Shenandoah Telecommunications Co (SHEN) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Shenandoah Telecommunications' Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded.

大家，早安。歡迎參加 Shenandoah 電信 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Kirk Andrews, Director of Financial Planning and Analysis for Shentel.

現在，我想把會議交給 Shentel 財務規劃和分析總監 Kirk Andrews 先生。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. The purpose of today's call is to review Shentel's results for the third quarter of 2023. Our results were announced in our press release distributed this morning, and the presentation we'll be reviewing is included on the Investor page at our website www.shentel.com. Please note that an audio replay of this call will be made available later today. The details are set forth in the press release announcing this call.

早安，感謝您加入我們。今天電話會議的目的是審查 Shentel 2023 年第三季度的業績。我們的業績已在今天早上發布的新聞稿中公佈，我們將審查的演示文稿包含在我們網站 www.shentel 的投資者頁面上。 com .請注意，今天晚些時候將提供本次通話的音訊重播。詳細資訊已在宣布此次電話會議的新聞稿中闡述。

With us on the call today are Chris French, President and Chief Executive Officer; Ed McKay, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Jim Volk, Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. After our prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.

今天與我們一起參加電話會議的是總裁兼執行長 Chris French； Ed McKay，執行副總裁兼營運長；吉姆‧沃克 (Jim Volk)，財務資深副總裁兼財務長。在我們準備好的發言之後，我們將進行問答環節。

As always, let me refer you to Slide 2 of the presentation, which contains our safe harbor disclaimer and remind you that this conference call may include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These may cause our actual results to differ materially from the statements. Therefore, we have provided a detailed discussion of various risk factors in our SEC filings, which you are encouraged to review. You're cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

像往常一樣，讓我向您推薦簡報的投影片 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受某些風險和不確定性影響的前瞻性陳述。這些可能導致我們的實際結果與聲明有重大差異。因此，我們在 SEC 文件中提供了對各種風險因素的詳細討論，鼓勵您查看。請注意不要過度依賴這些前瞻性陳述。除法律要求外，我們不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明的義務。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Chris. Go ahead, Chris.

這樣，我現在將把電話轉給克里斯。繼續吧，克里斯。

Thanks, Kirk. We appreciate everyone joining us this morning and hope everyone is well. Today, we're planning to discuss our third quarter financial and operating results, excluding the results and impact of the Horizon Telcom transaction we announced last week unless it's expressly noted. Our respective teams are very excited about this transformative combination and have already started work on obtaining the necessary approvals and doing early-stage planning for the upcoming integration. We will have more to share in future earnings calls.

謝謝，柯克。我們感謝今天早上加入我們的每個人，並希望每個人都一切順利。今天，我們計劃討論第三季度的財務和營運業績，除非明確說明，否則不包括我們上週宣布的 Horizo​​​​n Telcom 交易的結果和影響。我們各自的團隊對這種變革性的合併感到非常興奮，並且已經開始努力獲得必要的批准並為即將到來的整合進行早期規劃。我們將在未來的財報電話會議上分享更多內容。

I'll now turn to the highlights of our third quarter results. We continue to make solid progress in executing our Glo Fiber growth plan. As noted on Slide 4, we added almost 20,000 new Glo Fiber passings in the third quarter. We increased passing 55% year-over-year and crossed the 200,000 milestone during the quarter. Our Glo Fiber passings are now almost the size of our Cable Market Passing.

現在我將談談我們第三季業績的亮點。我們在執行 Glo Fiber 成長計劃方面繼續取得紮實進展。如投影片 4 所示，我們在第三季新增了近 20,000 個 Glo Fiber 頻道。我們的銷量年增了 55%，並在本季度突破了 200,000 的里程碑。我們的 Glo Fiber 通道現在幾乎與我們的電纜市場通道的大小相同。

As we approach our fourth quarter of launching our first Glo Fiber market in November, we will have doubled the size of our broadband business in terms of passing. With Horizon Telcom acquisition expected to close in 2024 and accelerated construction anticipated across all of our markets, we expect to double the broadband passings again by the end of 2026.

隨著我們在 11 月推出第一個 Glo Fiber 市場的第四季即將到來，我們的寬頻業務規模將增加一倍。隨著 Horizo​​n Telcom 收購預計將於 2024 年完成，並且我們所有市場的建設預計將加速，我們預計到 2026 年底寬頻傳輸量將再次翻倍。

Moving to Slide 5. Our sales team added over 4,500 Glo Fiber data subscribers in the third quarter and has grown the Glo Fiber customer base by 77% over the past year. Similar to the high growth in broadband passing, we've grown total broadband data subscribers by 78% since the third quarter of 2019. Our track record over the past 4 years provides confidence for us to grow our broadband data subscriber base at similar growth rates in the next 3 to 4 years as we expand our Glo Fiber network.

