我們能夠更早地獲得設備、光纖和勞動力的多年供應合約我相信該行業的其他公司能夠做到這一點。

Therefore, we've got good supply resilience, we've expanded the number of vendors in every category, and we've got good forward cost visibility as well. So I think that's been very helpful to us. And of course, as the demand for fiber accelerates across the industry as others realize that fiber does what cable can't. It's a fundamentally superior product. We're in a relatively good and insulated position because we -- frankly, we got there first and we signed up the term deals before anyone else has a chance to do so.

因此，我們擁有良好的供應彈性，我們擴大了每個類別的供應商數量，並且我們也擁有良好的遠期成本可見度。所以我認為這對我們非常有幫助。當然，隨著其他人意識到光纖可以做到電纜無法做到的事情，整個行業對光纖的需求不斷增長。這是一款本質上優越的產品。我們處於一個相對良好且孤立的位置，因為我們——坦率地說，我們首先到達那裡，並且我們在其他人有機會這樣做之前簽署了期限協議。

Yes, if I can, Nick, just to add, listen, I think there's an orientation by this team to send an expectation and ensure that it's met in the marketplace. And if we can go faster, we will.

是的，尼克，如果可以的話，我想補充一點，聽著，我認為這個團隊有一個方向，就是發送期望並確保它在市場上得到滿足。如果我們能走得更快，我們就會的。

I think that Nick described the preplanning that went on before our August 2021 Investor Day. And the work that had been done for diversifying the labor pools for ensuring resiliency in terms of material fiber and electronics to support a very, very substantial build is what gives us confidence.

我認為 Nick 描述了 2021 年 8 月投資者日之前進行的預先計劃。為實現勞動力資源多元化所做的工作，以確保材料纖維和電子產品的彈性，以支持非常非常實質的建設，這給了我們信心。

And lastly, you'll recall that we set an expected cost per passing and have mentioned the fact that we had anticipated some inflationary pressure in that number. And so therefore are holding that number as we look outwards to the balance of this build.

最後，您會記得我們設定了每次通過的預期成本，並提到了我們預計該數字會帶來一些通膨壓力的事實。因此，當我們向外觀察這個構建的平衡時，我們會保留這個數字。

The final question comes from Nick Del Deo at MoffettNathanson.

最後一個問題來自 MoffettNathanson 的 Nick Del Deo。

The first question, the guidance for 2022 EBITDA looks solid, which is great, but it comes with a reasonably wide range. Can you talk a bit about what you see as the most important swing factors behind it and what needs to happen for you to deliver a result towards the high end versus the low end?

第一個問題，2022 年 EBITDA 的指導看起來很可靠，這很好，但它的範圍相當廣泛。您能否談談您認為其背後最重要的搖擺因素是什麼，以及您需要採取什麼措施才能向高端與低端提供結果？

And second, to follow up on Frank's cost savings question from earlier, you've basically hit your 2022 cost-cutting target a year early. Can you share some thoughts regarding what your updated objectives for '22 and '23 might be? Is what you've achieved a more rapid-than-expected realization of savings? Or do you think the total opportunity for savings is greater than what you initially expected?

其次，為了跟進 Frank 早些時候提出的成本節約問題，您基本上已經提前一年實現了 2022 年成本削減目標。您能否分享一些關於 '22 和 '23 的最新目標可能是什麼的想法？您所實現的節省速度是否比預期更快？或者您認為節省的總機會比您最初預期的要大？

Sure, Nick. Thanks for the question. This is Scott. On the guidance for 2022, I'd first say we're early in the year. It's February. We're very confident in the fundamental trajectory of our business of each of the 4 strategic pillars we talked about, building fiber, selling fiber, improving our cost structure, and improving the customer experience.

當然，尼克。謝謝你的提問。這是斯科特。關於 2022 年的指導，我首先要說的是，我們還處於今年年初。現在是二月。我們對我們所討論的 4 個策略支柱的業務基本軌跡非常有信心，即建立光纖、銷售光纖、改善成本結構和改善客戶體驗。

But I'd say we're still operating in a pandemic and COVID impacts aren't quite clear to us yet. As we get more clarity on the impact and timing of COVID, we would expect to be able to tighten that range in the next quarter or 2 once we have better visibility there.

但我想說的是，我們仍然在大流行中運作，我們還不太清楚新冠病毒的影響。隨著我們對新冠疫情的影響和時間安排有了更清晰的了解，一旦我們對這一問題有了更好的了解，我們預計能夠在下一兩個季度縮小這一範圍。

On the second question, cost savings, I think you're right. I like the characterization of -- we're basically a year early in getting to the $100 million target that we had by the end of 2022. But we're not stopping there. And we haven't given additional guidance as to what our higher cost targets may look like. But as a team, we're very focused on exceeding the $250 million target that we have for 2023.

關於第二個問題，節省成本，我認為你是對的。我喜歡這樣的描述——我們基本上提前一年實現了 2022 年底前 1 億美元的目標。我們還沒有就更高的成本目標可能會是什麼樣子給予額外的指引。但作為一個團隊，我們非常專注於超越 2023 年 2.5 億美元的目標。

That will give us the flexibility to reinvest a portion of that savings in growth, which we are doing, and then flow a chunk of that savings straight to the bottom line, which we're doing in '22, and we would expect in '23 and beyond. So as we get more clarity on the cost savings, we'll give some updated guidance, but I agree with your assessment, we're likely to exceed the $250 million.

這將使我們能夠靈活地將節省的資金再投資於成長，這是我們正在做的，然後將大部分節​​省的資金直接用於盈利，這是我們在22 年所做的，我們預計在2020年會這樣做。因此，當我們對成本節省有了更清晰的認識後，我們將提供一些更新的指導，但我同意您的評估，我們可能會超過 2.5 億美元。

All right. Thanks, everybody. That concludes our call. We appreciate you joining. Thank you.

好的。謝謝大家。我們的通話到此結束。我們感謝您的加入。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路。