AT&T Inc (T) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to AT&T's Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Following the presentation, the call will be open for questions. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 AT&T 2022 年第三季財報電話會議。 （接線員指示）演示結束後，電話會議將開放提問環節。 （接線員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

I would like to turn the conference call over to our host, Amir Rozwadowski, Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我想將電話會議交給我們的主持人，財務和投資者關係高級副總裁阿米爾·羅茲瓦多夫斯基 (Amir Rozwadowski)。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter call. I'm Amir Rozwadowski, Head of Investor Relations for AT&T. Joining me on the call today are John Stankey, our CEO; and Pascal Desroches, our CFO.

謝謝大家，早安！歡迎參加我們的第三季電話會議。我是AT&T投資者關係主管阿米爾·羅茲瓦多夫斯基（Amir Rozwadowski）。今天和我一起參加電話會議的還有我們的執行長約翰·斯坦基（John Stankey）和財務長帕斯卡爾·德羅什（Pascal Desroches）。

Before we begin, I need to call your attention to our safe harbor statement. It says that some of our comments today may be forward-looking. As such, they're subject to risks and uncertainties described in AT&T's SEC filings. Results may differ materially. And as always, additional information and earnings materials are available on the Investor Relations website.

在開始之前，我需要提醒大家注意我們的安全港聲明。聲明指出，我們今天的部分評論可能具有前瞻性。因此，這些評論可能受到 AT&T 提交給美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 的文件中所述的風險和不確定性的影響。實際結果可能存在重大差異。與往常一樣，更多資訊和收益資料可在投資者關係網站上取得。

With that, I'll turn the call over to John Stankey. John?

說完這些，我將把電話轉給約翰·斯坦基。約翰？

Thanks, Amir. Good morning, everyone. This morning, we shared our third quarter results, which, yet again, demonstrate our strong execution in delivering critical connectivity services to our customers.

謝謝，阿米爾。大家早安。今天早上，我們分享了第三季的業績，這再次證明了我們在為客戶提供關鍵連結服務方面的強大執行力。

Earlier this month, we saw just how vital these services truly are. In the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the ability to connect with others proved to be invaluable to so many people. And our teams were, yet again, some of the very first to arrive on the scene, working tirelessly for our customers. The effort they made, along with first responders, supported by FirstNet, to keep our network running in some of the hardest hit areas was nothing short of heroic. I'm really grateful for their sacrifices, and all of AT&T is proud of their efforts.

本月初，我們見證了這些服務的重要性。在颶風伊恩造成的毀滅性打擊中，與他人保持聯繫的能力對許多人來說都顯得彌足珍貴。我們的團隊再次率先抵達災區，不知疲倦地為客戶服務。他們與FirstNet支援的急救人員一起，在受災最嚴重的地區維持著我們的網路正常運行，堪稱英雄。我衷心感謝他們的犧牲，AT&T全體員工也為他們的努力感到自豪。

I'd also like to say thank you to our teams for their solid execution in deploying our mid-band 5G spectrum and building out best-in-class fiber-based access solutions. As you can see from our results, we continue to deliver strong customer growth on the back of our focused 5G and fiber strategy.

我還要感謝我們的團隊在部署中頻段5G頻譜和建置一流的光纖接入解決方案方面所做的出色執行。正如各位從我們的業績中看到的，憑藉我們專注的5G和光纖策略，我們繼續實現強勁的客戶成長。

The demand for fast and reliable 5G and fiber is at an all-time high, and our disciplined and consistent go-to-market strategy continues to resonate. In addition, as we begin to lap investments we need to optimize our networks, improve our distribution and transform our business, we're now seeing the benefits of our growth fall to the bottom line, as we suggested they would and as evidenced by accelerating adjusted EBITDA growth.

對快速可靠的5G和光纖的需求空前高漲，我們嚴謹一致的市場策略持續獲得市場認可。此外，隨著我們開始加強投資力度，優化網路、改善分銷管道並轉型業務，我們現在看到成長帶來的效益正逐漸體現在利潤上，正如我們先前預測的那樣，調整後EBITDA的加速成長也證明了這一點。

Let me dive in a bit. In Mobility, we posted another strong quarter of growth by adding 708,000 postpaid phone net adds. As I stated in prior quarters, our consistent results are being driven by an improved value proposition, better network experience and our ability to meet our customers where their needs are. We're creating efficiencies through our distribution, and acquisition costs are improving. This is helping us drive further gains in operating leverage.

讓我來深入探討一下。在行動業務方面，我們本季再次實現了強勁成長，新增了70.8萬部後付費電話。正如我在前幾個季度所述，我們持續的業績成長得益於更完善的價值主張、更佳的網路體驗以及我們能夠隨時隨地滿足客戶需求的能力。我們透過分銷管道提升了效率，客戶購置成本也不斷降低。這有助於我們進一步提升營運槓桿。

This past quarter, our teams delivered across 3 key performance measurements: strong postpaid phone net adds, accelerating ARPU growth and higher Mobility EBITDA. In fact, the third quarter marked our highest wireless service revenue growth year-over-year in more than a decade, and we now expect to achieve wireless service revenue growth at the upper end of the 4.5% to 5% range. This is about 200 basis points higher than where we expected to land at the start of the year, thanks to continued net add strength and ARPU growth.

上個季度，我們的團隊在三個關鍵業績指標上取得了優異的成績：強勁的後付費電話淨增用戶、加速的ARPU成長以及更高的行動業務EBITDA。事實上，第三季我們的無線服務收入年增率創下了十多年來的最高紀錄，目前我們預計無線服務收入成長率將達到4.5%至5%的上限。由於持續強勁的淨增用戶和ARPU成長，這一增幅比我們年初的預期高出約200個基點。

Now let's jump to fiber, where we continue to invest in building out a premium network and deliver on our stated expectations for steady customer growth. The success of our strategy is evidenced by the fact that we just posted our 11th straight quarter with more than 200,000 fiber net adds, with 338,000 net adds this past quarter.

現在讓我們來談談光纖業務。我們將繼續投資建立優質網絡，並實現我們先前設定的穩定客戶成長目標。我們策略的成功體現在我們剛剛公佈的連續第11季光纖淨增用戶數超過20萬，上一季淨增用戶數達33.8萬。

We're finding success in serving more customers in new and existing markets with what is the best wired Internet offering available. We're increasing share in our fiber footprint and converting more IP broadband Internet subscribers to fiber subscribers. This is driving favorable ARPU trends and profitable growth within our overall Consumer Wireline business.

我們憑藉著目前最佳的有線電視服務，在新舊市場成功服務更多客戶。我們的光纖網路覆蓋份額不斷提升，並將更多 IP 寬頻網路用戶轉換為光纖用戶。這推動了 ARPU 的良好成長趨勢，並促進了我們整體消費者有線業務的獲利成長。

Ultimately, our fiber strategy is a long-term play, centered around a best-in-class network technology with a multi-decade lifespan. When others finally decide they need to upgrade their infrastructure, we will already be providing our customers with great service and sustainable technology. Simply put, where we have fiber, we win. And the numbers show we expect to keep winning.

歸根究底，我們的光纖策略是一項長期策略，以一流的網路技術為核心，擁有數十年的使用壽命。當其他公司最終決定需要升級其基礎設施時，我們已經為客戶提供了優質的服務和可持續的技術。簡而言之，哪裡有光纖，哪裡就有勝利。數據表明，我們期待繼續保持勝利。

So let's step back for a minute and take a look at what we've done so far this year across 3 quarters. We've achieved what we expect will be an industry best with more than 2.2 million postpaid phone net adds. Additionally, our teams are deploying our mid-band 5G spectrum quickly and efficiently, and the spectrum assets we're rolling out are performing even better than our high expectations.

讓我們回顧一下我們今年三個季度以來所取得的成績。我們實現了預期的行業最佳水平，新增後付費電話用戶超過220萬。此外，我們的團隊正在快速且有效率地部署中頻段5G頻譜，我們正在推出的頻譜資產的表現甚至超出了我們的預期。

As a result, we've achieved our already increased year-end target of 100 million mid-band 5G POPs and now expect to reach more than 130 million people by the end of the year, nearly double our expectations when we entered the year. This progress is benefiting our customers as well. In fact, since the start of the year, our already consistent download speeds have increased materially as a result of our mid-band deployment.

因此，我們實現了先前已提高的年底1億中頻段5G用戶的目標，並預計到年底將覆蓋超過1.3億用戶，幾乎是年初預期的兩倍。這項進展也惠及了我們的客戶。事實上，自今年年初以來，由於中頻段的部署，我們原本穩定的下載速度得到了顯著提升。

We're also approaching 1 million AT&T Fiber net adds for the year, and we've added nearly 2.3 million fiber locations through 3 quarters to bring our total customer locations to 18.5 million. This keeps us on track to achieve our target of 30 million-plus locations by the end of 2025. In summary, I'm very happy with the strong, high-quality and durable customer adds, network enhancements and improving financial returns we're seeing across our twin growth engines of 5G and fiber.

今年，AT&T Fiber 的淨增用戶數也接近 100 萬，前三個季度新增了近 230 萬個光纖位置，使我們的客戶總數達到 1,850 萬個。這使我們能夠穩步實現到 2025 年底覆蓋 3000 多萬個位置的目標。總而言之，我對 5G 和光纖雙引擎帶來的強勁、高品質且持久的客戶成長、網路增強和不斷提升的財務回報感到非常滿意。

Moving to our next priority. It's more important than ever that we be effective and efficient across our operations. We continue to have strong visibility on achieving more than $4 billion of our $6 billion transformation cost savings run rate target by the end of this year.

談談我們的下一個優先事項。比以往任何時候都更重要的是，我們必須在整個營運過程中保持高效率和有效。我們仍然有信心在今年年底前實現 60 億美元轉型成本節約目標中的 40 億美元以上。

As I said earlier, we're beginning to see savings start to contribute to the bottom line. We're transforming our business as the world continues to face what feels like a period of uncertainty. Many of the economic trends that we spoke about at the start of the year and the assumptions that we've been operating under are now coming to fruition.

正如我之前所說，我們開始看到儲蓄對獲利有貢獻。隨著世界繼續面臨一段充滿不確定性的時期，我們正在轉型業務。我們在年初談到的許多經濟趨勢以及我們一直以來的營運假設現在都正在成為現實。

This is one reason why we focus so intently on reorienting our business, whether it was asset dispositions, investing in cost transformation or our proactive decision to address rising inflation through a measured pricing strategy. As a result, our balance sheet has improved, our network performance continues to get better, and we're now seeing some benefits to our profit trends. This is a direct result of acting when we did and how we did it.