轉到投影片 5。我們的銷售團隊在第三季增加了 4,500 多個 Glo Fiber 資料用戶，並且在過去一年 Glo Fiber 客戶群成長了 77%。與寬頻傳輸的高成長類似，自 2019 年第三季以來，我們的寬頻數據用戶總數增長了 78%。我們過去 4 年的業績記錄為我們以類似的增長寬頻數據用戶群提供了信心我們將在未來3 到4 年內擴展Glo Fiber 網路。

As reflected on Slide 6, the growth in broadband data subscribers has driven a steady expansion of our consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin year-over-year since 2019 when we launched Glo Fiber. The key catalysts for the margin improvement are the combination of extremely scalable fiber networks, which are driving incremental high-speed data gross margins of more than 80% and our ability to gain scale in our selling, general and administrative expenses. We expect margins to continue to expand as we execute our Glo Fiber growth plan and close on our acquisition of Horizon.

如投影片 6 所示，自 2019 年推出 Glo Fiber 以來，寬頻數據用戶的成長推動了我們的綜合調整後 EBITDA 利潤率逐年穩定成長。利潤率改善的關鍵催化劑是高度可擴展的光纖網路的結合，這些網路正在推動高速資料毛利率增量超過 80%，以及我們在銷售、一般和管理費用方面擴大規模的能力。隨著我們執行 Glo Fiber 成長計畫並完成對 Horizo​​n 的收購，我們預計利潤率將繼續擴大。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jim to review the details of our financial results.

現在，我將把電話轉給吉姆，以審查我們財務表現的詳細資訊。

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I will start with our broadband financial results for the third quarter of 2023 on Slide 8.

謝謝你，克里斯，大家早安。我將先在投影片 8 上介紹 2023 年第三季的寬頻財務表現。

Broadband revenue grew $5.1 million or 8.1% to $67.4 million. Glo Fiber revenue was the primary catalyst, growing $4.4 million or 90% from the prior year period with strong customer growth and a 5.8% increase in data subscriber ARPU. Cable Market revenues, excluding the impact of our discontinued Beam service, grew $300,000 or 0.7% due primarily to a 1% growth in data subscriber ARPU. Commercial Fiber revenue grew $900,000 or 9.4% to $10.4 million due to $500,000 in recurring revenue from circuit growth and $400,000 in nonrecurring early termination fees related to backhaul disconnects in the quarter.

寬頻收入成長 510 萬美元，成長 8.1%，達到 6,740 萬美元。 Glo Fiber 營收是主要催化劑，與去年同期相比成長了 440 萬美元，即 90%，客戶成長強勁，數據用戶 ARPU 成長了 5.8%。有線市場收入（不包括已終止的 Beam 服務的影響）增長了 300,000 美元，即 0.7%，這主要是由於數據用戶 ARPU 增長了 1%。商業光纖收入成長 90 萬美元或 9.4%，達到 1,040 萬美元，原因是本季電路成長帶來的 50 萬美元經常性收入以及與回程斷開相關的非經常性提前終止費用為 40 萬美元。

As previously announced, T-Mobile is planning to shut down portions of the former Sprint network and disconnected 71 backhaul circuits during the third quarter. We expect approximately 80 additional backhaul disconnects as part of this network rationalization. Broadband adjusted EBITDA grew 19.4% to $26.6 million in the third quarter when compared to the same period in 2022 due to revenue growth of $5.1 million, partially offset by $700,000 in higher advertising expenses to support the Glo Fiber expansion. As Chris mentioned earlier, we continue to see the benefits of operating leverage of our Glo Fiber business as broadband cost of service increased only $100,000 despite adding 15,000 customers over the past 12 months.

