美國無線通訊 (USM) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Audra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the TDS and U.S. Cellular Fourth Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Jane McCahon, you may begin your conference.

早上好。我的名字是 Audra，今天我將成為您的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 TDS 和 U.S. Cellular 第四季度收益結果電話會議。 （操作員說明）簡·麥卡洪，你可以開始你的會議了。

Thank you, Audra, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As we announced last September, Colleen Thompson will be taking over leadership of the IR function in May. We've been working together to assure new transition, but I'll certainly be involved for the next few months. So, Colleen?

謝謝你，Audra，大家早上好，感謝你今天加入我們。正如我們去年 9 月宣布的那樣，科琳·湯普森 (Colleen Thompson) 將於 5 月接管 IR 職能。我們一直在共同努力確保新的過渡，但我肯定會在接下來的幾個月中參與其中。那麼，科琳？

Thanks, Jane, and good morning, everyone. I've spoken to a number of you in the past couple of months, but for those that I haven't met yet, I look forward to the opportunity. We want to make you all aware of the presentation we have prepared to accompany our comments this morning, which you can find on the Investor Relations sections of the TDS and U.S. Cellular websites.

謝謝，簡，大家早上好。在過去的幾個月裡，我和你們中的一些人交談過，但對於那些我還沒有見過的人，我期待著機會。我們想讓你們都知道我們為今天上午的評論準備的演示文稿，您可以在 TDS 和 U.S. Cellular 網站的投資者關係部分找到該演示文稿。

With me today and offering prepared comments are from TDS, Pete Sereda, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. From U.S. Cellular, LT Therivel, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mike Irizarry, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer; and Doug Chambers, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. From TDS Telecom, Jim Butman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Vicki Villacrez, Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. This call is being simultaneously webcast on the TDS and U.S. Cellular Investor Relations websites. Please see the websites for slides refer to on this call, including non-GAAP reconciliations.

TDS 執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Pete Sereda 今天與我一起提供準備好的評論。來自 U.S. Cellular，LT Therivel，總裁兼首席執行官； Mike Irizarry，執行副總裁兼首席技術官； Doug Chambers，執行副總裁兼首席財務官。來自 TDS Telecom，總裁兼首席執行官 Jim Butman；以及財務高級副總裁兼首席財務官 Vicki Villacrez。此次電話會議同時在 TDS 和 U.S. Cellular Investor Relations 網站上進行網絡直播。請參閱本次電話會議中提到的幻燈片網站，包括非公認會計原則對賬。

We provide guidance for both adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or OIBDA, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, to highlight the contributions of U.S. Cellular's wireless partnerships. TDS and U.S. Cellular filed their SEC Forms 8-K, including the press releases and our 10-Ks yesterday.

我們為折舊和攤銷前的調整後營業收入或 OIBDA 以及利息、稅項、折舊和攤銷前的調整後收益或 EBITDA 提供指導，以突出 U.S. Cellular 無線合作夥伴關係的貢獻。 TDS 和 U.S. Cellular 昨天提交了他們的 SEC 表格 8-K，包括新聞稿和我們的 10-K。

As shown on Slide 2, the information set forth in the presentation and discussed during this call contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Please review the safe harbor paragraphs in our press releases and the extended version included in our SEC filings.

如幻燈片 2 所示，演示文稿中列出並在本次電話會議期間討論的信息包含有關預期未來事件和財務結果的陳述，這些陳述具有前瞻性並受風險和不確定性的影響。請查看我們新聞稿中的安全港段落和我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中的擴展版本。

In terms of our upcoming IR schedule on Slide 3, the team is dividing and conquering and presenting at both the Raymond James and the Morgan Stanley conferences on March 7. And then on March 14, we will be participating at the Deutsche Bank conference. And as always, our open door policy cannot be an open door, phone or video policy. So please reach out if you're interested in speaking with us. I will now turn the call over to Pete Sereda. Pete?

關於我們即將在幻燈片 3 上發布的 IR 日程安排，該團隊正在分而治之，並在 3 月 7 日的 Raymond James 和摩根士丹利會議上進行展示。然後在 3 月 14 日，我們將參加德意志銀行會議。與往常一樣，我們的開門政策不能是開門、電話或視頻政策。因此，如果您有興趣與我們交談，請聯繫我們。我現在將把電話轉給 Pete Sereda。皮特？

Thanks, Colleen, and good morning, everyone. In December, we announced that I will be retiring in May, and Vicki Villacrez will be replacing me. Vicki has been CFO of TDS Telecom since 2012, and prior to that led financial Planning and Strategic Analysis for the enterprise. So this transition should be very seamless. Vicki has been an important driver of TDS Telecom's success over the past 10 years, and she will bring a wealth of experience to her new job. I congratulate her on this new challenge.

謝謝，科琳，大家早上好。 12 月，我們宣布我將在 5 月退休，而 Vicki Villacrez 將接替我的位置。 Vicki 自 2012 年以來一直擔任 TDS Telecom 的首席財務官，在此之前，他領導了企業的財務規劃和戰略分析。所以這個過渡應該是非常無縫的。 Vicki 是 TDS Telecom 過去 10 年成功的重要推動力，她將為她的新工作帶來豐富的經驗。我祝賀她接受了這一新挑戰。

On Slide 4, as we look at 2022, I want to highlight all the positive trends impacting our businesses. Demand for broadband continues to grow. Connectivity, whether mobile or fixed, is a necessity to remote education, health care and work. The markets we serve, primarily suburban and rural, are benefiting from people migrating to these areas out of major cities. Additionally, 5G offers high-speed fixed wireless and with fiber available to only 30% of households in the U.S., this represents a great opportunity for us.

在幻燈片 4 中，我們展望 2022 年，我想強調影響我們業務的所有積極趨勢。寬帶需求持續增長。連接，無論是移動的還是固定的，都是遠程教育、醫療保健和工作的必要條件。我們所服務的市場，主要是郊區和農村，正在受益於人們從主要城市遷移到這些地區。此外，5G 提供高速固定無線網絡，並且美國祇有 30% 的家庭可以使用光纖，這對我們來說是一個很好的機會。

TDS was founded 50 years ago on a mission of bringing connectivity to unserved and underserved markets. So the introduction of the Infrastructure Bill brings opportunities for both of our businesses. And lastly, over that time, TDS has also held a multi-stakeholder approach to good corporate citizenship at the forefront of its values. As we expand our ESG program, we are essentially reinforcing the values that we've already had, caring about customers and associates, striving to enhance the lives of people in our communities as well as serving as a good steward of the environment.

TDS 成立於 50 年前，其使命是為服務不足和服務不足的市場帶來連通性。因此，基礎設施法案的推出為我們雙方的業務帶來了機遇。最後，在這段時間裡，TDS 還在其價值觀的最前沿採取了一種多利益相關者的方法來培養良好的企業公民意識。隨著我們擴大 ESG 計劃，我們實質上是在強化我們已經擁有的價值觀，關心客戶和員工，努力改善我們社區中人們的生活，並作為一個良好的環境管理者。

As we discussed on our past calls, maintaining financial flexibility is one of the pillars of our corporate strategy. Our strong financial position and ready access to the debt capital markets enabled U.S. Cellular to purchase valuable mid-band spectrum while also enabling TDS Telecom to expand investments in our growing fiber program. This strong financial position and market access will be important as we continue to invest in our fiber program in the future, as Jim will discuss later in the call.

正如我們在過去的電話會議中所討論的，保持財務靈活性是我們公司戰略的支柱之一。我們強大的財務狀況和隨時進入債務資本市場的渠道使 U.S. Cellular 能夠購買有價值的中頻頻譜，同時也使 TDS Telecom 能夠擴大對我們不斷增長的光纖計劃的投資。這種強大的財務狀況和市場准入將非常重要，因為我們將在未來繼續投資於我們的光纖計劃，正如 Jim 稍後將在電話會議中討論的那樣。

Before the business units discuss their successes, I want to briefly talk about the transformation of our balance sheet as illustrated on Slide 5. First, we have worked to diversify our funding sources through a variety of different types of financings, including preferred stock, an export credit term loan, a syndicated term loan, new 10-year CoBank term loans and an increase in our equipment installment receivable securitization facility. In addition, we had a goal to lower the average cost of our financings. Since the beginning of 2020, we have raised $3.5 billion in new capital, both debt and preferred equity at 4.8%, while at the same time, redeeming $1.8 billion in debt that carried a weighted average cost of 6.9%, reducing our average cost from 6.7% to 5% and resulting in $37 million in annual coupon savings.

在業務部門討論他們的成功之前，我想簡要談談我們的資產負債表轉型，如幻燈片 5 所示。首先，我們努力通過各種不同類型的融資來多元化我們的資金來源，包括優先股、出口信貸定期貸款、銀團定期貸款、新的 10 年期 CoBank 定期貸款以及增加我們的設備分期應收證券化工具。此外，我們的目標是降低融資的平均成本。自 2020 年初以來，我們以 4.8% 的比率籌集了 35 億美元的新資本，包括債務和優先股，同時贖回了 18 億美元的加權平均成本為 6.9% 的債務，將我們的平均成本從6.7% 至 5%，每年可節省 3700 萬美元的優惠券。

Importantly, going forward, we believe that this -- that we will continue to have access to the debt capital markets through a variety of instruments to continue to finance our future growth. Finally, I want to highlight that we have again increased our dividend rate. This represents the 48th consecutive year that we increased our dividend, quite an accomplishment. I will now turn the call over to LT. LT?

重要的是，展望未來，我們相信我們將繼續通過各種工具進入債務資本市場，繼續為我們未來的增長提供資金。最後，我想強調一下，我們再次提高了股息率。這是我們連續第 48 年增加股息，這是一項了不起的成就。我現在將把電話轉給 LT。 LT？

Thanks, Pete. If we can turn to Slide 7, I'm really pleased with how the team accomplished in our progress in 2021 and much of it was foundational for 2022. We continue to see positive momentum in several focus areas of the business, and that includes prepaid, business and government and fixed wireless. We've developed tactical plans to reach our return on capital goals over the next 3 years.