這正是我們如此專注於業務轉型的原因之一，無論是資產處置、成本轉型投資，或是我們主動做出的透過審慎定價策略來應對通膨上升的決定。結果，我們的資產負債表得到了改善，網路效能持續提升，利潤趨勢也開始出現一些改善。這直接得益於我們當時的行動方式。

Our third quarter results demonstrate that our business can deliver even against the challenging backdrop. The current environment is not easy to predict, but our flexibility affords us the ability to meet or surpass all of our financial commitments while investing in the best technology available.

我們的第三季業績表明，即使在充滿挑戰的背景下，我們的業務也能實現預期目標。當前的環境難以預測，但我們的靈活性使我們能夠在投資現有最佳技術的同時，滿足甚至超越所有財務承諾。

Now turning to our capital allocation strategy. The long-term economic justification for our investments in 5G and fiber remains fundamentally sound, and we're continuing to invest through this cycle to support future growth. These investments will prove to be the foundation of AT&T over the next few decades.

現在談談我們的資本配置策略。我們在5G和光纖方面的投資，其長期經濟合理性仍然基本合理，並且我們將繼續在這一周期內進行投資，以支持未來的成長。這些投資將成為AT&T未來幾十年的基石。

We feel confident our approach will prove to be increasingly beneficial with each passing year as data demand and traffic continues to grow dramatically. Our strength and focus on core connectivity is helping us meet customers' needs, and we're growing mobility and fiber subscribers in a disciplined and profitable manner quarter after quarter after quarter.

我們相信，隨著數據需求和流量的持續大幅增長，我們的方法將逐年顯現其效益。我們的優勢和對核心連接的專注正幫助我們滿足客戶的需求，並且我們正以穩健且盈利的方式逐季增加行動和光纖用戶。

This makes me very comfortable with our ability to continue improving the cash yields of our business going forward. Our free cash flow for the quarter was in line with our expectations despite higher third quarter capital investment spend, and we're on track to deliver on our previously stated $24 billion capital investment plan for the year.

這讓我對我們未來繼續提升業務現金收益率的能力充滿信心。儘管第三季資本投資支出增加，但本季的自由現金流仍符合預期，我們預計將實現先前設定的240億美元年度資本投資計畫。

At the same time, we hope this healthy free cash flow for the quarter gives you confidence in our ability to achieve our target for free cash flow in the $14 billion range for the year, a level that is more than ample to support our $8 billion dividend commitment. Before I turn this over to Pascal, allow me to finish with this.

同時，我們希望本季健康的自由現金流能讓您對我們實現全年140億美元左右自由現金流目標充滿信心，這一水平足以支持我們80億美元的股息承諾。在將發言權交給帕斯卡之前，請允許我先結束發言。

Our results demonstrate that the strategy we put forward more than 2 years ago is the right strategy for not only the future of our business, but for the future of the communications industry. We're focused on creating sustainable and scalable businesses that drive a free cash flow flywheel for many years.

我們的業績證明，我們兩年多前提出的策略不僅對我們業務的未來，而且對整個通訊產業的未來都是正確的。我們專注於打造永續、可擴展的業務，在未來多年推動自由現金流的飛輪效應。

We continue to hold ourselves accountable for earnings growth against our historic levels of investment, which you'll see through improved cash conversion moving forward. We're confident that the investments and choices we're making will benefit our customers and shareholders now and in the future, while also setting the stage for our next act as America's best broadband provider.

我們將繼續秉持責任，在歷史性投資水準的基礎上，獲利成長。未來現金流的改善將為您帶來顯著的效益。我們堅信，我們所做的投資和選擇，將惠及我們的客戶和股東，造福未來，同時也為我們未來成為美國最佳寬頻供應商奠定基礎。

Let me now turn it over to Pascal to discuss the details of the quarter. Pascal?

現在我把時間交給帕斯卡來討論本季的細節。帕斯卡？

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Let's start by taking a look at our subscriber results for our market focus areas on Slide 5. Our consistent Mobility strategy remains successful as we delivered 708,000 postpaid phone net adds in the quarter. Since we began our transformation 9 quarters ago, we've delivered nearly 7 million postpaid phone net adds, along with improved ARPU.

謝謝約翰，大家早安。首先，我們來看看幻燈片5上我們重點市場領域的使用者成長情況。我們持續推進的行動策略取得了成功，本季新增了70.8萬部後付費電話。自9個季度前開始轉型以來，我們已新增近700萬部後付費電話，同時ARPU值也有所提升。

Looking at AT&T Fiber. We totaled 338,000 net adds in the quarter. This marks our second best quarter ever. Our plan in Consumer Wireline remains centered on pivoting from a copper-based product to fiber, and we're doing just that. Over the past 9 quarters, we've gone from 4.3 million AT&T Fiber subscribers to now approaching a subscriber base of 7 million. So we're really pleased with the momentum we have with customers in the marketplace across mobility and fiber.

再來看看AT&T光纖。本季我們淨增用戶33.8萬，創下歷史第二佳季度。我們在消費有線電視業務的計劃依然圍繞著從銅纜產品轉向光纖，而我們也正在這樣做。在過去9個季度中，我們的AT&T光纖用戶從430萬增加到現在接近700萬。因此，我們對行動和光纖市場客戶成長勢頭感到非常滿意。

Now let's move to our third quarter consolidated financial summary on Slide 6. First, as a reminder, with the closing of the Warner Media transaction in April, historical financial results have been recast to present Warner Media and certain other divested businesses, including Vrio, Xandr and Playdemic as discontinued operations.

現在讓我們轉到投影片 6 上的第三季合併財務摘要。首先，提醒一下，隨著 4 月份華納媒體交易的完成，歷史財務業績已被重塑，以將華納媒體和某些其他剝離的業務（包括 Vrio、Xandr 和 Playdemic）列為已停止運營的業務。

Additionally, there continues to be some year-over-year comparative challenges as the prior year results also included DIRECTV for 1 month and other 2021 dispositions for a partial quarter. Therefore, where applicable, I will highlight our financial results on a comparative like-for-like basis.

此外，由於上年業績包含1個月的DIRECTV業務以及部分季度的2021年其他業務處置，因此同比對比仍面臨一些挑戰。因此，在適用的情況下，我將重點介紹我們的財務業績，並進行同比比較。

Comparative revenues for the quarter were $30 billion, up 3.1% or more than $900 million versus a year ago. This is largely driven by wireless revenue growth and, to a lesser extent, higher Mexico and Consumer Wireline revenues. This was partly offset by a decline in Business Wireline.

本季可比營收為300億美元，較去年同期成長3.1%，成長超過9億美元。這主要得益於無線收入的成長，以及墨西哥和消費者有線業務收入的成長（儘管成長幅度較小）。商業有線業務的下滑部分抵消了這部分收入的成長。

Comparative adjusted EBITDA was up nearly 5% year-over-year as growth in Mobility, Consumer Wireline in Mexico were partly offset by a decline in Business Wireline. We expect the year-over-year EBITDA trend lines to improve for the balance of the year as we continue to grow our wireless and fiber customer bases and lap 3G network shutdown costs and stepped-up investments in technology that began in the second half of 2021.

調整後息稅折舊攤銷前利潤 (EBITDA) 年比成長近 5%，原因是墨西哥行動業務和消費者有線業務的成長被商業有線業務的下滑部分抵消。我們預計，隨著我們繼續擴大無線和光纖客戶群，並彌補 3G 網路關閉成本以及自 2021 年下半年開始加大的技術投資，EBITDA 同比趨勢將在今年剩餘時間有所改善。

Adjusted EPS from continuing operations for the quarter was $0.68. On a comparative stand-alone AT&T basis, adjusted EPS was $0.62 in the year ago quarter. The quarter also includes a recurring favorable impact of about $140 million to adjusted EPS from retirement/medical benefit plan change. For the full year, we now expect adjusted EPS from continuing operations to be $2.50 or higher.

本季持續經營業務調整後每股收益為0.68美元。與AT&T獨立營運相比，去年同期調整後每股收益為0.62美元。本季也包含退休/醫療福利計畫變更對調整後每股收益約1.4億美元的持續性利好影響。我們目前預計全年持續經營業務調整後每股盈餘將達到或超過2.50美元。

Cash from operating activities for our continuing operations came in at $10.1 billion for the quarter, up 9% year-over-year. Capital investments of $6.8 billion was up $1.3 billion year-over-year, and we continue to expect capital investments in the $24 billion range for the year. Free cash flow was $3.8 billion. DIRECTV cash distributions were about $1 billion in the quarter. Overall, we remain on track to achieve or surpass all of our previously shared financial targets for the year.

本季度，我們持續經營業務的經營活動現金流為101億美元，較去年同期成長9%。資本投資為68億美元，年增13億美元，我們預計全年資本投資仍將維持在240億美元左右。自由現金流為38億美元。 DIRECTV本季現金分配約10億美元。總體而言，我們仍有望實現或超越先前設定的年度財務目標。

Now let's take a deeper look at our Communications segment operating results, starting with Mobility on Slide 7. Our Mobility business continues its strong subscriber momentum and positive profitability trends. Revenues were up 6%, with service revenues growing 5.6%, driven by subscriber growth.

現在，讓我們深入了解我們通訊部門的營運業績，首先從幻燈片7上的行動業務開始。我們的行動業務延續了強勁的用戶成長動能和積極的獲利趨勢。收入成長了6%，其中服務收入成長了5.6%，這得益於用戶成長。

Mobility postpaid phone ARPU was $55.67, up $0.86 sequentially and 2.4% year-over-year. This continues to come in ahead of our expectations. This is largely a result of benefits from our targeted pricing actions, improved roaming trends and more customers trading up to higher-priced unlimited plans.

行動後付費手機的每用戶平均收入 (ARPU) 為 55.67 美元，季增 0.86 美元，年增 2.4%。這一增長繼續超出我們的預期。這主要得益於我們針對性的定價策略、漫遊趨勢的改善以及更多客戶升級到更高價格的無限流量套餐。

With regard to EBITDA, we delivered our highest Mobility EBITDA ever. Year-over-year, Mobility EBITDA increased 5.5%, driven by wireless revenue growth. We remain confident that Mobility EBITDA growth will continue to accelerate through the balance of the year due to revenue growth and the lapping of 3G network shutdown investments that began in the second half of 2021. So we're really happy with our Mobility performance, and our consistent strategy is yielding great results.