正如先前宣布的那樣，T-Mobile 計劃在第三季關閉部分前 Sprint 網路並斷開 71 個回程電路。作為此網路合理化的一部分，我們預計會出現大約 80 次額外的回程斷開連線。與 2022 年同期相比，第三季寬頻調整後 EBITDA 成長 19.4%，達到 2,660 萬美元，原因是營收成長了 510 萬美元，但部分被支持 Glo Fiber 擴張的廣告費用增加 70 萬美元所抵銷。正如克里斯之前提到的，我們繼續看到 Glo Fiber 業務營運槓桿的好處，儘管過去 12 個月增加了 15,000 名客戶，但寬頻服務成本僅增加了 10 萬美元。

On Slide 9, Tower segment revenue was in line with the same period 2022. We have not recognized any churn from T-Mobile year-to-date, though we have received notices that they plan to terminate 53 leases as part of the previously announced decommissioning of the former Sprint network. The [pay and walk] agreement with T-Mobile that allows T-Mobile to terminate leases with only a $10,000 termination fee ended on September 1. These 53 leases will continue to generate rental revenue until all required equipment is renewed from the leased property and the inspection notice is issued.

在幻燈片9 中，塔樓業務收入與2022 年同期一致。今年迄今為止，我們尚未發現T-Mobile 的任何流失，儘管我們已收到通知，稱他們計劃終止53 項租賃，作為之前宣布的計劃的一部分前 Sprint 網路退役。與T-Mobile 簽訂的[付費步行] 協議允許T-Mobile 僅支付10,000 美元的終止費用即可終止租賃，該協議已於9 月1 日結束。這53 個租賃將繼續產生租金收入，直到從租賃財產更新所有所需設備並且發出檢驗通知書。

We expect the rental revenues could continue for up to two more years for a portion of these leases. Most of the remaining T-Mobile tower leases have an initial term ending in 2029 with optional lease extensions to 2049. Tower adjusted EBITDA declined $400,000 due primarily to the accounting associated with the transfer of a cable-only tower to the Broadband segment and termination of a related intercompany ground lease.

我們預計部分租賃的租金收入可能會持續兩年以上。大多數剩餘的T-Mobile 塔租賃的初始期限將於2029 年結束，可選擇將租賃期限延長至2049 年。塔調整後的EBITDA 下降了400,000 美元，主要是由於與將純有線電視塔轉移到寬頻部門以及終止寬頻業務相關的會計處理。相關的公司間土地租賃。

Moving to Slide 10. Consolidated revenue grew 7.3% to $71.8 million in the third quarter due to the pre -- broadband. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA grew 20.5% to $22.9 million, also due to growth in broadband.

轉向投影片 10。由於寬頻業務的推出，第三季綜合收入成長了 7.3%，達到 7,180 萬美元。綜合調整後 EBITDA 成長 20.5%，達到 2,290 萬美元，也是由於寬頻業務的成長。

We have $286 million of liquidity as of September 30, as displayed on Slide 11. This liquidity position does not include the incremental committed financings related to the Horizon transaction. Negative free cash flow for the first 9 months of 2023 was $23 million more than prior year due primarily to increased investments in expanding Glo Fiber and government subsidized construction to [unserved] -- partially offset by $29 million in income tax and sales tax refunds received 2023. Please also note, we received $17 million in proceeds for the closing of the 2.5 gigahertz spectrum sale in July that is reported separately from capital expenditures in the cash flow from investing activities.

截至 9 月 30 日，我們擁有 2.86 億美元的流動資金，如投影片 11 所示。此流動資金部位不包括與 Horizo​​n 交易相關的增量承諾融資。 2023 年前9 個月的負自由現金流比前一年增加了2300 萬美元，主要是由於擴大Glo Fiber 的投資增加以及政府補貼建設至[未提供服務]——部分被收到的2900 萬美元所得稅和銷售稅退款所抵銷2023 年。另請注意，我們在 7 月完成 2.5 GHz 頻譜銷售時收到了 1,700 萬美元的收益，該收益與投資活動現金流中的資本支出分開報告。

As reflected on Slide 12, our outstanding debt was $150 million as of September 30. We have no significant debt maturities until 2026. We expect to draw the remaining $150 million of delayed draw term loans in the fourth quarter for the terms of our credit agreement.

如投影片12 所示，截至9 月30 日，我們的未償債務為1.5 億美元。在2026 年之前，我們沒有重大債務到期。我們預計根據信貸協議條款，在第四季度提取剩餘的1.5 億美元延遲提取定期貸款。

And now I'll turn the call over to Ed.

現在我將把電話轉給艾德。

Thank you, Jim, and good morning. I'll start on Slide 14 with an update on our rapidly expanding integrated broadband network to now consist of over 9,300 route miles of fiber.