謝謝，皮特。如果我們可以轉到幻燈片 7，我對團隊在 2021 年取得的進展感到非常滿意，其中大部分是 2022 年的基礎。我們繼續在業務的幾個重點領域看到積極的勢頭，其中包括預付費、商業和政府以及固定無線。我們制定了戰術計劃，以在未來 3 年內實現資本回報率目標。

I'm going to let Doug cover the operational and financial highlights as well as our guidance for 2022, but I first want to provide a few thoughts on these strategic priorities. Last year, we launched a regionalization strategy. And that's something our competitors can't replicate. And that lets us test and optimize a wide range of actions, and that includes pricing constructs, promotions, media mix. The renewed focus on prepaid led to some encouraging initial results and positive prepaid adds for the year as well as laying the foundation for future growth with expanded distribution and a new approach to life cycle management.

我將讓 Doug 介紹運營和財務亮點以及我們對 2022 年的指導，但我首先想就這些戰略重點提供一些想法。去年，我們啟動了區域化戰略。這是我們的競爭對手無法複製的。這讓我們可以測試和優化廣泛的行動，包括定價結構、促銷、媒體組合。對預付費的重新關注帶來了一些令人鼓舞的初步結果和積極的預付費增加，並通過擴大分銷和新的生命週期管理方法為未來的增長奠定了基礎。

Last year, we laid the foundational work to build the business and government side of the business, and that includes segmentation and specialization of our internal sales team as well as the addition of new distribution, new partners, new channels, and they should position us to generate meaningful revenue growth. As I discussed in previous calls, we've strengthened our market position as a tower company, made numerous enhancements, which let the market know that we're open for business. And you can see that in the results. And I think we're just getting started here.

去年，我們為建立業務的業務和政府方面奠定了基礎工作，這包括我們內部銷售團隊的細分和專業化，以及增加新的分銷、新的合作夥伴、新的渠道，他們應該定位我們以產生有意義的收入增長。正如我在之前的電話會議中所討論的，我們已經加強了我們作為鐵塔公司的市場地位，進行了許多改進，讓市場知道我們正在營業。您可以在結果中看到這一點。我認為我們才剛剛開始。

Turning to the network. We continue to pursue our network modernization program and our multiyear 5G deployment. The majority of our traffic is now carried by sites that have 5G deployed. And equally important, we're getting 5G devices into our customers' hands. So far, nearly 30% of our smartphone subscribers have 5G-capable devices. The biggest development on the network side in 2021 was our targeted acquisition of C-band and DoD spectrum. We now have a really solid mid-band spectrum portfolio. Even though the auctions were quite expensive when you compare them historically, I'm really pleased with our outcome. And I'm going to ask Mike Irizarry to give you a bit more detail on this. Mike?

轉向網絡。我們將繼續推進我們的網絡現代化計劃和多年的 5G 部署。我們的大部分流量現在由部署了 5G 的站點承載。同樣重要的是，我們正在將 5G 設備交到客戶手中。到目前為止，我們近 30% 的智能手機用戶擁有支持 5G 的設備。 2021年網絡側最大的發展是我們有針對性地收購了C波段和DoD頻譜。我們現在擁有一個非常穩固的中頻頻譜組合。儘管從歷史上比較它們的拍賣價格相當昂貴，但我對我們的結果感到非常滿意。我將請 Mike Irizarry 為您提供更多詳細信息。麥克風？

Thanks, LT. Good morning. Turning to Slide 8. We continue to advance our 5G spectrum strategy. And with the spectrum we acquired in the C-band and DoD auctions, we'll have mid-band spectrum and substantial majority of our operating footprint covering over 80% of our subscribers with 100 megahertz of mid-band. This is in addition to our strong low band and millimeter wave spectrum positions. Mid-band serves as the bridge between our low band and our high-band holdings. As a reminder, we have previously acquired millimeter wave spectrum with an aggregable spectrum depth of 530 megahertz across our footprint.

謝謝，LT。早上好。轉到幻燈片 8。我們繼續推進我們的 5G 頻譜戰略。憑藉我們在 C 波段和 DoD 拍賣中獲得的頻譜，我們將擁有中頻頻譜和大部分運營足跡，覆蓋超過 80% 的 100 兆赫中頻用戶。這是我們強大的低頻段和毫米波頻譜位置的補充。中頻段是我們的低頻段和高頻段資產之間的橋樑。提醒一下，我們之前已經在我們的足跡上獲得了可聚合頻譜深度為 530 兆赫的毫米波頻譜。

This gives us strong positions in all 3 spectrum bands, low, mid- and high, and provides us plenty of capacity to continue to deliver outstanding mobile and fixed wireless services to our customers and support future 5G services and use cases. In total, including required incentive and relocation payments, we have invested slightly over $2 billion in mid-band spectrum and have done so at efficient prices, as our average price per megahertz POP that we paid in both auctions 107 and 110 was lower than the overall auction averages.

這使我們在所有 3 個頻段（低、中和高）中都處於強勢地位，並為我們提供了充足的能力來繼續為我們的客戶提供出色的移動和固定無線服務，並支持未來的 5G 服務和用例。總的來說，包括所需的激勵和搬遷費用，我們在中頻頻譜上投資了略多於 20 億美元，並且以有效的價格投資，因為我們在拍賣 107 和 110 中支付的每兆赫 POP 的平均價格低於整體拍賣平均值。

As Pete mentioned earlier, we were able to successfully raise the capital to finance these purchases while also reducing our cost of financing. We are preparing to deploy mid-band equipment on our network, optimizing tower climbs and radio requirements for both DoD and C-band as well as leveraging efficiencies with our ongoing 5G modernization plan. These efforts will begin prior to our C-band spectrum being cleared, which will allow us to turn on our mid-band spectrum efficiently. Overall, our strong spectrum position and the network experience that it enables will be key to enabling our 2022 goals, which LT will discuss next. Over to you, LT.

正如皮特之前提到的，我們能夠成功籌集資金來為這些購買提供資金，同時也降低了我們的融資成本。我們正準備在我們的網絡上部署中頻設備，優化 DoD 和 C 波段的塔架爬升和無線電要求，並利用我們正在進行的 5G 現代化計劃提高效率。這些努力將在我們的 C 波段頻譜被清除之前開始，這將使我們能夠有效地打開我們的中波段頻譜。總體而言，我們強大的頻譜地位和它所帶來的網絡體驗將是實現我們 2022 年目標的關鍵，LT 將在接下來討論這些目標。交給你了，LT。

Thanks, Mike. If we turn to Page 9. Our strategic priorities for 2022 will look familiar to you, and they build on our progress in 2021. Our mission remains the same. Our company is dedicated to connecting our customers to the places and the people that matter most to them. As you know, executing that mission requires a lot of investment. And I mentioned the investment we made in spectrum earlier. You're going to hear from Doug later that we plan to maintain a steady pace of capital investment as we modernize our network and roll out the mid-band spectrum that we purchased. In order to justify that investment, we have to expand our return on capital, and that's the key metric we use to set our long-term plans for the business.

謝謝，邁克。如果我們翻到第 9 頁。我們 2022 年的戰略重點對您來說很熟悉，它們以我們在 2021 年的進展為基礎。我們的使命保持不變。我們公司致力於將我們的客戶與對他們最重要的地方和人聯繫起來。如您所知，執行該任務需要大量投資。我之前提到了我們在頻譜方面的投資。稍後您將聽到 Doug 的消息，我們計劃在對網絡進行現代化改造並推出我們購買的中頻頻譜時保持穩定的資本投資步伐。為了證明這項投資的合理性，我們必須擴大資本回報率，這是我們用來製定業務長期計劃的關鍵指標。

One key opportunity that we have in the next year or 2 and that should help a lot with our return on capital goals is to take advantage of the funds being allocated through the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the IIJA. This is a potential game changer, not just for U.S. Cellular, but for finally connecting the un and underserved, particularly in rural America. Put some context around it, you got $46 billion allocated to broadband. The specific allocations are still being worked out, but you can think of about $20 billion likely flowing to the states that we operate in and at least $8 billion flowing to the areas where we operate network. And a lot of that will go to fiber, and it should.

我們在未來一兩年內擁有的一個關鍵機會，應該對我們實現資本回報目標有很大幫助，那就是利用通過最近通過的基礎設施投資和就業法案 IIJA 分配的資金。這是一個潛在的遊戲規則改變者，不僅對於美國蜂窩，而且對於最終連接聯合國和服務不足的人，特別是在美國農村。把它放在一些背景下，你有 460 億美元分配給寬帶。具體分配仍在製定中，但您可以想像大約 200 億美元可能流向我們運營所在的州，至少 80 億美元流向我們運營網絡的地區。其中很多將用於纖維，而且應該如此。

As I mentioned in our last call, I was encouraged that the Department of Commerce had committed to avoiding symmetry requirements, and that allows fixed wireless to potentially play a big role as well. I've talked in previous calls about how encouraged I am by the results from our millimeter wave fixed wireless trials. We see nearly 1 gig of speeds across 7 kilometers with line of sight. We've commercially launched our millimeter wave product at 300 gigs. That's a massive improvement over existing solutions, but the challenge is in the tower economics. In order to provide comprehensive coverage, we need much denser towers.

正如我在上次電話會議中提到的那樣，令我感到鼓舞的是，商務部致力於避免對稱要求，這使得固定無線也可能發揮重要作用。我在之前的電話會議中談到了我們對毫米波固定無線試驗結果的鼓舞。我們在視線範圍內看到了 7 公里的近 1 gig 速度。我們已經在商業上推出了 300 個演出的毫米波產品。這是對現有解決方案的巨大改進，但挑戰在於塔的經濟性。為了提供全面的覆蓋，我們需要更密集的信號塔。

The IIJA can provide the funding necessary to make the economics work. It's a lot cheaper to build and run fiber to one tower, covers hundreds of homes and businesses and it is to run fiber to each of those individual locations. And the exciting part is that the benefit doesn't stop with fixed wireless. We can use infrastructure funding to improve the economics for tower builds to focus on fixed wireless. We can also improve the coverage profile of 5G. That will significantly improve our mobile network experience to our postpaid and prepaid base. This is an extra benefit to provide funding to wireless carriers for broadband deployment that fiber can't match.

IIJA 可以提供必要的資金以使經濟學發揮作用。在一個塔上建造和運行光纖要便宜得多，覆蓋數百個家庭和企業，而且是將光纖運行到每個單獨的位置。令人興奮的是，固定無線的好處並不止於此。我們可以使用基礎設施資金來改善塔樓建設的經濟性，以專注於固定無線。我們還可以改善 5G 的覆蓋範圍。這將顯著改善我們對後付費和預付費用戶的移動網絡體驗。這是一個額外的好處，可以為無線運營商提供光纖無法匹敵的寬帶部署資金。

And just in case you forgot, and I know you didn't, we're also the only mobile operator that owns our towers. So we can market those new towers to other carriers, which also creates positive economics. It's going to take several years to execute this plan, but I'm enthusiastic about the prospects to work with state and local governments to really improve the experience for underserved areas, helping to bridge the digital divide in the communities in which we're invested, significantly advancing our network and doing it all with positive economics for our stakeholders.