就息稅折舊攤提前利潤 (EBITDA) 而言，我們實現了有史以來最高的行動業務 EBITDA。受無線收入成長的推動，行動業務 EBITDA 年成長 5.5%。我們仍然相信，由於收入成長以及 2021 年下半年開始的 3G 網路關閉投資的疊加效應，行動業務 EBITDA 的成長將在今年餘下時間持續加速。因此，我們對行動業務的業績非常滿意，我們一貫的策略正在取得豐碩的成果。

Now let's turn to our operating results for Consumer and Business Wireline on Slide 8. Our fiber growth remains strong, and we continue to win share where we have fiber. Our total Consumer Wireline revenues are up again this quarter even with continued declines from nonfiber broadband services.

現在，我們來看看第8張幻燈片上的消費者和商業有線業務的營運表現。我們的光纖業務成長依然強勁，並且在擁有光纖的領域，我們的市場份額持續成長。儘管非光纖寬頻服務收入持續下滑，但本季我們的消費者有線業務總收入再次成長。

Broadband revenues grew 6.1% due to fiber revenue growth and higher broadband ARPU, driven by customer mix shift to fiber. Our fiber ARPU was $62.62, and we expect that to continue to improve as more customers roll off legacy promotional pricing and on to simplified pricing constructs.

寬頻收入成長6.1%，這得益於光纖收入的成長以及寬頻ARPU的提升，這主要得益於客戶結構向光纖的轉變。我們的光纖ARPU為62.62美元，隨著更多客戶放棄傳統的促銷定價模式，轉而使用簡化的定價結構，我們預期這一數字將繼續提升。

Looking forward, remember that seasonality in the fourth quarter typically results in lower industry net adds. We expect EBITDA growth to remain strong on a year-over-year basis for the balance of 2022. This will be driven by growth in broadband revenues and the lapping of technology investments that began in the second half of 2021.

展望未來，請記住，第四季的季節性因素通常會導致產業淨增業務減少。我們預計，2022年全年EBITDA將維持強勁年成長。這將受到寬頻收入成長以及自2021年下半年開始的技術投資回補的推動。

Looking at Business Wireline. We continue to restructure and rationalize our portfolio with a focus on core connectivity where we have owners' economics. In this regard, we continue to grow our connectivity services revenue as both 5G and fiber offerings continue to perform well.

再來看看商業有線業務。我們持續重組和優化產品組合，並專注於具有業主經濟效益的核心連接業務。在這方面，隨著5G和光纖產品持續表現良好，我們的連接服務收入持續成長。

Our enterprise mobility momentum remains strong, with Business Wireless service revenue growth of 7.9% and a sequential increase in our FirstNet wireless base of 334,000. Additionally, we had about $100 million in revenue from intellectual property transaction in the quarter. This is about $80 million more than the prior year. For context, this is an action we've taken in the past when favorable opportunities arise.

我們的企業行動業務發展動能依然強勁，Business Wireless 服務營收成長 7.9%，FirstNet 無線用戶群較上季成長至 33.4 萬。此外，本季我們的智慧財產權交易收入約為 1 億美元，比去年同期成長約 8,000 萬美元。具體來說，這是我們過去在有利機會出現時所採取的行動。

Now I'd like to quickly touch on our capital allocation strategy. Overall, our priorities remain unchanged, and we're largely past the heavy lift of reorienting our company's focus on our core connectivity strengths. As a result, we've established a more sustainable financial structure that better positions us for the current environment. We also have enough flexibility to invest in our business while meeting our financial obligations.

現在我想快速談談我們的資本配置策略。總體而言，我們的優先事項保持不變，而且我們基本上已經度過了將公司重點重新定位於核心連接優勢的艱難時期。因此，我們建立了更永續的財務結構，使我們更適應當前環境。我們也擁有足夠的靈活性，可以在履行財務義務的同時投資我們的業務。

In the third quarter, the $3.8 billion in free cash flow we delivered was largely in line with our expectations. And given the expected timing of our capital investments, we feel good about our line of sight to achieving our free cash flow target in the $14 billion range for the year. We are very comfortable with our cash levels after paying our dividend commitment, and this should only increase in the future years as we expect cash conversion to improve from here.

第三季度，我們實現了38億美元的自由現金流，基本上符合預期。考慮到我們資本投資的預期時間，我們對實現全年140億美元左右的自由現金流目標充滿信心。在支付了承諾的股息後，我們對現金水準非常滿意，隨著我們預計現金轉換率將持續改善，未來幾年我們的現金水準應該會繼續增長。

Our results today have only further solidified our confidence that we will exit 2022 stronger than we entered the year. In fact, we continue to expect EBITDA growth and higher free cash flows in 2023. We also plan to continue to use excess cash after dividends to reduce debt with a goal of reaching a net debt to adjusted EBITDA range of 2.5x. And as we typically do, we'll provide 2023 guidance when we share our fourth quarter results.

今天的業績進一步堅定了我們的信心，讓我們堅信2022年結束時我們將比年初更加強勁。事實上，我們預計2023年EBITDA將成長，自由現金流也將更高。我們也計劃繼續利用股息後的剩餘現金來減少債務，目標是將淨債務與調整後EBITDA的比率控制在2.5倍左右。與往常一樣，我們將在發布第四季業績時提供2023年的業績指引。

Amir, that's our presentation. We're now ready for Q&A.

阿米爾，我們的演示到此結束。現在開始問答環節。

Thank you, Pascal. Operator, we're ready to take the first question.

謝謝帕斯卡。接線員，我們準備好回答第一個問題了。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question today comes from the line of Phil Cusick with JPMorgan.

（操作員指示）我們今天的第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Phil Cusick。

I guess, first, Pascal, the free cash flow bridge to $14 billion, just to reiterate, help us think about that as we go into the fourth quarter. You need at least $6 billion, and you said CapEx, it sounds like it's coming down. That's a good part of it. And then as we think about next year, for what you can give us, how should we think about things like taxes, pension as well as the industry overall? And I know you don't want to update it, but given how much the world has changed, is that $20 billion free cash flow guide even relevant anymore?

我想，首先，帕斯卡，我想重申一下，自由現金流要達到140億美元，在進入第四季時，請幫我們思考這個問題。您至少需要60億美元，您之前提到資本支出，聽起來好像正在下降。這是很大一部分。然後，當我們考慮明年時，對於您能為我們帶來什麼，我們應該如何考慮稅收、退休金以及整個產業的問題？我知道您不想更新它，但考慮到世界已經發生瞭如此大的變化，那200億美元的自由現金流指南還有意義嗎？

Phil, I appreciate the question. Maybe let's start. With regard to the $14 billion for this year, the simple way to think about it, we delivered $3.8 billion this quarter. And that is when we spent $6.8 billion in capital. Next quarter, we reiterated our guide for the full year of $24 billion. So next quarter, that would suggest around $4.5 billion.

菲爾，我很感謝你的提問。我們開始吧。關於今年的140億美元，簡單來說，我們本季實現了38億美元的收入，其中資本支出了68億美元。下個季度，我們重申了全年240億美元的預期。所以下個季度，這意味著大約45億美元。

And so you do the simple math, that gets you exactly where you need to get to for the full year. And as a general matter as well, the fourth quarter -- the back half of the year, we always convert at a higher rate than the first half of the year. So all in all, great line of sight.

所以，你只要簡單算一下，就能準確地算出全年的目標。而且一般來說，第四季度，也就是下半年，我們的轉換率總是高於上半年。所以，總而言之，我們的預期非常好。

In terms of next year, you mentioned the macros. That is the very reason why we are not providing updated guidance right now, and we're going to stick to our -- what we communicated last quarter in that we'll update you at year-end when we report our fourth quarter results.

關於明年，您提到了宏觀經濟。這正是我們目前不提供最新業績指引的原因。我們將堅持我們上個季度的溝通方式，即在年底報告第四季度業績時向您更新。

With that said, as you heard from my prepared remarks, we expect EBITDA and cash to grow next -- free cash flow to grow next year. In fact, if we just look at this past quarter, we grew cash from continuing ops nearly 10%. So it's really strong growth -- organic growth from the business, and this is exactly what we anticipated coming into the year.

話雖如此，正如你們從我的準備好的發言中聽到的那樣，我們預計EBITDA和現金——自由現金流——明年都會增長。事實上，如果我們只看上個季度，我們來自持續經營業務的現金成長了近10%。所以這是非常強勁的成長——來自業務的有機成長，這正是我們對今年的預期。

What are the factors that are going to drive improved earnings and cash next year? Mobility. Our mobility business is performing much better than we expected coming into the year. Subscriber base is bigger than we anticipated, and ARPU trends are better.

哪些因素將推動明年獲利和現金的成長？移動業務。今年以來，我們的行動業務表現遠超預期。用戶規模超出預期，ARPU 趨勢也更加強勁。

Two, fiber. Again, fiber is performing really well. and the mix shift that we're seeing to fiber comes with higher profit margins, higher ARPU. So that's also expected -- Consumer Wireline is expected to grow next year. We should see some moderation in the overall Business Wireline trends because of the cost efforts that we are undertaking. And then you layer on top of that things like transformation savings, more broadly, starting to fall to the bottom line as our investments begin to have a peak and begin to dissipate over time.

第二，光纖。光纖表現非常好。我們看到光纖業務結構向光纖轉移，利潤率和每位用戶平均收入（ARPU）也隨之提高。所以這也是意料之中的——預計明年消費者有線業務將會成長。由於我們正在進行的成本控制，商業有線業務的整體趨勢應該會有所緩和。除此之外，隨著我們的投資達到高峰並逐漸減少，轉型成本等因素也開始下降。

So -- and lower interest is another factor to keep in mind as we delever. And then all that is going to be partially offset by higher cash taxes. Magnitude, I'd say, is consistent with what we've previously guided, and then slightly less DTV distributions.

所以——在我們去槓桿的過程中，較低的利率是另一個需要牢記的因素。所有這些都將被更高的現金稅部分抵消。我想說，幅度與我們之前的預期一致，然後DTV分配略有減少。

All in all, we feel really good about the trajectory of the business. And when you look at an annual dividend commitment of $8 billion and a growing free cash flow, the model is working exactly as we anticipated.

總而言之，我們對公司業務的發展軌跡感到非常滿意。考慮到我們承諾的年度股息高達80億美元，並且自由現金流不斷增長，我們的模式正如預期一樣運作。

Our next question comes from the line of Brett Feldman with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的布雷特費爾德曼。

Really, just sort of 2 here on fiber. The first is, it's great to see that the fiber net adds continue to gain momentum. You now have a larger fiber broadband subscriber base than nonfiber, but you haven't quite turned the corner sustainably yet on net positive broadband growth. And so I was hoping you can comment on how you see the path unfolding there. And do you just need a bigger fiber footprint to get there?