謝謝你，吉姆，早安。我將從幻燈片 14 開始，介紹我們快速擴展的整合寬頻網路的更新，該網路目前包含超過 9,300 路由英里的光纖。

In the third quarter, we launched two new Glo Fiber markets in Hanover County, Virginia, and Greekcastle, Pennsylvania, and we now offer Glo Fiber multi-gigabit service in 21 markets with engineering and construction underway in four additional markets. We also added five new franchise agreements in the third quarter to bring Glo Fiber to over 40,000 additional homes and businesses, including the city of Lancaster and additional boroughs and townships adjacent to our existing markets in Pennsylvania.

第三季度，我們在弗吉尼亞州漢諾威縣和賓夕法尼亞州希臘卡斯爾推出了兩個新的Glo Fiber 市場，現在我們在21 個市場提供Glo Fiber 多千兆位服務，另外四個市場的工程和建設正在進行中。我們還在第三季增加了五項新的特許經營協議，將 Glo Fiber 帶到另外 40,000 多個家庭和企業，包括蘭開斯特市以及毗鄰我們賓州現有市場的其他行政區和鄉鎮。

Turning to Slide 15. Our total number of approved Glo Fiber passings has grown to 519,000 with 70 franchise agreements in 23 markets across five states. In addition, we continue to have success with government grant awards. In the third quarter, we were awarded $2.6 million in grants to bring broadband to approximately 1,000 additional unserved homes adjacent to our cable systems in West Virginia. We've now been awarded a total of approximately $90 million in grants that will enable us to extend broadband to over 28,000 unserved locations, primarily through fiber-to-the-home technology.

轉向幻燈片 15。我們批准的 Glo Fiber 通過總數已增至 519,000，在五個州的 23 個市場簽訂了 70 份特許經營協議。此外，我們在政府補助方面繼續取得成功。第三季度，我們獲得了 260 萬美元的撥款，為西維吉尼亞州有線電視系統附近另外約 1,000 個未提供服務的家庭提供寬頻服務。我們現在已獲得總計約 9,000 萬美元的贈款，這將使我們能夠主要透過光纖到府技術將寬頻擴展到超過 28,000 個未提供服務的地點。

Our engineering and construction teams continue to deliver in the third quarter with the addition of over 20,000 new fiber passings, bringing our total to over 203,000 including approximately 1,000 that are part of government-subsidized projects. In addition, our construction backlog remains very robust with 340,000 incremental passings approved for construction.

我們的工程和施工團隊在第三季繼續交付，新增超過 20,000 條光纖通道，使光纖通道總數超過 203,000 條，其中約 1,000 條屬於政府補貼專案。此外，我們的施工積壓仍然非常強勁，已批准施工 340,000 個增量通道。

Our construction pace is dependent on other utilities to process pole attachment permits and locate existing underground facilities. In some cases, the industry-wide high volume of broadband deployment is causing delays for both permitting and locates. This is a risk we're monitoring closely and actively working with our utility partners to mitigate and we expect to finish the year with approximately 235,000 total fiber passes.

我們的施工進度取決於其他公用事業公司來處理桿連接許可證並定位現有的地下設施。在某些情況下，全行業的大量寬頻部署導致許可和定位的延遲。我們正在密切監控這一風險，並與我們的公用事業合作夥伴積極合作以減輕這種風險，我們預計今年年底光纖傳輸總數約為 235,000 條。

As we ramp up Glo Fiber construction, we continue to see strong customer growth as shown on Slide 16. As Chris mentioned, we saw Glo Fiber data customers increased 77% year-over-year, ending the quarter with over 37,000. We've added over 16,000 broadband data customers in the past year, our penetration rate climbed to 18.5% in the third quarter, up from 16.1% a year ago. Our total number of data, video and voice revenue-generating units has reached 46,000, up approximately 68% year-over-year.

隨著我們加強Glo Fiber 建設力度，我們繼續看到客戶強勁增長，如幻燈片16 所示。正如Chris 所提到的，我們看到Glo Fiber 數據客戶同比增長77%，本季度結束時數量超過37,000家。去年我們增加了超過16,000個寬頻數據客戶，第三季我們的滲透率從一年前的16.1%攀升至18.5%。我們的數據、視訊和語音創收單元總數已達46,000個，較去年同期成長約68%。

Our broadband data average revenue per user increased by 5.8% year-over-year and reached $77 for the quarter. This was driven by a combination of additional equipment revenue and customers selecting higher speed tiers. For the quarter, 47% of our new residential subscribers adopted speed tiers of 1 gig or higher, including approximately 4% that took speed tiers of 2 gig or higher. Glo TV Video Service is now available to over 99% of the homes that we pass. At the end of the third quarter, approximately 11% of our total Glo Fiber customers subscribe to video service and approximately 12% subscribe to voice service.