以防您忘記了，我知道您沒有忘記，我們也是唯一擁有我們的塔的移動運營商。因此，我們可以將這些新塔推銷給其他運營商，這也創造了積極的經濟效益。執行該計劃需要幾年時間，但我對與州和地方政府合作的前景充滿熱情，以真正改善服務欠缺地區的體驗，幫助彌合我們所投資社區的數字鴻溝，顯著推進我們的網絡，並為我們的利益相關者帶來積極的經濟效益。

And before I talk more about the growth levers for 2022, I do want to talk about one other key strategic area, and that's our talent. We've managed the Great Resignation incredibly well thus far. Our attrition was relatively stable year-over-year in 2021. We were recognized on Forbes list of America's best employers. We're #141 in the country. That's up from #413 last year, and we're ranked as the best employer in telecom. That's ahead of Cox at 180, ahead of Verizon at 244, ahead of T-Mobile at 336 and ahead of a lot of others that weren't even ranked. And in my view, that's due to the tremendous culture of this place.

在我更多地談論 2022 年的增長槓桿之前，我確實想談談另一個關鍵戰略領域，那就是我們的人才。到目前為止，我們已經非常好地處理了大辭職。 2021 年，我們的減員同比相對穩定。我們在福布斯美國最佳雇主名單上獲得認可。我們在全國排名第 141 位。這比去年的第 413 位有所上升，我們被評為電信行業的最佳雇主。這領先於 Cox 的 180 位，領先於 Verizon 的 244 位，領先於 T-Mobile 的 336 位，並且領先於許多其他甚至沒有排名的公司。在我看來，這是由於這個地方的巨大文化。

But we're going to have to keep investing in it. And you can expect to see an even increased emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion to ensure that we remain a fantastic place to work. And if you'd like to witness our customer-focused culture firsthand, I encourage you to tune in to Undercover Boss on CBS on March 4, just to see how powerful our culture is, and you can also laugh at my outrageous mustache.

但我們將不得不繼續投資。您可以期待看到更加重視多樣性、公平和包容性，以確保我們仍然是一個絕佳的工作場所。如果您想親眼目睹我們以客戶為中心的文化，我鼓勵您在 3 月 4 日收聽 CBS 的 Undercover Boss，看看我們的文化有多麼強大，您也可以嘲笑我那令人髮指的小鬍子。

Now let's turn to Slide 10. A major strategic objective for us is growth. And I want to cover that objective in a bit more detail. We made a lot of investments in growth in 2021. We started to see the benefits in many areas of the business. Prepaid is a really good example. We pivoted the business to net add growth, and I expect even better momentum in 2022.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 10。我們的一個主要戰略目標是增長。我想更詳細地介紹這個目標。我們在 2021 年對增長進行了大量投資。我們開始在許多業務領域看到收益。預付是一個很好的例子。我們將業務轉向淨增加增長，我預計 2022 年的勢頭會更好。

But the one area, and it's a big one, that I was not satisfied with last year was our postpaid net additions and the lack of growth in our postpaid connections base. The environment remains as competitive as ever, particularly for upgrades, and that carries challenging economics for the entire industry.

但去年我不滿意的一個領域，也是一個很大的領域是我們的後付費淨增加和我們的後付費連接基礎缺乏增長。環境仍然像以往一樣具有競爭力，特別是在升級方面，這給整個行業帶來了具有挑戰性的經濟性。

At the same time, customers are holding devices for longer than ever, and that somewhat dilutes the impact of aggressive device promotions. And that's a really challenging dynamic, not just for U.S. Cellular, but a variety of initiatives underway to stabilize our postpaid market share through improvements on value proposition, customer life cycle management and the digital experience. You can also expect to see us continue to leverage our regional approach, adjusting our go-to-market on a community-by-community basis and getting even closer to our customers.

與此同時，客戶持有設備的時間比以往任何時候都長，這在一定程度上削弱了激進設備促銷的影響。這是一個真正具有挑戰性的動態，不僅對 U.S. Cellular 而言，而且對通過改進價值主張、客戶生命週期管理和數字體驗來穩定我們的後付費市場份額的各種舉措正在進行中。您還可以期待看到我們繼續利用我們的區域方法，在每個社區的基礎上調整我們的市場，並更接近我們的客戶。

Let me talk briefly on the business and government sector. We laid the groundwork in this space in 2021 with new distribution. And we're confident in our ability to expand revenues in this area in the long term, particularly in the IoT and the private networking space. As a regional operator, U.S. Cellular has always been a part of the communities we serve. And we estimate there are over 3 million businesses in our operating footprint. That provides real opportunity to significantly expand our market share going forward.

讓我簡單談談商業和政府部門。我們在 2021 年通過新的發行版在這個領域奠定了基礎。我們對長期擴大該領域收入的能力充滿信心，特別是在物聯網和私人網絡領域。作為區域運營商，US Cellular 一直是我們服務的社區的一部分。我們估計我們的運營足跡中有超過 300 萬家企業。這為我們未來顯著擴大市場份額提供了真正的機會。

Finally, we expect continued growth from our tower portfolio amid number of operational changes in 2021, including substantially reducing cycle time. As a result of that work, we have a really strong sales momentum heading into this year.

最後，我們預計，在 2021 年發生許多運營變化（包括大幅縮短週期時間）的情況下，我們的塔式投資組合將繼續增長。由於這項工作，我們今年的銷售勢頭非常強勁。

Before I hand it to Doug, let me just share a few thoughts on our 2022 guidance. We expect to see expanded retail service revenue, but we're going to continue to see headwinds from roaming, and that affects overall service revenue. Additionally, our guidance assumes a continuation of aggressive ongoing promotional activities, and that's on both upgrades and acquisitions. I'm bullish on growth over the long term, and we're making the necessary investments in distribution and in network to make it happen.

在我把它交給道格之前，讓我分享一些關於我們 2022 年指導的想法。我們預計零售服務收入會增加，但我們將繼續看到來自漫遊的不利因素，這會影響整體服務收入。此外，我們的指導假設繼續進行積極的促銷活動，包括升級和收購。我看好長期增長，我們正在對分銷和網絡進行必要的投資以實現這一目標。

Our long-term goal remains substantive expansion and return on capital. We will be pulling every lever at our disposal to improve return over time. You can expect to see revenue growth, coupled with expense discipline as well as capital optimization that will hopefully be supported by meaningful participation in some of the government funding efforts that I mentioned earlier.

我們的長期目標仍然是實質性擴張和資本回報。隨著時間的推移，我們將竭盡全力提高回報。您可以期望看到收入增長，加上費用紀律以及資本優化，希望通過有意義地參與我之前提到的一些政府資助工作得到支持。

With that, let me hand it to Doug to cover some of the details on subscribers and financials.

有了這個，讓我把它交給 Doug 來介紹有關訂閱者和財務的一些細節。

Thanks, LT. Good morning. Let's start with a review of customer results on Slide 11. Postpaid handset gross additions increased by 6,000 year-over-year, largely due to higher switching activity in combination with our strong promotional activity. Of course, this was against the backdrop of industry-wide promotional aggressiveness on handsets. We saw connected device gross additions decline 12,000 year-over-year, driven by lower hotspot sales compared to the prior year when we experienced an increasing demand due to the pandemic.

謝謝，LT。早上好。讓我們先回顧一下幻燈片 11 上的客戶結果。後付費手機總增加量同比增長了 6,000 部，這主要是由於更高的轉換活動以及我們強大的促銷活動。當然，這是在整個行業對手機進行積極促銷的背景下進行的。我們看到連接設備的總增加量同比下降 12,000 台，這是由於與去年相比，由於大流行導致需求增加，熱點銷售量下降。

Next, let's turn to the postpaid churn rate shown on Slide 12. Postpaid handset churn was 1.10%, up from 1.01% a year ago. This was driven primarily by voluntary churn, which continues to run at higher year-over-year. These were higher year-over-year as a result of increased switching activity and aggressive industry-wide competition. Involuntary churn also increased slightly in the quarter. Total postpaid churn, combining handsets and connected devices, was 1.35% for the fourth quarter of 2021, higher than a year ago due to the higher handset churn and certain business and government customers disconnecting connected devices that were activated during the peak periods of the pandemic in 2020.

接下來，讓我們看看幻燈片 12 中顯示的後付費用戶流失率。後付費手機用戶流失率為 1.10%，高於一年前的 1.01%。這主要是由自願流失驅動的，該流失率繼續同比增長。由於轉換活動的增加和激烈的全行業競爭，這些數字同比增長。本季度非自願流失也略有增加。 2021 年第四季度，包括手機和聯網設備在內的總後付費用戶流失率為 1.35%，高於一年前，原因是手機流失率較高以及某些企業和政府客戶斷開了在疫情高峰期激活的聯網設備2020 年。

Moving to Slide 13. Prepaid continued to improve compared to the prior year, driven by enhancements to our prepaid offerings throughout the year. We saw prepaid gross additions increase by 7,000 year-over-year and saw an overall increase of 14,000 to our prepaid base compared to prior year-end.

轉到幻燈片 13。與上一年相比，預付費繼續改善，這得益於我們全年預付費產品的增強。與去年年底相比，我們的預付總額增加了 7,000，預付基數總體增加了 14,000。

Now let's turn to the financial results on Slide 14. Total operating revenues for the fourth quarter were $1.068 billion, essentially flat year-over-year. Retail service revenues increased by 2% to $696 million, primarily due to a higher average revenue per user, which I will discuss in a moment. Inbound roaming revenue was $24 million, decreasing 27% year-over-year due to lower data volume and rates. One of the factors contributing to this data volume decrease is the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile and the continuing migration of Sprint roaming traffic to T-Mobile's network.