真的，關於光纖，我只想提兩個問題。首先，很高興看到光纖淨增用戶數持續成長。現在，你們的光纖寬頻用戶群比非光纖用戶群更大，但寬頻淨增方面尚未實現可持續的轉折。所以，我希望您能談談您如何看待這一領域的發展。您是否只需要擴大光纖覆蓋範圍就能實現這一目標？

And then the follow-up on that question is, there was a report yesterday you're considering a potential fiber JV. I'm sure you're somewhat limited on what you can say. So the higher level question would be, your existing fiber build is being completely funded out of your cash flow from operations. So if you were looking to do something incremental, including with a partner, what kind of boxes would you have to check? Is this about speed or breadth or potentially something else?

關於這個問題的後續問題是，昨天有報告指出，你們正在考慮成立一家光纖合資公司。我相信你能透露的資訊有限。所以更深入的問題是，你們現有的光纖建設資金完全來自營運現金流。所以，如果你們打算逐步推進，包括與合作夥伴合作，你們需要考慮哪些面向？是速度、廣度，還是其他方面？

Brett, I appreciate the question. Certainly, a bigger fiber footprint allows us to improve our relative net add performance in broadband. I think the short answer to your question is, for the next several quarters, we'll be in this dance around, what I would call, at least on the subscriber counts, something close to near 0.

Brett，我很感謝你的提問。當然，更大的光纖覆蓋範圍可以讓我們提高寬頻的相對淨增用戶表現。我認為，簡而言之，在接下來的幾個季度裡，我們的用戶數量將徘徊在接近零的水平，至少在用戶數量方面是如此。

But you ought to understand, as Pascal just indicated to you, our yields on fiber customers are, of course, much better than our copper customers. Combination of ARPU, churn characteristics and, frankly, the operating performance profile, which, I know you've observed that there's still room for our margin expansion in the Consumer Wireline business and that we should be looking at that relative to others in the industry.

但您應該明白，正如帕斯卡剛才向您指出的，我們光纖客戶的收益率當然比銅線客戶高得多。結合ARPU、客戶流失率以及坦白說的營運業績，我知道您已經注意到，我們的消費者有線業務仍有利潤成長空間，我們應該將這一點與業內其他公司進行比較。

And I think that's an accurate observation over time as we continue to scale the business, that we'll continue to improve profitability in it. But we still have several quarters of working through the dynamic of getting the legacy dynamics out of the business and focusing on the new infrastructure and the growth, and that's a journey we're committed to. And I think you're seeing that it's got strong economic promise as we move through that and continue to increase the size of the fiber base.

我認為這是一個準確的觀察，隨著時間的推移，隨著我們不斷擴大業務規模，我們的獲利能力將持續提升。但我們仍需幾個季度的努力，才能擺脫業務中的遺留問題，專注於新的基礎設施和成長，而這正是我們致力於的旅程。我認為，隨著我們推進這一進程並繼續擴大光纖基礎規模，您會看到它擁有強大的經濟前景。

I don't know that I could add a whole lot to you on your question about what we might think about in terms of doing other fiber builds that are out of our operating territory. First of all, I'm not going to acknowledge your comment specifically on some of the speculation that's shown up in the media. But I think I have shared most recently when I was in Arizona, and we were doing the work in Mesa, that we're evaluating it under many of the same sort of criteria and circumstances that we look at within our existing operating footprint.

關於您提到的我們考慮在營運區域之外建造其他光纖的問題，我不太清楚能不能補充太多。首先，我不會特別提及您針對媒體上出現的一些猜測的評論。但我記得最近我在亞利桑那州的時候，我們在梅薩開展工作時，我們評估該項目時所依據的標準和情況與我們在現有運營區域內評估時所依據的很多標準和情況是一樣的。

Number one, can we go in and be the first fiber provider in that area? Two, do we believe it's a market where the brand is going to perform, and we'll get the rate and pace of penetration that we need to make an economic return on it? Three, can we build because of the dynamics around a particular municipality or area cost effectively and quickly with a relatively low overhead around that and get, what I would call, an operating scale in that geography that warrants the fixed cost infrastructure start-up? And then finally, do we think that there's some interplay in terms of having the asset and improving value in our wireless business as we operate in the area as well, and it marries into our distribution?

第一，我們能否進入該地區並成為首家光纖供應商？第二，我們是否認為該市場是我們品牌能夠取得成功的市場，並且我們能夠以所需的速度和滲透率獲得經濟回報？第三，我們能否根據特定城市或地區的動態，以相對較低的成本高效快速地進行建設，並在該地區獲得所謂的營運規模，從而確保固定成本基礎設施的啟動？最後，我們是否認為，在擁有資產和提升無線業務價值方面存在某種互動，因為我們也在該地區運營，並且無線業務與我們的分銷渠道相結合？

So to the extent that we found opportunities like that, that had as competitive returns is building in our region, I think the management team would have to evaluate those types of things and think about how it moves forward on them. And I would tell you, as I've indicated as well, that there will be some federal subsidy monies coming in, in places, and we should use that same set of criteria in that same model as we think about are there opportunities for us to pair our capital with possibly a public capital to open up opportunities that we might not have pursued otherwise.

所以，如果我們發現類似的機會，而這些機會在我們地區正在形成具有競爭力的回報，我認為管理團隊必須評估這些事情，並思考如何推進它們。我想告訴你們，正如我之前提到的，一些地方將會有一些聯邦補貼資金，我們應該使用同樣的標準和同樣的模型，來思考是否有機會將我們的資本與可能的公共資本結合起來，以開拓我們原本可能不會追求的機會。

Our next to the line of Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley.

接下來我們的來賓是摩根士丹利的西蒙‧弗蘭納裡 (Simon Flannery)。

John, you opened your comments mentioning the world faced a period of uncertainty. You've been looking at that for a little while. It would be great if you could, and Pascal, update us on what you're seeing real time, both on the business side in terms of cutting back IT budgets, et cetera, and how that may evolve over the next few quarters as they deal with some of the stresses from inflation demand?

約翰，你在開場白中提到世界正面臨一段不確定的時期。你關注這個問題已經有一段時間了。帕斯卡，請你和我們即時更新一下你們的所見所聞，包括削減IT預算等業務方面的情況，以及在接下來的幾個季度裡，隨著通膨需求帶來的壓力，這些情況可能會如何發展？

And then on the consumer side, obviously, you've called out the [DSO] issue last quarter. Good to hear the free cash flow reiterated this quarter. So perhaps you could update us on payment trends on bad debts and how we should think about churn here as your sort of pricing increases sort of mature going forward?

在消費者方面，顯然，您上個季度已經提到了[DSO]問題。很高興聽到本季自由現金流再次出現。所以，您能否更新一下壞帳的支付趨勢，以及隨著您的定價策略逐漸成熟，我們該如何看待客戶流失？

Sure. Simon, why don't I start, and then Pascal is welcome to add any color on things I don't treat appropriately here. Look, on the business side, one is, I would tell you, I think the overriding dynamic in business is actually somewhat disconnected from the economy. And that is where we're in a secular change to cloud, and we're in a secular change to SDN.

當然。 Simon，我先開始吧，然後歡迎Pascal補充我在這裡沒有處理好的地方。就商業方面而言，我想說的是，我認為商業中最重要的動態實際上與經濟有些脫節。而這正是我們正處於向雲端運算和SDN的長期變革中的原因。

And we've talked about that, and I've talked about it, and it's one of the reasons we're repositioning the business segment. And I think it's one of the reasons why us making sure that we are very careful in how we deploy owned and operated infrastructure that we can handle business workloads on is so important to us.

我們已經討論過這個問題，我也討論過，這也是我們重新定位業務部門的原因之一。我認為，這也是為什麼我們非常重視謹慎部署自有和營運的基礎設施，以確保其能夠處理業務工作負載，這一點對我們來說非常重要。

When we think about that dynamic, we actually play very well into an efficiency story for most -- established in large businesses. And it's a little bit of a painful transition. But over time, we'll get through it, and there'll be upside back in the core connectivity business on owned and operated infrastructure.

考慮到這種動態，我們實際上在大多數大型企業中都很好地體現了效率理念。這是一個有點痛苦的轉變。但隨著時間的推移，我們會度過難關，在自有和營運的基礎設施上，核心連結業務也會重新獲得優勢。

And that's simply the private networks that we had previously put out that were highly managed and highly architected are now moving to SDN-based technologies that are less managed but more bandwidth intensive. And we want to play into the uplift on putting more bandwidth-intensive infrastructure out there and selling those connections on owned and operated infrastructure. But the enterprise gets an efficiency benefit out of SDN because those less managed networks are not as costly to them on an aggregate basis.

簡單來說，我們之前推出的那些高度管理和架構嚴謹的私人網絡，現在正在轉向基於SDN的技術，這些技術管理程度較低，但頻寬佔用更高。我們希望利用這種優勢，將頻寬密集基礎設施推向市場，並在自有和營運的基礎設施上銷售這些連接。但企業也能從SDN中獲得效率效益，因為從整體來看，這些管理程度較低的網路對企業來說成本更低。

And so I don't think the move from an economic perspective, if there are budgets that are strapped, is necessarily going to impact that transition. If it did anything, it might slow it down a bit. If it slowed it down, it would probably, frankly, be somewhat beneficial to us because margin structures on existing architectures are a little bit more attractive than on new infrastructure.

因此，我認為從經濟角度來看，如果預算緊張，此舉不一定會影響轉型。即便有任何影響，也可能會稍微減緩轉型的速度。坦白說，如果能減緩轉型的速度，可能對我們有利，因為現有架構的利潤結構比新基礎設施更具吸引力。

But if ultimately people view it as an efficiency move and they want to run their businesses more efficiently, I think those trends are manifested in what you've seen over the last several years in the business. And I don't know that they will necessarily adjust as a result of that.

但如果人們最終將其視為一種效率提升舉措，並希望更有效率地經營業務，我認為這些趨勢在過去幾年的業務發展中已經有所體現。我不知道他們是否一定會因此做出調整。

In the small business side, certainly, small business formation can be a hit during a down economic cycle. And I would expect that, in the business segment, that might be something that we ultimately see occur if there's a more moderate economic growth environment. But once again, unfortunately, for us, we're under-indexed in the small business segment.

在小型企業方面，在經濟下行週期，小型企業的成立肯定會受到打擊。我預計，在商業領域，如果經濟成長環境更加溫和，我們最終可能會看到這種情況發生。但不幸的是，我們再次在小型企業領域被低估了。

We're working to change that, and we're demonstrating progress in that regard. But my embedded base of subscribers in that area for what we do in advanced networking is not as strong in the fixed market as I might like it to be. So I don't know that we'll be overly impacted by that.