我們的每用戶寬頻數據平均收入年增 5.8%，本季達到 77 美元。這是由額外的設備收入和客戶選擇更高速度層共同推動的。本季度，47% 的新住宅用戶採用了 1 GB 或更高的速度等級，其中約 4% 的用戶採用了 2 GB 或更高的速度等級。目前，我們經過的 99% 以上的家庭都可以使用 Glo TV 視訊服務。截至第三季末，我們的 Glo Fiber 客戶總數中約 11% 訂閱視訊服務，約 12% 訂閱語音服務。

And finally, our churn continues to remain very low at 1.1%, an improvement of 10 basis points over the third quarter of 2022. We continue to focus on providing the fastest speeds in our markets, outstanding local customer service and fair straightforward pricing. We recently surveyed almost 3,000 Glo Fiber customers, and we were very pleased with our Net Promoter Score of 61. As comparison, many broadband providers are in the single digits or even in the negative range. In addition, over 82% of our customers indicated that they have already recommended Glo Fiber to a friend or family.

最後，我們的客戶流失率持續保持在1.1% 的極低水平，比2022 年第三季提高了10 個基點。我們繼續專注於提供市場上最快的速度、出色的本地客戶服務和公平直接的定價。我們最近對近 3,000 名 Glo Fiber 客戶進行了調查，我們對 61 分的淨推薦值感到非常滿意。相比之下，許多寬頻供應商的淨推薦值都在個位數甚至負數範圍內。此外，超過 82% 的客戶表示他們已經向朋友或家人推薦 Glo Fiber。

Moving to Slide 17, we highlight our data penetration rates as our markets age. All of our cohorts continue to see steady increases quarter-over-quarter. Our third quarter 2022 cohort has already reached 18% penetration after one year, and we are seeing penetration rates above 30% after three years. Our oldest cohort launched in late 2019 is now quickly approaching our target average terminal penetration rate of 38%.

轉到投影片 17，我們重點介紹了隨著市場老化而產生的數據滲透率。我們所有的群體都繼續看到季度環比的穩定成長。一年後，我們 2022 年第三季的滲透率已經達到 18%，我們預計三年後滲透率將超過 30%。我們在 2019 年底推出的最古老的隊列現在正在迅速接近我們 38% 的目標平均終端滲透率。

Let's move on to our operating results for our Cable Markets on Slide 18. Broadband data subscribers had a slight increase year-over-year, remained flat quarter-over-quarter and ended the third quarter at about 109,000. Our total revenue-generating units decreased by about 3% year-over-year as we continue to see declines in video service and residential voice service due to [quarter churn.] Our data penetration decreased slightly year-over-year from 51.5% to 51.3% at the end of the third quarter. Although we saw a slight increase in the number of broadband data subscribers year-over-year, we've also added almost 1,500 new passings over the past year.

讓我們繼續看幻燈片 18 中有線電視市場的營運業績。寬頻數據用戶同比略有增長，環比持平，第三季末約為 109,000 戶。我們的總創收單位年減了約 3%，因為我們繼續看到視訊服務和住宅語音服務因[季度流失]而下降。我們的數據滲透率同比略有下降，從 51.5% 下降到第三季度末為51.3%。儘管我們看到寬頻數據用戶數量比去年同期略有增加，但去年我們也增加了近 1,500 個新用戶。

Broadband data churn was 1.74% for the quarter and fairly consistent year-over-year despite overbuilder activity in some markets that we previously disclosed. We've increased broadband speeds in all of our markets, giving customers higher speeds and more value for the same price. As we have proactively moved customers to higher speeds, we've been able to maintain our ARPU, which is up 1% year-over-year to approximately $82 in the third quarter of 2023.

儘管我們之前披露過某些市場存在過度建設活動，但本季寬頻數據流失率為 1.74%，與去年同期相當一致。我們提高了所有市場的寬頻速度，以相同的價格為客戶提供更高的速度和更多的價值。由於我們主動讓客戶採用更高的速度，我們得以維持 ARPU，年增 1%，到 2023 年第三季達到約 82 美元。

Turning to Slide 19, we highlight our Broadband Enterprise and Wholesale Commercial Fiber business. During the third quarter, we booked new sales with monthly revenue totaling approximately $75,000. This is a decline versus third quarter of 2022. However, our year-to-date 2023 new sales bookings are in line with 2022. We also installed new services totaling almost [$98,000] in incremental monthly revenue in the third quarter, which is about 10% higher than our average over the past 4 quarters. Third quarter 2022 was elevated primarily due to the installation of a major E-Rate customer generating over $27,000 in monthly revenue.