現在讓我們看看幻燈片 14 的財務業績。第四季度的總營業收入為 10.68 億美元，與去年同期基本持平。零售服務收入增長了 2%，達到 6.96 億美元，這主要是由於每位用戶的平均收入較高，我稍後將對此進行討論。由於數據量和費率下降，入境漫遊收入為 2400 萬美元，同比下降 27%。導致數據量下降的因素之一是 Sprint 和 T-Mobile 的合併以及 Sprint 漫遊流量持續遷移到 T-Mobile 的網絡。

Other service revenues were $62 million, up 3% year-over-year. Finally, equipment sales revenues decreased by 4% year-over-year, in large part as a result of an increase in promotional activity. We continue to engage in aggressive promotional activity during the fourth quarter of 2021 to remain competitive with the industry. A portion of the resulting promotional cost reduces equipment sales revenue and increases loss on equipment. In addition, loss on equipment in the fourth quarter of 2020 was mitigated by the impacts of the pandemic, specifically lower switching activity and less aggressive promotional activity relative to 2021.

其他服務收入為 6200 萬美元，同比增長 3%。最後，設備銷售收入同比下降 4%，這在很大程度上是由於促銷活動的增加。我們將在 2021 年第四季度繼續開展積極的促銷活動，以保持與行業的競爭力。由此產生的促銷成本的一部分減少了設備銷售收入並增加了設備損失。此外，大流行的影響減輕了 2020 年第四季度的設備損失，特別是與 2021 年相比，更換活動減少和促銷活動減少。

As a result of the combined impact of these factors, loss on equipment increased $24 million year-over-year. This change in loss on equipment, however, was offset by a reduction in other operating costs as profitability increased slightly compared to the prior year. We expect the aggressive promotional environment, including retention offers, to persist throughout 2022, and our guidance for 2022 reflects the corresponding financial impact.

由於這些因素的綜合影響，設備損失同比增加了 2400 萬美元。然而，設備損失的這種變化被其他運營成本的減少所抵消，因為盈利能力與上一年相比略有增加。我們預計包括保留優惠在內的積極促銷環境將持續到 2022 年，我們對 2022 年的指導反映了相應的財務影響。

Now a few more comments about postpaid revenue shown on Slide 15. Average revenue per user or connection was $48.62 for the fourth quarter, up 2% year-over-year. On a per account basis, average revenue also grew 2% year-over-year. The increases were driven primarily by favorable plan and product offering mix and an increase in device protection revenues. These increases were partially offset by an increase in promotional costs.

現在，幻燈片 15 上顯示了更多關於後付費收入的評論。第四季度每位用戶或連接的平均收入為 48.62 美元，同比增長 2%。按每個賬戶計算，平均收入也同比增長 2%。增長主要是由於有利的計劃和產品組合以及設備保護收入的增加。這些增長部分被促銷成本的增加所抵消。

As you can see on Slide 16, we have seen steady growth in tower rental revenues. Fourth quarter tower rental revenues increased by 9%. We are seeing positive momentum in tower colocation applications and we'll continue to focus on growing revenues from these strategic assets.

正如您在幻燈片 16 中看到的那樣，我們看到塔樓租金收入穩步增長。第四季度鐵塔租金收入增長 9%。我們在塔式託管應用中看到了積極的勢頭，我們將繼續專注於從這些戰略資產中增加收入。

Moving to Slide 17, I want to comment on adjusted operating income before depreciation, amortization and accretion and gains and losses. To keep things simple, I'll refer to this measure as adjusted operating income. As shown on this slide, adjusted operating income was $181 million, an increase of 1% year-over-year. As I commented earlier, total operating revenues were $1.068 billion, essentially flat. Total cash expenses were $887 million, a decrease of 1% year-over-year. Total system operations expense decreased 3%, largely driven by lower roaming expense resulting from lower data rates and lower voice usage, combined with lower cell site maintenance. Cost of equipment sold increased 4% due to an increase in units sold and a higher average cost per unit sold driven by a higher mix of smartphone sales.

轉到幻燈片 17，我想評論折舊、攤銷和增值以及損益之前的調整後營業收入。為簡單起見，我將此衡量標準稱為調整後的營業收入。如這張幻燈片所示，調整後的營業收入為 1.81 億美元，同比增長 1%。正如我之前評論的那樣，總營業收入為 10.68 億美元，基本持平。總現金支出為 8.87 億美元，同比下降 1%。總系統運營費用下降了 3%，主要是由於較低的數據速率和較低的語音使用導致的較低的漫遊費用，以及較低的蜂窩基站維護。設備銷售成本增加 4%，原因是銷售量增加，以及智能手機銷售組合增加導致單位銷售平均成本上升。

Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased 4%, driven primarily by decreases in advertising and legal expenses. Adjusted EBITDA, which incorporates the earnings from our equity method investments along with interest and dividend income, was $225 million, an increase of 1% year-over-year.

銷售、一般和行政費用下降了 4%，主要是由於廣告和法律費用的減少。調整後的 EBITDA 為 2.25 億美元，其中包括我們權益法投資的收益以及利息和股息收入，同比增長 1%。

Now let's turn to Slide 18 where we show our full year financial results. Total operating revenues were $4.1 billion, a 2% increase year-over-year. This was driven by an increase in retail service revenues due to higher average revenue per user and an increase in equipment sales. Also contributing to the increase were higher tower rental revenues and miscellaneous other service revenues. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in roaming revenues.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 18，我們展示了我們的全年財務業績。總營業收入為 41 億美元，同比增長 2%。這是由於每用戶平均收入增加和設備銷售增加導致零售服務收入增加。增加的塔租金收入和其他雜項服務收入也對增長做出了貢獻。這些增長被漫遊收入的減少部分抵消。

Total cash expenses were $3.3 billion, an increase of 3%. This is due primarily to an increase in cost of equipment sold, partially offset by a decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses. Excluding cost of equipment sold, cash expenses decreased 1%. Adjusted operating income and adjusted EBITDA both declined 1% due primarily to an increase in loss on equipment, which increased $70 million from $41 million to $111 million, which is the result of the highly competitive and promotional environment that we experienced throughout 2021.

現金支出總額為 33 億美元，增長 3%。這主要是由於銷售設備成本的增加，部分被銷售、一般和管理費用的減少所抵消。扣除設備銷售成本，現金支出下降 1%。調整後的營業收入和調整後的 EBITDA 均下降 1%，主要是由於設備損失增加，從 4100 萬美元增加到 1.11 億美元，增加了 7000 萬美元，這是我們在 2021 年經歷的高度競爭和促銷環境的結果。

Next, I want to cover our guidance for the full year 2022. Again, our guidance assumes the aggressive promotional environment that we experienced in 2021 will persist throughout 2022. We expect ranges of approximately $3.1 billion to $3.2 billion in service revenues; $750 million to $900 million in adjusted operating income; and $925 million to $1.075 billion in adjusted EBITDA. This guidance reflects our estimates for low single-digit growth in retail service revenue; continued decline of high-margin roaming revenue; continued elevated levels of promotional costs, including loss on equipment given the anticipated aggressive promotional environment; and modest growth in other cash expenses as we continue to invest in 5G and the growth areas of our business. For capital expenditures, the estimate is in the range of $700 million to $800 million.

接下來，我想介紹我們對 2022 年全年的指導。同樣，我們的指導假設我們在 2021 年經歷的積極促銷環境將持續到 2022 年。我們預計服務收入在 31 億美元至 32 億美元之間； 7.5億至9億美元的調整後營業收入；調整後的 EBITDA 為 9.25 億美元至 10.75 億美元。該指引反映了我們對零售服務收入低個位數增長的估計；高利潤漫遊收入持續下降；促銷成本持續上漲，包括在預期的激進促銷環境下的設備損失；隨著我們繼續投資於 5G 和我們業務的增長領域，其他現金支出略有增長。對於資本支出，估計在 7 億至 8 億美元之間。

Our multiyear 5G and network modernization program remains on track. We will also continue our targeted millimeter wave build-out in 2022 and begin making investments to deploy the mid-band spectrum we acquired in auctions 107 and 110. We have also provided a breakdown of capital expenditures by major category. I will now turn the call over to Jim Butman. Jim?

我們的多年 5G 和網絡現代化計劃仍在進行中。我們還將在 2022 年繼續我們的目標毫米波建設，並開始投資部署我們在拍賣 107 和 110 中獲得的中頻頻譜。我們還提供了按主要類別劃分的資本支出明細。我現在將把電話轉給 Jim Butman。吉姆?

Thank you, Doug. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to share that our transformation to become the preferred broadband provider in our markets is well underway. I've never been more optimistic about TDS Telecom's future. We are in a strong position today due to a number of growth initiatives we started executing on 5 years ago. In fact, we surpassed $1 billion in operating revenues, and we exceeded 500,000 broadband connections for the first time in TDS Telecom's history.

謝謝你，道格。大家，早安。我很高興與大家分享，我們正在成為市場上首選的寬帶提供商的轉型正在順利進行。我對 TDS Telecom 的未來從未如此樂觀。由於我們在 5 年前開始執行的多項增長計劃，我們今天處於強勢地位。事實上，我們的營業收入超過了 10 億美元，我們的寬帶連接數在 TDS Telecom 的歷史上首次超過了 500,000 個。

In 2021, we turned up 86,000 new fiber marketable service addresses, bringing total fiber addresses to nearly 400,000. It's critical to build these fiber networks and connect customers quickly to stay in front of potential competitors. We have an active pipeline of identified markets and continuing to plant flags in the most attractive new markets that will expand our footprint even further. We continued to address the broadband needs in our most rural markets by upgrading our copper networks with federal A-CAM funding and state broadband grant programs.

2021年新增光纖市場服務地址8.6萬個，光纖地址總數近40萬個。構建這些光纖網絡并快速連接客戶以領先於潛在競爭對手至關重要。我們擁有活躍的已識別市場渠道，並繼續在最具吸引力的新市場中樹立旗幟，這將進一步擴大我們的足跡。我們通過聯邦 A-CAM 資金和州寬帶贈款計劃升級我們的銅網絡，繼續滿足我們大多數農村市場的寬帶需求。

We've continued to transform our workforce and adapt to the opportunities and challenges brought on by the pandemic and labor shortages. We've moved to a hybrid work environment. In addition, we have placed extra emphasis on strategies to promote diversity, equity and inclusion objectives throughout our organization to keep us an attractive employer. Our associates are our most powerful resource.

我們繼續改造我們的勞動力，並適應大流行和勞動力短缺帶來的機遇和挑戰。我們已經轉移到混合工作環境。此外，我們特別重視在整個組織內促進多元化、公平和包容性目標的戰略，以使我們成為有吸引力的雇主。我們的員工是我們最強大的資源。

Moving to Slide 22. We have 5 strategic pillars, enabling our robust transformation. First, we are growing our scale through fiber market expansions. Second, we are growing our revenue through increased revenue per connection, customer penetrations and through continued fiber expansions. In our third pillar, we are continuously streamlining and automating our operations to reduce legacy costs and invest in new growth initiatives. Our fourth pillar is keeping the customer at the center of everything we do, continuously investing in customer experience improvements. Finally, the foundation of our entire business is our highly engaged, resilient and dedicated workforce. We invest in our people to make sure we attract and retain top talent.