我們正在努力改變這種狀況，並且在這方面取得了一些進展。但是，我們在先進網路領域擁有的固定用戶群並不像我所期望的那樣強大。所以我不知道我們是否會受到過度影響。

We could see some softness in the wireless space if, in fact, the economy ultimately did -- had a little bit harder sledding, moving forward that might moderate some wireless growth. But look, we've been getting more than our fair share in that segment. A lot of it's been driven out of FirstNet. I don't expect that trend didn't necessarily abate right now even in a down economic cycle.

如果經濟最終真的遭遇一些挑戰，無線領域可能會出現一些疲軟，這可能會抑制無線業務的成長。但你看，我們在這個領域獲得的份額已經超過了我們應得的份額。其中很大一部分被FirstNet擠了出去。我認為，即使在經濟下行週期，這種趨勢目前也未必會減弱。

Relative to some of your other questions on other economic characteristics and how it impacts the business, we've seen no change in DSO relative to last quarter. We are back to pre-pandemic levels. We characterized that for you last quarter. There hasn't been any additional slip. We, I think, accurately reflected to you in our guidance what the impact was going to be for the year.

關於您提出的其他一些經濟特徵及其對業務影響的問題，我們發現應收帳款週轉率 (DSO) 與上一季相比沒有變化。我們已恢復到疫情前的水準。我們上個季度已經向您解釋了這一點。目前沒有出現任何進一步下滑。我認為，我們在指引中準確地反映了疫情對全年的影響。

Last quarter, that's still tracking consistently with what we articulated to you. We're seeing bad debt start to return back to pre-pandemic levels. Certainly, we'll have to watch that if the economy sours further. It tends to correlate to what occurs in the economy, but I see nothing right now that would suggest we're out of pattern on anything.

上個季度，情況仍與我們先前向大家闡述的一致。我們看到壞帳開始回升至疫情前的水平。當然，如果經濟進一步惡化，我們必須密切注意。這往往與經濟狀況有關，但目前我沒有發現任何跡象表明我們在某些方面出現了偏離常態的情況。

We certainly haven't done anything to change credit standards in our approaches and practices to managing credit quality. And I think you've seen how we performed in the past in that regard, where we have a high-quality base that allows us to kind of manage through those dynamics reasonably well if the economy goes one way or the other.

我們在管理信貸品質的方法和實踐中，確實沒有改變任何信貸標準。我想大家也看到了我們過去在這方面的表現，我們擁有高品質的基礎，無論經濟狀況如何，我們都能相當好地應對這些變化。

As I characterized earlier today in some of my public comments, churn is up a bit. It's not out of line with what we expected when we did the pricing changes. We were able to execute the pricing change in a way that we feel very comfortable with.

正如我今天早些時候在一些公開評論中提到的那樣，客戶流失率略有上升。但這與我們調整價格時的預期並無出入。我們能夠以自己感覺非常滿意的方式執行價格調整。

Most importantly, the vast majority of our customers are talking to us. They're making adjustments to their plans, moving them into higher-value plans while having higher ARPUs on them, return more value to the customer that allows them to be a stickier and longer-lived customer. We think that over the long haul is great.

最重要的是，絕大多數客戶都在與我們溝通。他們正在調整套餐，升級到更高價值的套餐，同時提高每位用戶平均收入 (ARPU)，為客戶帶來更多價值，從而提升客戶的黏性，延長客戶的使用週期。我們認為，從長遠來看，這是一件好事。

On the margin, there has been some churn moving out that we expected. It's no greater than what we expected. It still makes the pricing changes accretive overall, and you certainly have seen that manifested in the numbers and the operations that have come forward.

就邊際而言，確實有一些客戶流失，這符合我們的預期。但流失量並沒有超過我們的預期。這仍然使得價格變動總體上具有累積性，這一點您肯定已經從已公佈的數據和營運情況中看到了體現。

And our next question comes from the line of John Hodulik with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 John Hodulik。

Okay. Great. You guys have some real momentum in wireless in terms of subs, ARPU and now even margins. I mean, just give us a sense for the -- what kind of visibility you have that those 3 metrics continue to head in the right direction?

好的。太好了。你們在無線領域，無論是用戶數、ARPU（每位用戶平均收入），或是利潤率，都展現了強勁的成長動能。請問您能不能跟我們簡單介紹一下──您認為這三個指標能否繼續朝著正確的方向發展？

And then as a follow-up, with the broadband fiber expansion and potentially the [balance sheet] JV, if there's any change in the view on fixed wireless? Obviously, both Ryzen and T-Mobile are having a lot of success in selling that product. Just your view on that as we head into 2023.

接下來，隨著寬頻光纖的擴張以及潛在的[資產負債表]合資企業的成立，您對固定無線的看法是否會有任何變化？顯然，Ryzen 和 T-Mobile 在銷售該產品方面都取得了巨大的成功。在即將邁入 2023 年之際，您對此有何看法？

So John, I think our visibility is really good. I mean we run a subscription-based business. And as you know, those customer relationships tend to be pretty sticky relationships. And we have every ability to understand how we're bringing the customer in today and at what profitability level they're coming in. We understand the base and how the base is performing.

約翰，我認為我們的可見度非常高。我的意思是，我們經營的是訂閱式業務。如你所知，這些客戶關係往往非常緊密。我們完全有能力了解目前是如何吸引客戶的，以及他們帶來的獲利水準如何。我們了解客戶群以及客戶群的表現。

I think we have reasonable ways to look at some of the dynamics that change around things like roaming and have visibility toward those impacts and how they're going to work through. You just heard my commentary with Simon on some of the bigger drivers of profitability in the subscription business around churn and how we think about the dynamics associated with that.

我認為我們有合理的方法來審視漫遊等業務中一些動態變化，並了解這些影響及其將如何發揮作用。您剛剛聽到了我和西蒙關於訂閱業務中一些更大的盈利驅動因素——客戶流失——的評論，以及我們如何看待與之相關的動態。

So when I look at our ability to kind of understand why we're getting operating momentum, we communicated to you at the beginning of the year that you should expect the back half story on this, and you're seeing the back half story. And now we're in the middle of the fourth quarter right now, we're obviously aware of what our numbers are right now. And I would say, we have confidence that we're going to be able to deliver those continued leverage dynamics that we talked about.

所以，當我審視我們為何能夠理解營運勢頭強勁的原因時，我們在年初就告訴過大家，大家應該會期待這方面的後半部分，現在大家也看到了。現在我們正處於第四季度中期，我們顯然很清楚目前的數據。我想說，我們有信心實現我們之前談到的持續的槓桿效應。

So I feel pretty good about our visibility on that subscription base. And we've built a quality subscription base and brought in quality customers that are now starting to give us that profitability lift as well as we have visibility into our cost structure and all the work that we've done around that.

所以，我對我們訂閱用戶群的透明度感到非常滿意。我們建立了高品質的訂閱用戶群，並吸引了優質客戶，這些客戶現在開始提升我們的獲利能力，同時，我們也對成本結構以及圍繞成本結構所做的所有工作有了清晰的了解。

And as I've said since the beginning of the year that we would start to see some of that move to the bottom line as we stabilized our promotional position in the market, which, I think, you've seen us do, and we are still maintaining market momentum with that. And so I feel really good about it.

正如我年初就說過的，隨著我們在市場上的促銷地位逐漸穩固，我們將開始看到部分利潤轉化為利潤。我想，你們也看到了我們這樣做，而且我們仍在以此保持市場成長勢頭。因此，我對此感到非常滿意。

I don't know that anything has changed in fixed wireless. As I said repetitively that it has a place in our portfolio. That place is not broad-scale deployment in every operating territory and geography that we operate in. We -- the way I would characterize it, I'd rather take 1 million new fiber customers a year than 1 million new fixed wireless customers a quarter. The value equation of those 1 million fiber customers is a far superior value equation for the long haul for our shareholders.

我不知道固定無線業務有什麼變化。正如我一再提到的，它在我們的投資組合中佔有一席之地。這個位置並不意味著在我們運營的每個區域和地區進行大規模部署。我更傾向於每年新增100萬光纖客戶，而不是每季新增100萬固定無線客戶。從長遠來看，這100萬光纖客戶的價值等式對我們的股東來說是一個更優等的價值等式。

And as a result of that, we're focused on ensuring that we can continue to grow our fiber footprint and bring on those high-value, sustainable durable relationships where we're able to have a network infrastructure that matches consumer consumption dynamics now and into the future. Fixed wireless will be that answer in a small number of geographies and applications and homes. It will not be to our entire nationwide base.

因此，我們專注於確保能夠繼續擴大光纖覆蓋範圍，並建立高價值、可持續的長期合作關係，從而擁有一個能夠滿足當前和未來消費者消費動態的網路基礎設施。固定無線服務將只適用於少數地區、少數應用程式和少數家庭，而不會涵蓋我們整個全國範圍。

And so investing shareholder money at the front end right now just to drive top line growth that I don't think is sustainable over a 3-, 4-, 5-year period is not the best use of my management team's time and the best use of our scarce capital. The best use of it is to put it against putting in durable infrastructure, continuing to bring on high-value wireless customers, build our wireless network to be really effective in the next set of applications that are going to be necessary to bring the promise of 5G to life as we start to see the dynamics of autonomy and vehicles emerge, some of the medical monitoring capabilities, private 5G that starts to work into the enterprise space.

因此，現在把股東的錢放在前端投資，僅僅為了推動營收成長，我認為這在3年、4年甚至5年內是不可持續的，這既不是對我管理團隊時間的最佳利用，也不是對我們稀缺資本的最佳利用。最好的利用方式是將其用於建立持久的基礎設施，繼續吸引高價值的無線客戶，建立我們的無線網絡，使其在下一批應用中真正有效，這些應用對於實現5G的願景至關重要，因為我們開始看到自動駕駛和汽車的動態出現，一些醫療監控功能，以及開始在企業領域發揮作用的私有5G。

We want our wireless network to be ready to service those workloads and do it in a pristine fashion because we think those revenues will come back with the kind of margin characteristics that we've typically operated the wireless business at. And so I feel really comfortable with our balance about that, and we'll use fixed wireless as we move into next year, where it's appropriate to use it, but it will not be broad scale.

我們希望我們的無線網路能夠以最佳狀態運行，以應對這些工作負載，因為我們認為這些收入將以我們通常運營無線業務時的利潤率回歸。因此，我對我們的平衡感到非常滿意。明年，我們將在合適的情況下使用固定無線網絡，但不會大規模部署。

Pascal, did I miss anything from your perspective there?