轉向投影片 19，我們將重點放在我們的寬頻企業和批發商業光纖業務。第三季度，我們實現了新銷售，每月收入總計約 75,000 美元。與2022 年第三季相比有所下降。不過，我們2023 年迄今的新銷售預訂量與2022 年一致。我們也安裝了新服務，第三季每月增量收入總計近[98,000 美元] ，約為比過去 4 個季度的平均值高出 10%。 2022 年第三季的成長主要是由於主要 E-Rate 客戶的安裝，每月收入超過 27,000 美元。

For cell site backhaul connections, T-Mobile continues to reduce the number of circuits as part of their Sprint network rationalization project. Over the past year, they removed 289 connections. And as Jim mentioned, we expect approximately 80 additional disconnects. The remaining cell sites are under long-term contracts. Our engineering and operations team continues to provide a quality network experience for our customers and excluding T-Mobile network rationalization, churn and revenue compression for the Commercial Fiber business decreased year-over-year to 0.3% in the third quarter.

對於蜂窩基地台回程連接，T-Mobile 繼續減少電路數量，作為其 Sprint 網路合理化項目的一部分。去年，他們刪除了 289 個連線。正如 Jim 所提到的，我們預計還會有大約 80 次斷線。其餘的蜂窩基地台簽訂了長期合約。我們的工程和營運團隊持續為客戶提供優質的網路體驗，不包括 T-Mobile 網路合理化、商業光纖業務的客戶流失和收入壓縮，第三季年減至 0.3%。

Turning to Slide 20, our Tower segment. We ended the third quarter with 446 total tower tenants and approximately two tenants per tower. Our third-party tower tenants remained constant at 436. However, our intercompany tower leases decreased from 21 to 10 as we turned down Beam fixed wireless sites in 2022. As Jim mentioned, we do expect T-Mobile to eventually reduce the number of tower leases as they complete their Sprint network rationalization project. And finally, our total number of towers decreased to 220 as we decommissioned two nonrevenue towers.

轉向幻燈片 20，我們的塔部分。截至第三季末，我們共有 446 位塔樓租戶，每座塔樓約有 2 位租戶。我們的第三方塔租戶保持在436 個不變。然而，由於我們在2022 年拒絕了Beam 固定無線站點，我們公司間的塔租賃從21 個減少到10 個。正如Jim 提到的，我們確實預計T-Mobile 最終會減少塔的數量在完成 Sprint 網路合理化專案時進行租賃。最後，隨著我們退役了兩座非營利塔，我們的塔總數減少到 220 座。

Our capital spending and guidance for the year is reflected on Slide 21. We've invested approximately $190 million in capital projects year-to-date. The significant increase year-over-year was driven by the ramp-up of construction in our Glo Fiber markets and the unserved markets where we win government grants. We've invested approximately $18 million in government subsidized projects year-to-date, and we expect to be reimbursed for approximately 50% of these costs as we complete construction.

我們今年的資本支出和指導反映在幻燈片 21 中。今年迄今為止，我們已在資本項目上投資了約 1.9 億美元。同比大幅成長是由 Glo Fiber 市場和我們贏得政府撥款的未服務市場的建設增加所推動的。今年迄今為止，我們已在政府補貼項目上投資了約 1800 萬美元，預計在施工完成後將獲得約 50% 的成本補償。

For Glo Fiber, we've invested almost $140 million year-to-date, including approximately $127 million for engineering and construction and $13 million to connect new customers. For the full year, we have lowered our capital spending guidance to a range of $243 million to $258 million, primarily due to fewer new fiber passings in government subsidized projects and Glo Fiber markets than originally planned for the year. In addition, we were able to postpone some planned cable system capacity upgrades while still increasing customer broadband speeds in our cable markets.

對於 Glo Fiber，我們今年迄今已投資近 1.4 億美元，其中包括約 1.27 億美元用於工程和建設，以及 1,300 萬美元用於連接新客戶。對於全年，我們將資本支出指導下調至 2.43 億美元至 2.58 億美元之間，這主要是由於政府補貼項目和 Glo Fiber 市場中的新光纖鋪設數量少於原計劃。此外，我們還能夠推遲一些計劃中的有線系統容量升級，同時仍提高有線市場的客戶寬頻速度。

Thank you very much. And operator, we're now ready for questions.