轉到幻燈片 22。我們有 5 個戰略支柱，可實現穩健的轉型。首先，我們通過光纖市場的擴張來擴大我們的規模。其次，我們通過增加每個連接的收入、客戶滲透率和持續的光纖擴展來增加我們的收入。在我們的第三個支柱中，我們不斷精簡和自動化我們的運營，以降低遺留成本並投資於新的增長計劃。我們的第四個支柱是以客戶為中心，不斷投資於改善客戶體驗。最後，我們整個業務的基礎是我們高度敬業、有彈性和敬業的員工隊伍。我們投資於我們的員工，以確保我們吸引和留住頂尖人才。

Moving to Slide 23. Let me share some specific data points that demonstrate the transformation happening within our business. I have set bold goals for the team, which will require us to scale up more quickly, plant more flags and build relationships with our vendor partners. As we execute our strategy over the next 5 years, we plan to reach approximately 2.2 million service addresses with about 60% of those addresses being fiber and 80% capable of gig or faster speeds.

轉到幻燈片 23。讓我分享一些具體的數據點，這些數據點展示了我們業務中正在發生的轉變。我為團隊設定了大膽的目標，這將要求我們更快地擴大規模，種植更多的旗幟並與我們的供應商合作夥伴建立關係。隨著我們在未來 5 年內執行我們的戰略，我們計劃達到大約 220 萬個服務地址，其中大約 60% 的地址是光纖，80% 能夠實現千兆或更快的速度。

As Pete mentioned earlier, we have several strong underlying trends as tailwinds to our broadband strategy. There's increased bipartisan support for providing high-quality, affordable broadband services to rural America. With support from state and federal broadband programs, we intend to significantly reduce our expansion to ungraded copper, and we will continue to seize opportunities to improve broadband products for our most rural customers. Our strategy is working. For the past several years, we have ramped up our broadband strategy, investing in our networks, and we are positioning the business for faster growth over the next 5 years.

正如皮特之前提到的，我們有幾個強大的潛在趨勢作為我們寬帶戰略的順風。兩黨對向美國農村地區提供高質量、負擔得起的寬帶服務的支持有所增加。在州和聯邦寬帶計劃的支持下，我們打算顯著減少對未分級銅的擴張，我們將繼續抓住機會為我們大多數農村客戶改進寬帶產品。我們的策略正在奏效。在過去的幾年裡，我們加強了我們的寬帶戰略，投資於我們的網絡，我們正在為未來 5 年的更快增長定位業務。

On Slide 24, I'll describe our fiber program in more detail. We plan to triple our total fiber service addresses over the next 5 years to 1.2 million, with aspirations of increasing that target as we identify new opportunities. Our sense of urgency has increased given the attractiveness of this opportunity and a heightened level of participation by other overbuilders. Specifically, in 2022, we expect service address delivery to outpace 2021 by 1.5 to 2x. Along with the rest of the industry, we continue to face and actively manage broader economic supply chain, labor challenges affecting our industry, including permitting complexities and contractor delays. For example, to increase our speed to market, we are accelerating our deployment schedules. We are adding more markets to increase our flexibility, and we are strengthening our relationships with our vendors and strategic partners.

在幻燈片 24 上，我將更詳細地描述我們的光纖計劃。我們計劃在未來 5 年內將我們的總光纖服務地址增加兩倍，達到 120 萬個，並希望隨著我們發現新的機會而增加這一目標。鑑於這個機會的吸引力以及其他過度建設者的參與程度提高，我們的緊迫感有所增加。具體來說，到 2022 年，我們預計服務地址的交付速度將比 2021 年快 1.5 到 2 倍。與行業其他部門一樣，我們將繼續面對並積極管理更廣泛的經濟供應鏈、影響我們行業的勞動力挑戰，包括許可複雜性和承包商延誤。例如，為了加快上市速度，我們正在加快部署計劃。我們正在增加更多市場以提高我們的靈活性，並且我們正在加強與供應商和戰略合作夥伴的關係。

We have a rigorous process for selecting expansion markets. We focus on areas that have a favorable competitive environment such as areas that do not have fiber competition, have potential for household growth and have customers with the propensity to adopt high broadband speeds. We also look to partner with communities who are eager to bring fiber into their cities and offer a welcoming regulatory environment. Finally, we look for the ability to create larger market clusters, so we can leverage our network and field resources.

我們有一個嚴格的流程來選擇擴展市場。我們專注於具有良好競爭環境的領域，例如沒有光纖競爭、具有家庭增長潛力以及有採用高寬帶速度傾向的客戶的領域。我們還希望與渴望將光纖帶入城市並提供友好監管環境的社區合作。最後，我們尋找創建更大市場集群的能力，以便我們可以利用我們的網絡和現場資源。

For the markets we have selected, we expect to achieve broadband penetration rates between 40% and 50% in a steady state, making us the leader in our markets. Our experience to date is supporting the business case penetration assumptions, and we are pleased with our fiber expansion results so far and see even more opportunities for further expansion.

對於我們選擇的市場，我們希望在穩定狀態下實現 40% 到 50% 的寬帶普及率，使我們成為市場的領導者。迄今為止，我們的經驗支持業務案例滲透假設，我們對迄今為止的光纖擴展結果感到滿意，並看到了進一步擴展的更多機會。

Before I turn the call over to Vicki, I want to acknowledge her tremendous efforts serving as CFO of TDS Telecom. As we announced earlier, Vicki will be replacing Pete Sereda as CFO of TDS. Vicki has been instrumental in driving a successful transformation at TDS Telecom, and we look forward to her contributions leading the finance teams across the TDS enterprise. I also want to extend a warm welcome to Michelle Brukwicki, who will be replacing Vicki as CFO of TDS Telecom. Michelle has previously served as Vice President of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS, and I am confident she will excel in her new position. And now I will turn it over to Vicki.

在我將電話轉給 Vicki 之前，我想感謝她作為 TDS Telecom 的首席財務官所做的巨大努力。正如我們之前宣布的，Vicki 將取代 Pete Sereda 擔任 TDS 的首席財務官。 Vicki 在推動 TDS Telecom 成功轉型方面發揮了重要作用，我們期待她為領導整個 TDS 企業的財務團隊做出貢獻。我還要熱烈歡迎 Michelle Brukwicki，她將接替 Vicki 擔任 TDS Telecom 的首席財務官。 Michelle 此前曾擔任 TDS 財務分析和戰略規劃副總裁，我相信她將在新職位上表現出色。現在我將把它交給 Vicki。

Thank you, Jim, and good morning, everyone. I'm very proud to have served as TDS Telecom's CFO for the past 10 years, and I look forward to continued success in my new role at TDS. I also want to welcome Michelle. I've been working closely with Michelle over the last several years on TDS Telecom's strategy, and I'm looking forward to her continuing TDS Telecom's transformation.

謝謝你，吉姆，大家早上好。過去 10 年擔任 TDS Telecom 的首席財務官，我感到非常自豪，我期待在 TDS 的新職位上繼續取得成功。我也想歡迎米歇爾。在過去的幾年裡，我一直與 Michelle 就 TDS Telecom 的戰略密切合作，我期待著她繼續 TDS Telecom 的轉型。

With that said, let me begin by highlighting some of our operational accomplishments for the quarter. Moving to Slide 25. We grew our total service addresses 7% year-over-year and are now offering 1 gig broadband speeds to 58% of our total footprint. Total residential connections increased 2% due to broadband growth in new and existing markets, partially offset by a decrease in voice and video connections.

話雖如此，讓我首先強調我們本季度的一些運營成就。轉到幻燈片 25。我們的總服務地址同比增長 7%，現在提供 1 gig 寬帶速度，占我們總足蹟的 58%。由於新市場和現有市場的寬帶增長，住宅連接總數增加了 2%，部分被語音和視頻連接的減少所抵消。

Despite the connection losses, video continues to remain important to our customers and a key part of our bundling strategy, as it helps to increase our broadband penetration and reduce churn. Looking at the chart on the right, overall, higher value product mix and price increases drove a 4% increase in average residential revenue per connection.

儘管連接中斷，但視頻對我們的客戶仍然很重要，並且是我們捆綁策略的關鍵部分，因為它有助於提高我們的寬帶滲透率並減少客戶流失。從右側的圖表來看，總體而言，更高價值的產品組合和價格上漲推動每個連接的平均住宅收入增長 4%。

Moving on to Slide 26, you can see the broadband connection growth across all markets. Total telecom broadband residential connections grew 7% in the quarter as we continue to fortify our networks with fiber and expand into new markets. We are on track in our network construction under the A-CAM program, also helping to drive growth in our incumbent market. Our focus on fast, reliable service has generated a 12% increase in total residential broadband revenue. The 1 gig product, along with our 2 gig product in certain markets, are important tools to allow us to defend and to win new customers. In areas where we offer 1 gig service, we are now seeing 20% of our new customers taking this superior product.

轉到幻燈片 26，您可以看到所有市場的寬帶連接增長。隨著我們繼續用光纖加強我們的網絡並擴展到新市場，本季度電信寬帶住宅連接總數增長了 7%。我們在 A-CAM 計劃下的網絡建設正走上正軌，也有助於推動現有市場的增長。我們專注於快速、可靠的服務，使住宅寬帶總收入增長了 12%。 1 gig 產品以及我們在某些市場中的 2 gig 產品是使我們能夠捍衛和贏得新客戶的重要工具。在我們提供 1 次演出服務的地區，我們現在看到 20% 的新客戶使用這種優質產品。

On Slide 27, total revenues increased 2% year-over-year, driven by strong broadband growth. Residential revenues increased 6% across all markets. Commercial revenues decreased 7% in the quarter on lower CLEC connections, partially offset by a 5% increase in broadband connections. Wholesale revenues decreased 2%.