帕斯卡，從你的角度來看，我是否遺漏了什麼？

No.

不。

And our next question comes from the line of David Barden with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的大衛‧巴登 (David Barden)。

I guess a couple, if I could. I guess the first question, Pascal, could you talk a little bit about how the interest rate environment is affecting the income statement? I guess, specifically, with respect to probably 2 items: one is the fixed versus floating; and the other would be how the net impact on the pensions is being affected in terms of discount rate for the PBO and then, obviously, the impact on returns to the portfolio.

如果可以的話，我想有幾個問題。帕斯卡，我想第一個問題，您能否談談利率環境是如何影響損益表的？具體來說，大概涉及兩個面向：一是固定利率與浮動利率；二是就國會預算辦公室（PBO）的折現率而言，退休金的淨影響如何，以及顯然對投資組合報酬的影響。

I guess the second piece I would ask would be on the wireless business. Obviously, the DISH wholesale arrangement was expected to be kind of a big contributor or a tailwind as we go into the year. Could you just talk about how, if at all, that's affected this year's performance to date and how we might expect that to evolve?

我想問的第二個問題是關於無線業務的。顯然，DISH 的批發協議預計將在進入新年度時成為一大貢獻者或推動力。您能否談談這對我們今年迄今為止的業績有何影響（如果有的話），以及我們預計未來會如何發展？

Okay. In terms of, first, the interest rate environment. One of the things that we did, Dave, over the last 2, 3 years is to really reconstruct our maturity towers and took advantage of historically low interest rates we were seeing coming out of the pandemic. As a result, right now, we have a debt tower -- a series of debt outstanding that are yielding around 4% on average, and 95% of it is fixed. And if you look at our maturities over the next several years, our free cash flows after dividend could largely handle those.

好的。首先，就利率環境而言。戴夫，過去兩三年裡，我們做的一件事就是真正重建我們的到期債務結構，並利用疫情後我們所見的歷史低利率。因此，目前我們有一個債務結構——一系列未償還債務，平均收益率約為4%，其中95%是固定利率。如果你看看我們未來幾年的到期債務，我們股息後的自由現金流基本上可以應付這些情況。

In the instance that there are slightly higher towers, we can always roll on a short-term basis. But what we've done is we've reconstructed the way we are managing capital such that we can really continue to delever over the next several years without any meaningful need to go out to the market to raise debt. So that interest rate.

如果出現稍微高一點的塔樓，我們總是可以進行短期展期。但我們所做的是，重塑了資本管理方式，以便在未來幾年內能夠真正持續去槓桿，而無需真正地去市場舉債。所以利率。

In terms of pension mark-to-market, in terms of pension, big picture from a cash standpoint. For the foreseeable future, let's talk the next decade, there's probably no need to fund the pension plan. Now with that said, there is, with the discount rate coming down, we've had some -- going up, we've had some big gains that we normalized out of our reported earnings. On a -- going through next year, I would expect higher pension expense because of the fact that now we have -- we're going to be discounting at higher interest rates.

就退休金的市價法而言，就退休金而言，從現金角度來看，整體情況是這樣的。在可預見的未來，比如說未來十年，可能不需要為退休金計畫提供資金。話雖如此，但隨著貼現率的下降，我們已經獲得了一些…上漲，我們獲得了一些巨大的收益，這些收益已從報告的收益中正常化。展望明年，我預計退休金支出會增加，因為我們現在…我們將以更高的利率進行折現。

But all in all, those are noncash pieces that, when we think about the long-term profile of operating this company, the fact -- what's most important to us is that there is no need to go fund the pension plan for the foreseeable future. And in terms of the DISH MVNO, it's not a meaningful contributor this year. We would anticipate, as we look out the next several years, it should ramp up. And we feel really good about the overall arrangement with this.

但總而言之，這些都是非現金部分，當我們考慮公司營運的長期前景時，對我們來說最重要的是，在可預見的未來，我們無需為退休金計畫提供資金。就 DISH MVNO 而言，它今年的貢獻並不大。我們預計，展望未來幾年，它應該會增加。我們對整體安排感到非常滿意。

And our next question comes from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Michael Rollins。

Just to dig in a little bit more to wireless. In the presentation, it was flagged that the business wireless service revenue grew 8% year-over-year, and I think the total was around 6%. So curious if you can unpack a bit more of the differences in trends that you're seeing between the business side of wireless and the consumer side of wireless?

我想稍微深入探討一下無線業務。在演示中，我們提到企業無線服務收入年增了 8%，我認為整體成長在 6% 左右。您能否進一步分析一下，您觀察到的企業無線業務和消費者無線業務在趨勢上有哪些差異？

And then as you're talking about the next stages of 5G and the opportunities, I was reading in the press release that you're flagging the success of IoT and connected device volumes. I'm curious if you can unpack that a little bit more in terms of, I think the automotive industry was one place you referenced in the release on success. Where are you seeing success in those verticals? And are you seeing any kind of inflection in the near to medium term where this B2B IoT opportunity could become more [expansive] for AT&T and the industry?

當您談到5G的下一階段及其機會時，我在新聞稿中看到您強調了物聯網和聯網設備數量的成功。我很好奇，您能否更詳細地闡述這一點？我認為汽車行業是您在新聞稿中提到的成功領域之一。您認為這些垂直產業的成功之處在哪裡？您是否認為在中短期內會出現某種轉折點，讓B2B物聯網機會對AT&T和整個產業來說更加廣闊？

Sure, Mike. Let me see if I can get at your first question. I think I understand what you're looking for. If I don't quite hit this, then feel free to follow up with me. But look, there's no 2 businesses are alike is the first thing I'd tell you. And so as you look at kind of how you would characterize the relative profitability of a business subscriber coming on, a lot depends on which segment you're looking at.

當然，麥克。我看看能不能回答你的第一個問題。我想我明白你的意思了。如果我沒完全理解，歡迎隨時跟進。不過，你看，沒有哪兩家公司是完全一樣的，這是我首先要告訴你的。所以，當你考慮如何描述企業用戶的相對獲利能力時，很大程度上取決於你關注的是哪個細分市場。

I would tell you, generally speaking, our highest ARPU dynamics tend to occur in the consumer market when you kind of look at what we're able to do in family plan structures and what occurs there. Our growth in business, still highly profitable growth, but under some constructs like what we are able to do with FirstNet approaches. As you would expect, people who buy at larger volume tend to get better rates.

我想告訴你，一般來說，如果你看看我們在家庭套餐結構中所能做的事情以及在那裡發生的情況，就會發現我們最高的ARPU值往往出現在消費者市場。我們的業務成長仍然是高利潤的成長，但在某些方面，例如我們能夠透過FirstNet實現的方案。正如你所預料的，購買量較大的用戶往往會獲得更優惠的價格。

And so you see that ultimately flow through, or maybe your ARPU dynamics around business are going to be a little bit less than what they might be in the consumer segment where people aren't able to buy at that kind of volume. Now having said that, you're looking at our overall ARPU trends, and you're seeing them improve and start to accrete and grow. And that's reflective of the fact that while we're doing very well in the business segment taking share, we're still growing ARPU in aggregate.

所以你會看到，最終這些影響會流向其他業務，或者說，你的ARPU值動態可能會比消費者細分市場略低，因為消費者無法以那種數量購買。話雖如此，你看看我們整體的ARPU趨勢，你會發現它正在改善，並開始累積和成長。這反映出一個事實：雖然我們在業務細分市場表現良好，市佔率不斷擴大，但我們的ARPU值整體仍在成長。

So despite those differences in the average ARPUs and what's occurring, we are still managing to grow that ARPU dynamic overall, and that's a healthy place for us to be right now. And as you've seen, our margin structure, relatively stable as we go through this quarter, and that's what's helping, of course, on some of the cash yields.

因此，儘管平均每用戶平均收入 (ARPU) 存在差異，並且目前情況也存在變化，但我們仍在努力實現 ARPU 的整體成長，這對我們目前而言是一個健康的成長狀態。如您所見，我們的利潤率結構在本季度保持相對穩定，這當然也對部分現金收益率有所好處。

On the IoT side, look, our mainstay of profitability in IoT comes in vehicles. That really hasn't changed. I don't expect in the near term, over the course of what I would call the guidance and planning cycle, that that's going to demonstrably change moving forward. I think there's a good opportunity for us to find the next level of growth in automotive.

在物聯網方面，我們物聯網獲利的主要支柱是汽車。這一點確實沒有改變。我預計，在短期內，也就是我所說的指導和規劃週期內，這種情況不會有明顯的改變。我認為，汽車領域對我們來說是一個探索下一個成長點的好機會。

And I think we, given our strong position in that market today, are well positioned to continue to work in that regard. And I think, when you think about each vehicle out there and the intensity of communication that's going to occur, there's an opportunity for growth in that space to build on. And that's one of the most attractive areas that we'll continue to push in.

我認為，鑑於我們目前在該市場的強勢地位，我們完全有能力繼續在這方面發力。而且，考慮到市面上的每一款車型以及未來可能發生的溝通強度，我認為該領域存在著巨大的成長機會。這也是我們將繼續推進的最具吸引力的領域之一。

Do I think that over time that in the spaces of manufacturing and medical devices that there's also an IoT opportunity to develop that -- as we get beyond what I would call the planning and guidance cycle that we gave you? I do. But I don't think those are going to be the kind of thing that as we characterize an update for you for 2023 that you're going to see those factor in, in any meaningful way in kind of business-to-business revenues that you look at and say that their pattern changes overall. Hopefully, that's responsive to your questions, Mike. If you want to refine the first one, feel free to follow up here.

我是否認為，隨著時間的推移，隨著我們超越我之前提到的規劃和指導週期，在製造和醫療設備領域也存在物聯網的發展機會？我認為是這樣。但我認為，當我們為您描述2023年的更新時，您不會看到這些因素以任何有意義的方式影響B2B收入，並認為它們的模式總體上發生了變化。希望這能回答您的問題，麥克。如果您想完善第一個問題，請隨時在這裡跟進。

It's very helpful. And I was just thinking, just even on the top line service revenue side, with the business service revenue growth faster than the overall and then implicitly consumer, is that something that you would expect to continue where this business is just going to be a bigger contributor to the wireless business going forward?