非常感謝。接線員，我們現在準備好提問了。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Frank Louthan of Raymond James.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Frank Louthan。

Can you kind of sum up sort of the Tower outlook. It seems like you're getting a little bit more fees on the shutdowns and so forth and things taking a little longer. Where does that get us kind of from a quarterly run rate going forward? What's the expectation there?

您能概括一下塔樓的外觀嗎？看起來你在關閉等方面會收取更多的費用，而且事情需要更長的時間。這對我們未來的季度運行率有何影響？那裡有什麼期望？

And then on the Horizon deal, I think you need about $250 million or so to finish the funding. You're looking at from possibly a tower sale. What are your options for financing that if you don't get the tower sale or it comes up short, would you look at the [ABS] market or anything like that?

然後在 Horizo​​​​n 交易中，我認為你需要大約 2.5 億美元左右才能完成融資。您正在尋找可能是塔樓銷售。如果您沒有獲得塔樓銷售或資金短缺，您有哪些融資選擇，您會考慮 [ABS] 市場或類似的市場嗎？

Yes, Frank, I can jump in on both those. We haven't seen any churn yet from T-Mobile on the tower leases. They had given us proper notice under this pay and walk agreement that ended September 1 for 53 leases that they plan to terminate. The timing is uncertain exactly when those leases will be terminated. But based upon recent conversations that our teams had with them, it sounds like this could be a more of a gradual churn or disconnects than what we're seeing on the backhaul side.

是的，弗蘭克，我可以參與這兩件事。我們還沒有看到 T-Mobile 對塔樓租賃的任何流失。根據這份截至 9 月 1 日的付薪步行協議，他們已就計劃終止的 53 份租約向我們發出了適當通知。這些租約何時終止尚不確定。但根據我們團隊最近與他們進行的對話，聽起來這可能比我們在回程時看到的情況更像是逐漸的流失或斷開連接。

So my expectation is we'll probably see some of these leases continue for up to maybe two more years based upon some of these conversations. And as you can see in our quarterly results, we're doing about $3 million of adjusted EBITDA a quarter, about $12 million annually. The 53 leases translate to about $2.2 million in revenue term when they're all fully terminated. So I hope that answers your first question.

因此，我的預期是，根據其中一些對話，我們可能會看到其中一些租約持續最多兩年。正如您在我們的季度業績中看到的那樣，我們每季調整後的 EBITDA 約為 300 萬美元，每年約為 1200 萬美元。當這 53 項租約全部終止後，其收入約為 220 萬美元。所以我希望這能回答你的第一個問題。

And then as far as for the additional capital -- growth capital that we need to fund our business plan post acquisition of Horizon, we have multiple sources that we can look at. Towers is one of the sources we're going to explore. But the ABS market, as you mentioned, is another source that would be appealing to us, especially as our Glo Fiber markets, we're now getting some markets kind of go above that 20%, 25% penetration level, which would make them attractive candidates for the ABS financing.

至於額外資本——收購 Horizo​​​​n 後我們需要為我們的業務計劃提供資金的成長資本，我們有多個來源可以考慮。 Towers 是我們要探索的來源之一。但正如您所提到的，ABS 市場是另一個對我們有吸引力的來源，特別是作為我們的 Glo Fiber 市場，我們現在的一些市場滲透率超過 20%、25%，這將使它們ABS 融資的有吸引力的候選人。

Lastly also mentioned our current credit facility, the first maturities occur in June of '26, so by early '25, we're likely to be in conversations to refinance that facility, and that could also provide some additional capital. So we have several sources of how we can achieve our growth capital funding gap.

最後也提到了我們目前的信貸安排，第一次到期發生在 26 年 6 月，因此到 25 年初，我們可能會就該安排進行再融資，這也可以提供一些額外的資本。因此，我們有多種來源可以實現成長資本融資缺口。

All right. That's great. Last question. So the CapEx blurring this year, is that just kind of deferred into next year? How should we think about that?

好的。那太棒了。最後一個問題。那麼今年的資本支出變得模糊，是否只是延到明年？我們該如何思考這個問題？

Yes, you are correct. We ran into some delays, as Ed mentioned, on -- especially on the subsidize builds and getting access to some of the poles and just getting some of the locates done to locate facilities before we do underground construction. And that has had a cumulative effect here that we're not likely to get as many [testing] done in that area this year, but we hope to catch up in '24.