在幻燈片 27 上，受寬帶強勁增長的推動，總收入同比增長 2%。所有市場的住宅收入增長了 6%。由於 CLEC 連接減少，本季度商業收入下降了 7%，部分被寬帶連接增加 5% 所抵消。批發收入下降 2%。

Let me sum up the combined financial results for the quarter and the year as shown on Slide 28. Total revenues increased 2% in the quarter and 3% for the year, as growth from our fiber expansions and increases in broadband subscribers exceeded the declines we experienced in our legacy business. Cash expenses increased 2% in the quarter and 5% for the year due to both supporting our current growth as well as spending related to future expansion into new markets, which is not yet reflected in our revenues.

讓我總結一下本季度和年度的綜合財務結果，如幻燈片 28 所示。本季度總收入增長 2%，全年增長 3%，因為我們的光纖擴張和寬帶用戶的增長超過了我們的下降幅度在我們的傳統業務中經驗豐富。由於支持我們當前的增長以及與未來向新市場擴張相關的支出，現金支出在本季度增長了 2%，全年增長了 5%，這尚未反映在我們的收入中。

Future market costs include direct costs such as sales, marketing, real estate and technicians in addition to shared service costs necessary to support new market growth. Adjusted EBITDA increased 2% for the quarter to $75 million, but decreased 2% for the full year due to planned investment spending on new markets. Capital expenditures increased 2% for the quarter and 12% for the year due to increased investment in fiber deployment.

除了支持新市場增長所需的共享服務成本外，未來的市場成本還包括銷售、營銷、房地產和技術人員等直接成本。本季度調整後 EBITDA 增長 2% 至 7500 萬美元，但由於計劃在新市場上的投資支出，全年下降 2%。由於對光纖部署的投資增加，本季度資本支出增加了 2%，全年增加了 12%。

On Slide 29, we provided guidance for 2022. Our guidance factors in the foundational investments we are making to support the fiber expansion program over the next several years. We are forecasting total telecom revenues of $1.01 billion to $1.04 billion. This reflects our goal of top line growth driven by continued improvements in residential revenue across all of our markets, offsetting declines in the legacy parts of our business. A key assumption in our guidance is how many marketable fiber service addresses we can deliver. Our plans include address delivery of approximately 150,000 fiber service addresses.

在幻燈片 29 上，我們提供了 2022 年的指導。我們為支持未來幾年的光纖擴展計劃而進行的基礎投資中的指導因素。我們預計電信總收入為 10.1 億美元至 10.4 億美元。這反映了我們所有市場的住宅收入持續改善推動的收入增長目標，抵消了我們業務遺留部分的下降。我們指南中的一個關鍵假設是我們可以提供多少個適銷對路的光纖服務地址。我們的計劃包括大約 150,000 個光纖服務地址的地址交付。

Given our construction delays last year, our conservative approach to financial guidance factors in potential shortfalls in service address deliveries, should we experience similar challenges. A reminder that seasonality will impact the quarterly cadence of fiber service address delivery, starting slowly in the first quarter and steadily building throughout the year.

鑑於我們去年的施工延誤，如果我們遇到類似的挑戰，我們對財務指導的保守方法會導致服務地址交付方面的潛在短缺。提醒您，季節性將影響光纖服務地址交付的季度節奏，從第一季度開始緩慢，並在全年穩步增長。

Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $260 million to $290 million in 2022 compared to $310 million in 2021. This increase in adjusted EBITDA is primarily due to our heightened market expansion plans that Jim just discussed. We expect increases in front-end loaded market expansion costs to outpace cost reductions made in other areas of the business.

與 2021 年的 3.1 億美元相比，預計 2022 年調整後 EBITDA 將在 2.6 億美元至 2.9 億美元之間。調整後 EBITDA 的增長主要是由於吉姆剛剛討論的我們加強了市場擴張計劃。我們預計前端負載市場擴張成本的增加將超過其他業務領域的成本降低。

Capital expenditures are expected to be between $500 million and $550 million in 2022 compared to $411 million in 2021. Nearly 90% of our capital spending is allocated to broadband growth with more than 60% going directly into fiber investment.

預計 2022 年資本支出將在 5 億美元至 5.5 億美元之間，而 2021 年為 4.11 億美元。我們近 90% 的資本支出用於寬帶增長，超過 60% 直接用於光纖投資。

With that, I'd like to say it's been my pleasure to serve as TDS Telecom's CFO and to drive our shift in strategy to be the preferred broadband provider. I look forward to updating you in my new role in the future. Now I'll turn the call back to Colleen.

我想說的是，我很高興擔任 TDS Telecom 的首席財務官並推動我們的戰略轉變，成為首選的寬帶提供商。我期待著在未來更新我的新角色。現在我會把電話轉回給科琳。

Operator, we are now ready for questions. Given that we're a little short on time, we want to make sure each analyst has an opportunity this morning. (Operator Instructions) Okay. We're ready for the first question.

接線員，我們現在可以提問了。鑑於我們的時間有點短，我們希望確保每個分析師今天早上都有機會。 （操作員說明）好的。我們準備好回答第一個問題了。

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Ric Prentiss at Raymond James.

（操作員說明）我們將向 Raymond James 的 Ric Prentiss 提出第一個問題。

First question is, LT, you talked a lot about what's going on with the network steady pacing. Help us understand how you view the fixed wireless access opportunity, kind of what's the addressable market? What's the schedule to think about deploying it? Who do you think the competitive environment is. Are you taking from copper, DSL, from cable? What's kind of the opportunity out there? And leave in kind of a somewhat second question, but just what is the timing for government stimulus that might help that return on capital, both at the U.S. Cellular side and the TDS side?

第一個問題是，LT，您談了很多關於網絡穩定節奏的情況。幫助我們了解您如何看待固定無線接入機會，目標市場是什麼？考慮部署它的時間表是什麼？你認為競爭環境是誰。您是從銅纜、DSL 還是電纜中獲取信息？那裡有什麼機會？並且留下第二個問題，但政府刺激措施的時機可能有助於美國蜂窩方面和 TDS 方面的資本回報嗎？

Ric, the optimal opportunity without infrastructure subsidies from the government is a -- think of it as a tower that has between, let's call it, a couple of hundred homes and businesses within a 4- to 5-mile radius. The way that we would serve those businesses initially is with millimeter wave and then over time, as we bring DoD on, which will be at the very end of this year and certainly a lot more rhythm in 2023 as well as once the C-band clears, which will be at the end of 2023, we'll be able to serve those businesses and homes as well with mid-band. .

里克，沒有政府基礎設施補貼的最佳機會是——把它想像成一座塔，在 4 到 5 英里半徑範圍內，我們稱之為，幾百個家庭和企業。我們最初為這些業務提供服務的方式是使用毫米波，然後隨著時間的推移，隨著我們將 DoD 引入，這將在今年年底進行，並且在 2023 年以及曾經的 C 波段肯定會有更多的節奏清除，這將是在 2023 年底，我們將能夠為這些企業和家庭提供中頻服務。 .

Right now, the size of that market without infrastructure subsidies, Ric, I don't have a firm size to give you. I think we've got enough opportunities to keep us busy. What I'll tell you is the real opportunity is with the IIJA. And the reason is, is because if you think about, let's call it, $1 million to put a tower in rural America. It's probably a little bit high, but back of the envelope. I can serve -- I can make that tower profitable on a fixed wireless access basis with a couple of hundred subscribers.

目前，沒有基礎設施補貼的市場規模，Ric，我沒有確定的規模給你。我認為我們有足夠的機會讓我們保持忙碌。我要告訴你的是，真正的機會在於 IIJA。原因是，如果你考慮一下，讓我們稱之為，100 萬美元在美國農村建一座塔。它可能有點高，但在信封的後面。我可以提供服務——我可以讓那座塔在擁有幾百個用戶的固定無線接入基礎上盈利。

But if I can take the cost of that tower and make it $500,000 or if I make it $100,000. Well, then if I can even just make the tower profitable with fixed wireless subscribers, then the opportunity is I've been able to significantly subsidize my cost of rolling out 5G to the area. By the way, that's really attractive to the governors that we've spoken with because what they're viewing it as is, frankly, a double dip for their constituents. They get better broadband to their home and they get a better 5G mobile experience.

但如果我能把那座塔的成本拿來500,000美元，或者我能賺100,000美元。那麼，如果我什至可以通過固定無線用戶使塔盈利，那麼機會就是我能夠大幅補貼我在該地區推出 5G 的成本。順便說一句，這對我們與之交談過的州長們來說真的很有吸引力，因為坦率地說，他們認為這對他們的選民來說是二次探底。他們在家中獲得了更好的寬帶，並獲得了更好的 5G 移動體驗。

And then the beautiful thing is that we also then have a new tower in rural America where, by definition, a tower wasn't before, and so that will also be an attractive colocation opportunity for my tower customers. So there's really 3 revenue streams off of that individual infrastructure dollar. We're rolling out that fixed wireless service without infrastructure subsidies. We're doing so steadily gradually. We've got the service live in market in a couple of states. You can expect to kind of see some gradual expansion there, but the thing that's really going to put it on steroids, and I think that will make a meaningful difference in our financials is that we can take advantage of those infrastructure dollars.

然後美妙的是，我們在美國農村也有一座新塔，根據定義，以前沒有塔，所以這對我的塔客戶來說也是一個有吸引力的託管機會。因此，單個基礎設施美元確實有 3 個收入來源。我們正在推出沒有基礎設施補貼的固定無線服務。我們正在逐步穩步地這樣做。我們已經在幾個州的市場上推出了這項服務。你可以期待在那裡看到一些逐漸的擴張，但真正會讓它變得更加強大的事情，我認為這將對我們的財務產生有意義的影響，那就是我們可以利用這些基礎設施資金。

In terms of timing, according to the Department of Commerce, the FCC has said they're going to have maps out in the fall. Actually, I think they may have said summer. My expectation is probably that's going to take a little bit longer than people think. And so my expectation is we'll probably have good maps for the states to use later this year. They have access to a chunk of money immediately to help them with planning efforts. And so my expectation is that we'll start to see meaningful grants flowing from the states in 2023. So 2022 will be a foundational year in order -- in terms of building the business. 2023 will be taking advantage of those dollars, and I think, really hitting the growth lever.

根據商務部的說法，就時間安排而言，FCC 已經表示他們將在秋季發布地圖。實際上，我想他們可能會說夏天。我的預期可能會比人們想像的要花更長的時間。所以我的期望是，今年晚些時候我們可能會有很好的地圖供各州使用。他們可以立即獲得一大筆資金來幫助他們進行規劃工作。因此，我的期望是，我們將在 2023 年開始看到各州提供有意義的撥款。因此，就建立業務而言，2022 年將是一個基礎的一年。 2023 年將利用這些美元，我認為，這將真正觸及增長槓桿。

And when you think of who the addressable market is, is it somebody who doesn't have broadband? Is it somebody who has copper broadband or not really broadband? Who are you seeing as the target market?