這很有幫助。我在想，即使在營收服務收入方面，企業服務收入的成長速度也快於整體收入，當然也包括消費者收入，您是否預期這種情況會持續下去，而這項業務未來會為無線業務做出更大的貢獻？

I do expect that's going to be the case because, as we shared with you, we have a number of dynamics going on and our distribution strategies that have driven that. And this is -- we keep saying it, I'm not sure it's fully being processed that our stance in the market and how we're offering in the market is not just driven by a promotional device stance. This is partly driven by -- we have managed to shift our distribution strategy and approach into the market, and we're doing better in these segments. And these are not sales that are necessarily being driven by people walking into stores, taking an upgrade on a device.

我確實預計情況會如此，因為正如我們之前分享的，我們正在經歷一系列動態變化，而我們的分銷策略也推動了這些變化。我們一直在強調這一點，但我不確定大家是否完全理解，我們在市場上的立場以及我們在市場上的銷售方式不僅僅是受促銷設備策略的驅動。這部分是因為我們已經成功地將分銷策略和方法轉向了市場，我們在這些細分市場中的表現也越來越好。而這些銷售並不一定是由走進商店、升級設備的用戶所推動的。

And that's why our overall profitability dynamics are shifting in the way they have been. And we've been able to give you some visibility to how that's occurring. And when we're successfully taking share in the public sector under things like FirstNet, and when there's affinity dynamics that start to work into that and the households of first responders, and when we're more effective at tuning our distribution in the mid part of the market for business than where we've historically been, you are going to see faster growth for us in the business segment. And I think the results speak for themselves on what we're able to bring in relative to the balance of the industry on that.

這就是為什麼我們的整體獲利能力正在發生如此巨大的變化。我們也能夠讓大家直觀地了解這種變化是如何發生的。當我們在FirstNet等公共部門成功佔據市場份額，當這種親和力開始在公共部門和急救人員家庭中發揮作用，當我們比以往更有效地調整我們在中端商業市場的分銷渠道時，大家將會看到我們在商業領域實現更快的增長。我認為，業績本身就說明了我們相對於產業平均值所能帶來的收益。

And our next question comes from the line of Kannan Venkateshwar with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Kannan Venkateshwar。

A couple, if I could. I mean, first, on the fiber side, we've seen penetration growth slow a little bit. Obviously, the absolute number keeps growing and accelerating every quarter sequentially. But then when we look at it in terms of penetration rate, I think it slowed a little bit versus what you were able to achieve last period. So it would be good to understand what the puts and takes there are and how we should expect that to evolve as we go forward.

如果可以的話，我想提幾個。首先，光纖方面，我們發現滲透率成長略有放緩。當然，絕對數量仍在持續增長，而且每個季度都在加速成長。但從滲透率的角度來看，我認為與上一季相比，增速略有放緩。因此，了解其中的利弊，以及未來預期如何發展，將大有裨益。

And then, I mean, I guess, an associated question is the nonfiber decline rate is also accelerating. And so how much of the growth that we are seeing in fiber is on account of transfers from maybe the nonfiber side to the fiber side? And lastly, just Pascal, on the $20 billion free cash flow guide for next year, could you give us a sense of what kind of math or variables are being assumed for that guidance in terms of potential recessions or the growth environment in general?

然後，我想說，一個相關的問題是，非纖維產業的衰退速度也在加速。那麼，我們看到的纖維產業的成長有多少是由於從非纖維產業轉向纖維產業的轉移？最後，帕斯卡，關於明年200億美元的自由現金流指引，您能否就潛在的經濟衰退或整體成長環境，介紹一下指引中假設了哪些數學或變數？

So Kannan, let me take the first part of your question, and then I'll let Pascal do some cleanup here. So first of all, what you should expect is that, over the life cycle of a build -- and I think we've been pretty clear on giving you insights into this. Let's call it, the first 30% of penetration goes relatively quickly, and the next 20% takes a little bit longer. And so it would be natural that as we build, that when you kind of get yourself to a 30% penetration rate, you're going to see that curve start to slow down a bit, and that's to be expected.

Kannan，讓我先回答你問題的第一部分，然後讓 Pascal 來整理一下。首先，你應該預料到的是，在一個構建的生命週期中——我想我們已經非常清楚地向你解釋了這一點。我們可以這樣說，前 30% 的滲透率相對較快，而接下來的 20% 則需要更長的時間。因此，隨著我們建造的深入，當你達到 30% 的滲透率時，你會看到曲線開始放緩，這是很自然的，這是可以預料的。

I think the biggest change that's occurred in penetration is how quickly we're getting to the 20% level versus historic numbers. And as we shared with you previously, we've kind of doubled our pace to penetration on the front end of that curve. And I've also shared with you that if you look at a typical return characteristic cash flow analysis of the investment of fiber, there are effectively 3 big things that drive that return dynamic and how effective the returns are, one of which is rate of penetration.

我認為滲透率方面最大的變化是我們達到20%的速度與歷史數據相比有多快。正如我們之前分享過的，我們在曲線前端的滲透率提升速度幾乎翻了一番。我還分享過，如果你看一下光纖投資的典型回報特徵現金流分析，你會發現，推動回報動態和回報有效性的主要因素實際上有三大因素，其中之一就是滲透率。

And when we did the original assumptions on kind of our fiber business case, we had a much more ratable and deliberate ramp into that first 30% of subscribers in the business case. And now what we managed to do is we managed to effectively take a year off the cycle to get to the 20% mark. That is a huge impact on accelerating cash flows to the front end of the business case.

當我們最初對光纖業務案例進行假設時，我們對業務案例中最初30%的用戶進行了更合理的、更慎重的提升。現在，我們成功地將週期縮短了一年，達到了20%的目標。這對加速業務案例前端的現金流產生了巨大的影響。

And it has a meaningful impact on the characterization of returns, even if you don't increase the ultimate assumption of what the terminal penetration is. And so I would tell you, we've already kind of had success in that regard. We've characterized that for you. But we've not made any assumptions at that once you hit that 30% level that the back end is going to go any faster.

即使不提高終端滲透率的最終假設，它也會對回報的表徵產生重大影響。所以我想告訴你們，我們在這方面已經取得了一些成功。我們已經為你們描述了這一點。但我們並沒有假設，一旦達到30%的水平，後端的成長速度就會更快。

And so I think you're going to see a degree of penetration slowdown as we kind of hit that 30%, and that's to be expected. It's been historic. And that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. It just takes a little bit longer to kind of get to what I would call as the market norm and kind of stability of how we expect shares to be allocated between the various players in the market.

所以我認為，當我們達到30%的時候，滲透率會放緩，這是意料之中的。這已經是歷史性的了。但這並不意味著是壞事。只是需要更長的時間才能達到我所說的市場常態，以及我們預期的市場份額在各個參與者之間的分配方式的穩定性。

So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of sense on that. We don't publicly disclose the transfer rates and kind of what's going on there, Kannan. But look, you've got enough public information that we shared with you. I think you pretty well can conclude that if we're turning in the kind of numbers we're turning in, that there's got to be a meaningful percentage of that total fiber increase number that's coming from competitors in order to deliver the number.

希望以上資訊能讓您對此有所了解。 Kannan，我們不會公開傳輸速率以及相關情況。不過，您看，我們已經與您分享了足夠多的公開資訊。我想您完全可以得出結論：如果我們能提供這樣的數據，那麼在光纖總增長量中，來自競爭對手的比例就必須相當高，才能達到這個數字。

And we watch it. We track it closely. I think both are good, right? Because what we know that any customer we move from legacy or embedded infrastructure over to fiber becomes a new established long-term customer with us. They're not going anywhere once we get them on fiber.

我們會密切關注，密切跟踪。我覺得兩者都很好，對吧？因為我們知道，任何從傳統或嵌入式基礎架構遷移到光纖的客戶，都會成為我們新的長期客戶。一旦我們讓他們使用光纖，他們就不會離開。

But most importantly, we don't turn in the kind of numbers we communicated to you this quarter, unless we're doing something that's moving share in the market. And we all know where that share has to come from. It's coming from -- in almost all cases, the embedded cable provider.

但最重要的是，除非我們能做一些能夠提升市場佔有率的事情，否則我們本季不會公佈之前公佈的那些數據。我們都知道，市場佔有率的來源是什麼。幾乎所有情況下，它都來自嵌入式有線電視供應商。

And Kannan, on free cash flow, as I said earlier, we're not updating our guidance for 2023. But what I did say, we're over 3/4 of the way through this year. And based upon our view of where the macros and all the potential risk, we expect this business to grow both earnings and free cash next year and for all the reasons I articulated earlier on.

Kannan，關於自由現金流，正如我之前所說，我們不會更新2023年的指引。但我之前說過，今年已經過了四分之三以上。基於我們對宏觀經濟情勢和所有潛在風險的判斷，我們預計這項業務明年的獲利和自由現金都將成長，原因我之前已經闡述過了。

And in terms of just the broader macros, look, we're not immune to them. But these businesses are generally more resilient even in an economic stress situation. So overall, I mean, that's -- we'll give you an update next year.

就更廣泛的宏觀經濟而言，我們並非完全免疫。但即使在經濟低迷時期，這些企業通常也更具韌性。所以總的來說，我們明年會更新情況。

Our next question comes from the line of Frank Louthan with Raymond James.

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

With your success with wireless, I just wanted to be clear how you're thinking about the promotional activity going forward. Any need to back off some of that promotional activity? You're clearly seeing good strong margin improvement without that.

鑑於你們在無線業務上的成功，我只是想明確一下，你們對未來的促銷活動有何想法。需要減少一些促銷活動嗎？即使沒有這些促銷活動，你們的利潤率也明顯大幅提升。

And then I had a follow-up question on the fiber JV. I can appreciate you not wanting to comment on the story, but conceptually, would you be open to some outside investment to possibly reach some of those areas of your territory that aren't necessarily economical with your own capital going forward?

然後我有一個關於光纖合資企業的後續問題。我理解您不想對此事發表評論，但從概念上講，您是否願意接受一些外部投資，以便未來進入您所在地區一些自有資本未必經濟的領域？

Frank, thanks for asking the quarterly question on what's sustainable. It was sustainable for another quarter, and that's been 2.5 years now. And I'll let you know next quarter if it's 2 years, 2.75 years. So I feel really comfortable with where we are. I think you're seeing the strategy play out. I look at where the market sits today, and I'll reiterate what I said earlier in the call. We're not the one out there with $1,000 for new iPhones right now.

弗蘭克，謝謝你問了關於什麼是可持續的季度問題。這個可持續的季度持續了又一個季度，到現在已經兩年半了。下個季度我會告訴你是兩年還是兩年半。所以我對目前的狀況非常滿意。我想你正在看到這個策略發揮作用。我觀察了目前的市場狀況，我重申我之前在電話會議上說過的話。我們現在不是那種能花 1000 美元買新 iPhone 的人。

We are at a different place than I believe both of our primary competitors. And I also characterized for you, you need to understand a lot of our growth is not coming from what we have as offers that we're communicating in the market. Mike's question is a really important question, looking at the consumer business mix.