是的，你是對的。正如艾德所提到的，我們遇到了一些延誤，尤其是在補貼建設和進入一些電線桿方面，以及在我們進行地下施工之前完成一些定位以找到設施方面。這裡產生了累積效應，我們今年不太可能在該領域完成那麼多的[測試]，但我們希望在 24 年趕上。

Anything on those items going to -- is that going to continue? Was that a temporary slowdown? Or is there something about the co-ops or whatever that own the polls of the locate guys that's going to make that an ongoing problem? Or has that been addressed?

這些項目上的任何事情都會——這種情況會繼續嗎？這是暫時的放緩嗎？或者是否有關於合作社或任何擁有定位人員民意調查的東西，這將使這個問題成為一個持續存在的問題？或者這個問題已經解決了嗎？

Yes. This is Ed. It's really a volume issue for these folks. I think we will continue to see some short-term challenges. But even with this, we're projecting roughly a 25% increase in our number of fiber passings between 2022 and 2023. We think we can continue to scale, particularly as we ramp up construction in some additional markets. So we're continuing to have some challenges there, but we think we can still grow the number of passings even with those.

是的。這是艾德。對這些人來說，這確實是一個數量問題。我認為我們將繼續看到一些短期挑戰。但即便如此，我們預計 2022 年至 2023 年間光纖通道數量將增加約 25%。我們認為我們可以繼續擴大規模，特別是當我們在一些其他市場加強建設時。因此，我們仍然面臨一些挑戰，但我們認為即使有這些挑戰，我們仍然可以增加傳球次數。

And can you mitigate that with some of your vendors by giving them some commitments or something ahead of time to divert some resources? Or is it just life in small town America?

您能否透過向某些供應商做出一些承諾或提前轉移一些資源來緩解這種情況？還是這只是美國小鎮的生活？

So in our case, we have the materials. We have our own construction crews ready to do the work. That's not where the issue is. It's with the actual -- the other utility companies, they're having trouble getting resources to do their permitting work for the poles and then their locates for the underground facilities. So in some cases, we're able to mitigate that by paying overtime work for -- or over time for the locators that are located underground facilities, for example.

所以在我們的例子中，我們有材料。我們有自己的施工人員準備好進行這項工作。這不是問題所在。實際情況是，其他公用事業公司在獲得資源來完成電線桿的許可工作以及地下設施的位置方面遇到困難。因此，在某些情況下，我們可以透過支付加班費來緩解這種情況，或為位於地下設施的定位器支付加班費。

We're also working, in some cases, to do what's called self remedy where we're able to adjust the other telecommunication facilities on the poles. So we're working on ways to mitigate that, but that's something we're going to be dealing with for the next year plus.

在某些情況下，我們還在努力進行所謂的自我補救，也就是我們能夠調整兩極上的其他電信設施。因此，我們正在研究減輕這種情況的方法，但這是我們明年要處理的問題。

And our next question comes from Hamed Khorsand of BWS Financial.

我們的下一個問題來自 BWS Financial 的 Hamed Khorsand。

Just on the topic about this CapEx shift and the permitting and so forth. Would you be putting in more investment into getting penetration rates up into the markets that you've already established and connected? Or are you just really focused on the CapEx moving forward maybe next year?

只是關於資本支出轉變和許可等主題。您是否會投入更多投資來提高您已經建立和連接的市場的滲透率？或者您真的只關註明年的資本支出嗎？

Hamed, this is Ed. So we're very focused on increasing the penetration in our existing markets. That's the primary goal of our sales and marketing teams and definitely focus in that area.

哈米德，這是艾德。因此，我們非常注重提高現有市場的滲透率。這是我們銷售和行銷團隊的主要目標，並且絕對專注於該領域。

How does Horizon fit into this -- I guess, your planning scope for next year, given that you're doing everything Glo, the marketing involved, is there any form of distractions I'm trying to get to?

Horizo​​n 如何適應這一點——我想，你明年的計劃範圍，考慮到你正在做 Glo 的所有事情，涉及到營銷，是否有任何形式的干擾我試圖去解決？

So we'll be using a separate engineering and construction team in the Horizon market. So we don't feel that, that will be a distraction from the current construction we're doing in the Glo markets.

因此，我們將在 Horizo​​​​n 市場使用獨立的工程和施工團隊。因此，我們認為這不會分散我們目前在 Glo 市場正在進行的建設工作。

I'm showing no further questions. At this time, I would like to turn it back to Jim Volk for closing remarks.

我沒有再提出任何問題。現在，我想請吉姆·沃克（Jim Volk）發表結束語。

Thanks, everyone, for joining us today, and have a great day. Thank you.

謝謝大家今天加入我們，祝您有美好的一天。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接。