當你想到目標市場是誰時，是不是沒有寬帶的人？是擁有銅線寬帶還是沒有真正寬帶的人？你認為誰是目標市場？

Yes. So we're marketing at 300 down. We're also seeing north of 100 up. So we think it's a pretty terrific experience. Certainly, copper, DSL, nonupgraded cable plant. I think when you get into upgraded cable plant, it starts to become a little bit trickier, but I still think we can play. The dollars per gig are somewhat commensurate and we think we can provide a pretty good customer experience, we're good at this stuff. Where it doesn't play is where there is fiber. And so where fiber either has been or will be in the near term, let's call it with the IIJA, I don't think that's a good -- I don't think that's necessarily a good economic calculation. And so I don't see it being a compelling option there. Now what is that? How exactly that market size is up in our states? Well, that's kind of where we have to wait and see how those dollars start to flow and how many of those dollars go to fiber versus how many of those dollars go to alternate technology.

是的。所以我們的營銷價格是300。我們也看到 100 以北。所以我們認為這是一次非常棒的體驗。當然，銅線、DSL、未升級的電纜廠。我認為當你進入升級後的有線電視廠時，它開始變得有點棘手，但我仍然認為我們可以玩。每場演出的美元有點相稱，我們認為我們可以提供非常好的客戶體驗，我們擅長這些東西。它不播放的地方就是有纖維的地方。因此，在光纖已經或將在短期內出現的地方，讓我們用 IIJA 來稱呼它，我認為這不是一個好的 - 我認為這不一定是一個好的經濟計算。所以我不認為這是一個引人注目的選擇。那是什麼？我們各州的市場規模到底增長了多少？嗯，這就是我們必須等待的地方，看看這些美元是如何開始流動的，有多少美元流向了光纖，又有多少美元流向了替代技術。

We'll go next to Phil Cusick at JPMorgan.

我們將與摩根大通的 Phil Cusick 一起討論。

I'm going to follow the rules. And I only have one question, but with 2 parts. I guess -- congratulations, Vicki. Maybe one more on TDS for you. The guidance on TDS operating revenue is good, but the EBITDA decreased. Maybe you can lay out for us the OpEx or losses in those expansion markets. And will you sort of outline those through the year? And then how should we think about those over the next few years as the expansion continues? And then for LT, clearly, U.S. Cellular churn is being pressured by more competition. Do you assume that this continues? And how do you hit your ROI estimates on this new spectrum and CapEx in this kind of environment?

我要遵守規則。我只有一個問題，但有 2 個部分。我猜——恭喜你，維姬。也許還有一個關於 TDS 的內容。 TDS 營業收入指引良好，但 EBITDA 下降。也許您可以為我們列出這些擴張市場中的運營支出或損失。你會在一年中概述這些嗎？那麼隨著擴張的繼續，我們應該如何看待未來幾年的那些？然後對於 LT，很明顯，美國的移動客戶流失正受到更多競爭的壓力。你認為這種情況會繼續嗎？在這種環境下，您如何達到對新頻譜和資本支出的 ROI 估計？

Okay. Thank you. The decline in EBITDA is all due to our market expansions. We are increasing the number of new communities significantly in 2022, and each of those come with upfront spending, such as real estate, engineering work, transport, the hiring of the teams in the market, sales, marketing and field technicians. But we're highly confident in our plans to earn attractive returns on these investments. And we're already seeing. I've got a number of successes already as we're into our fifth year of this program as we are seeing contribution margins from our earlier out-of-territory fiber markets, meeting or exceeding, in some cases, our expectations.

好的。謝謝你。 EBITDA 的下降完全是由於我們的市場擴張。到 2022 年，我們將顯著增加新社區的數量，每個社區都有前期支出，例如房地產、工程、交通、市場團隊的招聘、銷售、營銷和現場技術人員。但我們對通過這些投資獲得可觀回報的計劃充滿信心。我們已經看到了。當我們進入該計劃的第五個年頭時，我已經取得了許多成功，因為我們看到了早期境外光纖市場的貢獻率，在某些情況下達到或超過了我們的預期。

So with that said, as you see the increase, we did increase cash expenses in 2021, and the majority of that was all due to our expansion markets. But as we are now increasing significantly our total program, you're going to see more upfront spending in 2022. And that is the reason for the lower EBITDA guidance. Jim, I don't know if you want to add anything more to that?

話雖如此，正如你看到的增長，我們確實在 2021 年增加了現金支出，其中大部分都是由於我們的市場擴張。但隨著我們現在顯著增加我們的總計劃，您將在 2022 年看到更多的前期支出。這就是 EBITDA 指導較低的原因。吉姆，我不知道你還想補充什麼嗎？

No, Vicki, I think you did a great job. I would tell you here, the opportunity we see is so great and the market is moving quickly that we just feel we've got to go a lot faster, okay? So if you look at what we did over the past 5 years and what we're projecting, I mean, we're more than doubling the service address delivery. And the window for the best markets, it's going to go away. There's more and more activity in this market. So we just think this is the time to seize the opportunity. So we're going to put the metal -- or the pedal to the metal.

不，維姬，我認為你做得很好。我會在這裡告訴你，我們看到的機會是如此之大，而且市場正在迅速發展，我們只是覺得我們必須走得更快，好嗎？因此，如果您看看我們在過去 5 年所做的事情以及我們的計劃，我的意思是，我們的服務地址交付量增加了一倍以上。而通往最佳市場的窗口，將會消失。這個市場的活動越來越多。所以我們只是認為現在是抓住機會的時候了。所以我們要把金屬——或者踏板放在金屬上。

So Phil, when I think about how to hit those targets I talked about, I'd point you to a couple of levers. I think the first, when you look at our postpaid business, postpaid consumer, we have to continue to do better, but our share of gross adds has actually been quite strong last year and particularly in Q4. So it's really a churn story, and the churn dynamic is going to be affected by the upgrade promotions. We're going to be launching a new approach to upgrades in the second quarter that's driven by personalization engine we've been investing in. And so soon, right, you'll see what I would call mass upgrades. And so that has more to do with simply having more aggressive upgrade promotions for the entire market.

所以菲爾，當我考慮如何達到我談到的那些目標時，我會向你指出幾個槓桿。我認為首先，當您查看我們的後付費業務時，後付費消費者，我們必須繼續做得更好，但我們去年的總增加份額實際上非常強勁，尤其是在第四季度。所以這真的是一個流失的故事，流失動態會受到升級促銷的影響。我們將在第二季度推出一種新的升級方法，由我們一直在投資的個性化引擎驅動。很快，你就會看到我所說的大規模升級。因此，這更多地與簡單地為整個市場進行更積極的升級促銷有關。

It'll keep us in the game, but the financials are pretty challenging. The interesting opportunity on the postpaid side is to use our personalization engine to do much more targeted outreach. So digital outreach to customers with upgrade promotions that are specifically targeted at them. We believe we can get the same upgrade results as with the mass approach but do so with much better spend.

它會讓我們保持在遊戲中，但財務狀況非常具有挑戰性。後付費方面的有趣機會是使用我們的個性化引擎進行更有針對性的外展。因此，通過專門針對他們的升級促銷活動向客戶進行數字推廣。我們相信我們可以獲得與大規模方法相同的升級結果，但成本要高得多。

Second lever, continued investment in the growth areas. Prepaid, business and government, towers. If you see -- if we can continue the momentum that we have, you'll see significant revenue growth on a relatively manageable expense base. We've already invested in business and government distribution. We've invested in a lot of our prepaid platforms. And so I think we can drive growth on those platforms and on those distribution capabilities without necessarily having to have commensurate expense expansion.

第二個槓桿，持續投資增長領域。預付，商業和政府，塔。如果您看到 - 如果我們能夠繼續我們擁有的勢頭，您將在相對可管理的費用基礎上看到顯著的收入增長。我們已經投資於商業和政府分銷。我們已經投資了很多我們的預付費平台。因此，我認為我們可以推動這些平台和分銷能力的增長，而不必進行相應的費用擴張。

And following in the tower business. I mean, right now, it's still -- it's not a huge piece of revenue for us. Every colocator that we get is just dollars straight to the bottom line to the return on capital profile that tower business is really attractive. If you put all that together, and we have what I believe is quite a tactical plan to reach those return on capital objectives, the big wildcard is upgrade and upgrade promotions, and I tried to make that clear in the opening comments.

並緊隨塔樓業務。我的意思是，現在，它仍然——這對我們來說並不是一筆巨大的收入。我們得到的每一個託管商都只是直接達到資本回報率的底線，這表明塔式業務確實很有吸引力。如果你把所有這些放在一起，並且我們有一個我認為是實現這些資本回報目標的戰術計劃，那麼最大的通配符就是升級和升級促銷，我試圖在開場評論中說明這一點。

We'll go next to Simon Flannery at Morgan Stanley.

我們將在摩根士丹利的西蒙弗蘭納里旁邊。

Great. Congrats to Vicki, and, Pete, best wishes for the future. I wonder if we could just talk about the capital structure and the balance sheet. You've talked about the investments you're making. You've talked about the lower cost of debt. You raised the dividend. How are you thinking about your leverage profile and sources and uses of funds over this 5G and fiber cycle? Are there specific goals that you're trying to achieve that we should be aware of?

偉大的。恭喜 Vicki，還有 Pete，對未來的美好祝愿。我想知道我們是否可以只談談資本結構和資產負債表。你已經談到了你正在進行的投資。您談到了較低的債務成本。你提高了股息。在這個 5G 和光纖週期中，您如何看待您的槓桿概況、資金來源和用途？您是否有一些我們應該注意的具體目標？

Well, we've increased our leverage over the last couple of years in anticipation of the spectrum purchases that we made, and we found that we had very good access to the capital markets. We're sort of in the mid-2s in terms of debt-to-EBITDA. And we think we can stay -- our target is to stay low to mid 3x debt-to-EBITDA and maintain our current ratings where we're currently at mid BB. So we're -- this is a measured program. I mean, we're going to be investing heavily, but it's going to be spread out over time. And we think we can sort of thread the needle of investing at these levels while maintaining our leverage levels at acceptable levels.