我認為，我們與兩大主要競爭對手的處境不同。我也向你解釋過，你需要明白，我們的成長很大一部分並非來自於我們在市場上宣傳的優惠。麥克的問題非常重要，尤其要關註消費者業務組合。

And when we think about how we're spending our promotional dollars, I characterized for you in the Goldman conference that there's a lot of other aspects of promotion, how advertising gets done, how heavy you have to be to communicate your message.

當我們考慮如何花費促銷費用時，我在高盛會議上向大家介紹了促銷的許多其他方面，包括如何進行廣告宣傳、需要多大力氣才能傳達你的訊息等。

If you're doing a more promotional stance, what you have to do in your channels to incent people to sell and change things, the formula and the mix we have is a very competitive formula and mix right now across consumer and business, across our mix of promotional strategies or distribution partners. And one should not just simply say, because the lead offer that's being communicated in mass advertising is x, ask whether or not that's sustainable. The question is, are our customer acquisition costs sustainable? You're seeing the profitability improvement. You're seeing the ARPU improvement, and I think that's a pretty sustainable equation.

如果你採取更注重促銷的策略，你需要在你的管道中激勵人們銷售和改變產品。我們目前的方案和組合，無論是在消費者市場或企業市場，或是在我們的促銷策略組合或分銷合作夥伴組合中，都是非常有競爭力的方案和組合。我們不能僅僅因為大眾廣告中傳達的主導報價是x就簡單地說，這是否可持續。問題是，我們的客戶獲取成本是否可持續？你看到了獲利能力的提升。你看到了ARPU的提升，我認為這是一個非常永續的公式。

I'm not going to comment on the fiber JV structure. I will make an observation, Frank. It's my duty to always keep my mind open to new ideas. It's my responsibility in running the business that if there's an opportunity for us to do something that's in our wheelhouse, that's in the strength of the capabilities that we have as a company, and it's core and foundational to our brand to try to ensure that we seize those opportunities and move forward on them.

我不會對光纖合資公司的結構發表評論。法蘭克，我只能說說我的看法。我有責任時時保持開放的心態，接受新想法。在經營公司的過程中，我的責任是：如果我們有機會做一些我們所能做的事情，那將是我們公司實力的體現。而對我們品牌而言，抓住這些機會並不斷前進，是我們品牌的核心與基礎。

We certainly have a past practice. The wireless business was built with partners. I think you should understand and look back, and we've done that effectively in the past. And things that we've done, and we've done it in a responsible way for shareholders, and it's been a means for us to think differently about how footprint expansion can be done. We've certainly used that kind of an approach before. We understand how the approach works. I think about it in aspects to all kinds of elements of our business, and I've got to keep an open mind to those things moving forward.

我們過去當然有這樣的做法。無線業務是與合作夥伴共同打造的。我想你應該要理解並回顧一下，我們過去的做法非常有效。我們所做的一切都是以對股東負責的方式進行的，這讓我們能夠以不同的方式思考如何擴大業務覆蓋範圍。我們以前確實使用過這種方法。我們了解這種方法的運作方式。我會從業務的各個方面來思考這個問題，我必須對未來的發展持開放態度。

And that question comes from the line of Walter Piecyk with LightShed.

這個問題來自 LightShed 的 Walter Piecyk。

John, when I look at postpaid, which is probably the prior focus on revenue for the company, you've increased revenue, or it's accelerated for the past 8 quarters. So I guess, when I look at the first part of that, you kind of referenced that in the last question, we were talking about how everyone was talking about the handset promotions. You saw very good subscriber growth, and that's sustained. And now when we look at the past year, it's been in part on price increases to some of the legacy plans.

約翰，我看看後付費業務，這大概是公司之前的收入重點，你們的收入在過去八個季度有所增長，或者說是加速增長。所以，我想，當我談到第一部分時，你提到了上一個問題，我們談到大家都在談論手機促銷活動。你們的用戶成長非常可觀，而且這種勢頭持續了下來。現在，我們回顧過去一年，這在一定程度上是由於一些傳統套餐的價格上漲。

So now you've got to this, whatever, where you're 6% growth in postpaid. If you just sustain that going forward, that will probably beat consensus. You probably don't need to sustain it, but when you look at '23, is it going to be a component of more price increases? Or do you think subscribers are going to help you for growth in [Q3]?

所以現在你們的後付費業務成長了6%，不管。如果你們能保持下去，那很可能會超乎預期。你們可能不需要維持這個成長，但展望2023年，這是否會成為進一步漲價的因素？或者，你認為用戶成長會幫助你們在第三季成長嗎？

And my second question, which is related, is part of the ARPU increase for others was bundling in Netflix or, for your case, HBO Max, that you cut, and I think in June 1 for new customers. Maybe that's been helping your profitability, I don't know, but is there an opportunity to repack some of these streaming services into your offers in order to get ARPU even higher?

我的第二個問題與此相關，其他公司ARPU的成長部分源自於Netflix或HBO Max的捆綁服務，而這些捆綁服務你們在6月1日就削減了新用戶的ARPU。這可能有助於你們的盈利能力，我不知道，但你們是否有機會將一些串流媒體服務重新打包到你們的套餐中，以進一步提高ARPU？

So well, I appreciate the question. First of all, I think it's important when you look at the disclosures and what we've given you for the quarter. As you know, there's always some onetime things that pop into a given quarter that drive the numbers. I think your overall characterization is accurate, which is we're improving the yields of the revenue growth and what falls to the bottom line on EBITDA.

好吧，我很感謝你的提問。首先，我認為當你查看披露資訊以及我們本季提供的資訊時，這一點很重要。如你所知，每季總會有一些一次性的事件影響業績。我認為你的整體描述很準確，那就是我們正在提高收入成長的收益率，以及EBITDA（息稅折舊攤提前利潤）的底線。

I'm not going to suggest it's simply because we're going to get 6% revenue growth that we should expect that we're going to immediately get to 6% yields, but you've seen those yields improving each quarter. And we have a lot of confidence that, that's going to continue to occur, and it's consistent with the guidance that we've given moving through the balance of this year. And I think we have really good visibility for that improvement to happen. And there's a lot of factors that move into that, one of which is managing the cost structure more effectively.

我不會因為我們的收入成長了6%，就認為收益率會立即達到6%，但您已經看到收益率每季都在提高。我們非常有信心，這種情況會持續下去，這與我們今年餘下時間給出的指引一致。我認為我們對這種改善的實現有著非常清晰的預期。這其中有許多因素，其中之一就是更有效地管理成本結構。

In '23, look, I don't know exactly what the environment is going to be, and I'm not going to announce anything today in the market. We'll announce any of the changes we make in the market when it's time to change it. But when I look at the reality of the inflationary environment and understanding that in this kind of a rapid inflation environment, you need to manage the revenue side of the equation as well as you manage the cost side of the equation. The answer to that is yes. I think that's what a responsible management team does.

2023年，你看，我不知道市場環境究竟會怎樣，我今天也不會宣布任何市場變化。我們會在市場需要改變的時候宣布任何調整。但當我審視通膨環境的現實，並理解在這種快速通膨的環境下，你需要管理好收入和成本。答案是肯定的。我認為這是一個負責任的管理團隊應該做的。

Exactly what lever we choose to pull will be an artifact of the environment we find ourselves in. But I can assure you, the team has sat down. And as we've looked at planning and as we prepare to give you guidance for the year, we'll ensure that we have the right options and levers available to us to adjust to that. And as I said, we've got to work both sides of that equation. But I'm not going to tell you today that -- a preannounced set of tactics or strategies around that, especially on things that are relative to how we price in the market.

我們究竟選擇使用哪種槓桿，將取決於我們所處的環境。但我可以向你們保證，團隊已經坐下來商量了。當我們研究規劃並準備為你們提供年度指導時，我們將確保我們擁有合適的選項和槓桿來適應環境。正如我所說，我們必須兼顧這兩個面向。但我今天不會告訴你們——一套預先宣布的策略或策略，尤其是在與市場定價相關的方面。

On the content side, I don't think we've gotten any benefit, Walt, from content relative to the industry. We still have a lot of customers that get content bundled into their services, and we still view that as an important aspect of how we compete in the market. And as I think I shared last quarter, I would expect going forward that we'll have opportunities to incorporate content offerings in different ways into our portfolio.

在內容方面，沃爾特，我認為相對於整個行業而言，我們並沒有從內容中獲得任何好處。我們仍然有很多客戶將內容捆綁到他們的服務中，我們仍然認為這是我們在市場上競爭的一個重要方面。正如我上個季度分享的那樣，我預計未來我們將有機會以不同的方式將內容產品整合到我們的產品組合中。

We still view our relationship with Warner Bros., Discovery and HBO Max as being an important one, and it's been valuable and effective for us. But there's also others that could be worthwhile and beneficial to us. We're adjusting our strategies as we move into '23. I think you'll see some things adjust and change as we do that. So I think I'd say stay tuned.

我們仍然認為與華納兄弟、探索頻道和HBO Max的合作關係至關重要，這對我們來說非常寶貴且有效。但其他一些合作關係也可能對我們有益。隨著2023年的到來，我們正在調整策略。我想你會看到一些事情隨之調整和改變。所以，我想請繼續關注。

I think you're going to see content and ancillary services continue to be part of the wireless bundle in the industry moving forward. I think we'll play in a prudent fashion in our overall promotional dynamic, as I said earlier, managing effectively as part of that overall cost structure. And it will allow us to do a number of flexible things now that we don't necessarily have a captive content engine, so to speak, under the umbrella of AT&T.

我認為，未來內容和輔助服務將繼續成為無線套餐的一部分。正如我之前所說，我們將在整體促銷策略中保持審慎，並將其作為整體成本結構的一部分進行有效管理。現在我們不必再依賴AT&T旗下的專屬內容引擎，這將使我們能夠靈活地開展許多業務。

Thanks very much for the question, Walt. And thank you, everyone, for your participation and interest in AT&T. With that, we'll conclude the call and look forward to connecting again post our fourth quarter results.

非常感謝你的提問，沃特。也感謝大家的參與以及對AT&T的關注。至此，我們將結束本次電話會議，並期待在第四季業績公佈後再次與大家聯繫。

And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Teleconference Special Services. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與和使用AT&T電話會議特別服務。現在您可以斷開連線了。