好吧，我們在過去幾年中增加了我們的槓桿，以預期我們購買的頻譜，我們發現我們可以很好地進入資本市場。就債務對 EBITDA 而言，我們處於 2 年代中期。我們認為我們可以留下來——我們的目標是保持低至中等 3 倍的債務與 EBITDA 之比，並維持我們目前處於中 BB 的當前評級。所以我們是——這是一個經過衡量的計劃。我的意思是，我們將進行大量投資，但會隨著時間的推移而分散。我們認為我們可以在這些水平上進行投資，同時將我們的槓桿水平保持在可接受的水平。

And Simon, I would just add one note to that. I talked a lot about the IIJA, the potential funds that could come in, which will help return on capital. We don't have a whole bunch of assumptions in the current plan and in kind of what I've -- the goals that we've laid forward. We don't have a bunch of assumptions that we're going to get those dollars. And so we're funded in a way to help us achieve the plan. Pete and team have done a tremendous job in changing our cost of debt and actually changing our balance sheet. The opportunities I talked about with the IIJA are simply on top of that.

西蒙，我只想添加一個註釋。我談了很多關於 IIJA 的潛在資金，這將有助於資本回報。在當前的計劃和我所擁有的那種——我們已經提出的目標中，我們沒有一大堆假設。我們沒有一堆假設我們會得到這些美元。因此，我們獲得的資金可以幫助我們實現計劃。皮特和他的團隊在改變我們的債務成本和實際改變我們的資產負債表方面做了大量工作。我與 IIJA 談到的機會僅此而已。

And we'll go next to Michael Rollins with Citi.

我們將與花旗一起去邁克爾羅林斯旁邊。

I'll also stick with one question. Just looking at the guidance slide for U.S. Cellular. What's interesting is the margin outlook for '22 is in -- I think if I'm calculating right, in the mid-20s. And you've got the national incumbents funding either at or above 50% or trying to get to that level. And so I'm just kind of curious, as you look at the wireless business, if you can unpack what might be structurally different about the margins versus maybe temporary? And where do you see the opportunities over a multiyear period to meaningfully improve the margins on the current revenue base?

我也會堅持一個問題。只需查看 U.S. Cellular 的指導幻燈片。有趣的是 22 年的利潤率前景在 - 我想如果我計算正確的話，在 20 年代中期。而且你已經獲得了國家現有企業的資金，要么達到或超過 50%，要么試圖達到這個水平。因此，當您查看無線業務時，我有點好奇，您是否可以解開利潤結構上可能存在的差異，而不是暫時的？在多年的時間裡，您認為在當前收入基礎上顯著提高利潤率的機會在哪裡？

Yes, let me address first, where we're at with the '22 guidance and I'll address the longer term. So going into 2022, we have an inbound roaming revenue headwind in that, that is down significantly from 2020 to 2021. We continue to lose that really high-margin revenue into next year. We're increasing our retail service revenues at a rate of 3%, and that's on ARPU increases. So doing really well there. And the promotional environment that we've talked about throughout the call, our costs running through promo went up substantially in 2021. It's going to go up a bit in 2022, provided the promotional environment persists through 2022, which is our current expectation that could change and that could help us in 2022, if it does.

是的，讓我先談談我們在 22 年指導下所處的位置，我將討論更長期的問題。因此，進入 2022 年，我們有一個入境漫遊收入逆風，從 2020 年到 2021 年大幅下降。我們將繼續失去到明年真正高利潤的收入。我們正在以 3% 的速度增加我們的零售服務收入，這取決於 ARPU 的增加。所以在那裡做得很好。我們在整個電話會議中談到的促銷環境，我們通過促銷活動的成本在 2021 年大幅上升。如果促銷環境持續到 2022 年，2022 年會有所上升，這是我們目前的預期如果確實如此，那將在 2022 年對我們有所幫助。

On expenses, we're really highly focused. We're going on a sixth year of a cost optimization program. We've really made great progress there, great accomplishments. And so we're only increasing expenses modestly, low single-digit percent. And by the way, while we're doing that, we're investing in all the areas we've talked about B&G, fixed wireless, towers, prepaid and so forth. So that's '22. I mean to get from our margins to where the competitors are, it's really -- first of all, it's a slow path, and we've said multiple times, our focus is return on capital. But it's all the growth areas we've talked about throughout this call. It's expanding prepaid business and government, fixed wireless towers. It's taking advantage of the infrastructure funding, and our postpaid business needs to get better. Our customer growth isn't where it needs to be, LT just stressed churn. We have to adjust that. We also have to improve customer acquisition. So it's really all those things.

在費用方面，我們非常專注。我們正在進行第六年的成本優化計劃。我們確實在那裡取得了很大的進步，取得了巨大的成就。所以我們只是適度增加開支，低個位數的百分比。順便說一句，在我們這樣做的同時，我們正在對我們討論過的所有領域進行投資，包括 B&G、固定無線、信號塔、預付費等等。所以那是'22。我的意思是從我們的利潤到競爭對手的位置，這真的是——首先，這是一條緩慢的道路，我們已經多次說過，我們的重點是資本回報。但這是我們在整個電話會議中討論的所有增長領域。它正在擴大預付費業務和政府、固定無線發射塔。它正在利用基礎設施資金，我們的後付費業務需要變得更好。我們的客戶增長不是它需要的地方，LT 只是強調流失。我們必須調整它。我們還必須改善客戶獲取。所以這真的是所有這些事情。

We'll move next to Sergey Dluzhevskiy with CSA.

我們將與 CSA 一起移動到 Sergey Dluzhevskiy 旁邊。

A couple of questions -- two-part question, I guess. One on the tower side of the business. So tower revenues were up 9%, but the average number of tenants ex your salary still only about 0.5%. So LT, maybe if you could provide more color what your specific objectives are for the tower business in 2022? And maybe on a 3-year horizon, what would you view as success? And also considering that you are running this business more like a tower company, what are the pros and counts, in your opinion, of making it a separate segment within U.S. Cellular and providing additional disclosures around profitability and other metrics.

幾個問題——我猜是兩部分的問題。一個在業務的塔側。因此，塔的收入增長了 9%，但除您的工資外，平均租戶數量仍然只有 0.5% 左右。所以 LT，如果你能提供更多的顏色，那麼你在 2022 年的塔業務的具體目標是什麼？也許在 3 年的時間裡，你認為什麼是成功？並且還考慮到您更像一家電信塔公司來經營這項業務，在您看來，將其作為 U.S. Cellular 中的一個單獨部門並提供有關盈利能力和其他指標的額外披露的優點和計數是什麼。

And the second part of my question is related both to wireless and to wireline. I know that the overlap between USM and TDS Telecom footprint is somewhat limited, but with Infrastructure Bill and funding available, could your current strategy of edging out by TDS Telecom and 5G build by U.S. Cellular combined with this infrastructure funding create new expanded potential partnership opportunities for both businesses that would allow to grow them at a higher rate going forward?

我的問題的第二部分與無線和有線有關。我知道 USM 和 TDS 電信足蹟之間的重疊部分有限，但是在基礎設施法案和可用資金的情況下，您當前的 TDS 電信和美國蜂窩建設的 5G 戰略與此基礎設施資金相結合是否可以創造新的擴大潛在合作機會對於這兩個企業來說，這將允許它們以更高的速度發展？

Thanks, Sergey. So let's start with towers. The near-term objective is continued revenue expansion at the rate or faster than we've been doing it. How are we going to accomplish that? Increased colocation rates, decreased cycle times, marketing these towers to potential colocators and being more aggressive on how we run that business. We've seen really good success thus far, and I expect that to continue. Longer term, I think the big opportunity, frankly, not to be simplistic, but it's more towers. Building more towers to support our wireless business, putting those towers in place to improve our expense profile, whether it's moving out of high-rent areas, whether it's reducing our roaming exposure, whether it's improving coverage, right? So we put those towers in place and then we're going to put those towers in places where we also think that we can market them to the AT&Ts, Verizons, T-Mobiles and DISHes of the world.

謝謝，謝爾蓋。所以讓我們從塔開始。近期目標是以比我們一直在做的速度或更快的速度繼續增加收入。我們將如何做到這一點？提高託管率，縮短週期時間，將這些塔推銷給潛在的託管商，並在我們如何經營該業務方面更加積極。到目前為止，我們已經看到了非常好的成功，我希望這種情況會繼續下去。從長遠來看，坦率地說，我認為這是一個巨大的機會，不是簡單化的，而是更多的塔。建造更多的信號塔來支持我們的無線業務，放置這些信號塔以改善我們的費用狀況，無論是搬出高租金區域，還是減少我們的漫遊風險，還是改善覆蓋範圍，對吧？因此，我們將這些塔放置到位，然後我們將把這些塔放置在我們認為可以將它們推銷給世界各地的 AT&T、Verizon、T-Mobile 和 DISH 的地方。

And then the final, I think, attractive growth opportunity to get more towers goes back to what I was talking about with the IIJA, right? If we have -- if we get the economics to put a tower in place, if we can make those more attractive by putting an infrastructure component in that it means I can take a planned build of 100 towers and make it 300 towers or 500 towers. So improving both the effectiveness of that business as well as just the total volume of scale of that business is where we're going with it.

最後，我認為，獲得更多塔樓的有吸引力的增長機會可以追溯到我與 IIJA 談論的內容，對嗎？如果我們有——如果我們有足夠的經濟性來建造一座塔，如果我們可以通過放置一個基礎設施組件來使它們更具吸引力，這意味著我可以計劃建造 100 座塔，然後建造 300 座或 500 座塔.因此，提高該業務的效率以及該業務的總規模是我們的目標。

In terms of overlap with TDS, I absolutely think there's an opportunity, but it completely depends on how the grant programs are structured. So if the grant -- if there's a grant program that's structured from a state as, hey, here's the geography that I want you to cover. And I want you to cover it with fiber. And whatever you can't cover with fiber, I want you to cover with something else, and our something else is fixed wireless, and we think it's a tremendous service. We absolutely will work with TDS Telecom in those opportunities where we have that footprint opportunity. We'll also work with other players. And so we would absolutely take a partnership approach to serving that.

在與 TDS 的重疊方面，我絕對認為有機會，但這完全取決於資助計劃的結構。因此，如果贈款——如果有一個由某個州構成的贈款計劃，嘿，這就是我希望你涵蓋的地理區域。我希望你用纖維覆蓋它。任何你不能用光纖覆蓋的東西，我希望你用其他東西來覆蓋，而我們的其他東西是固定無線的，我們認為這是一項了不起的服務。我們絕對會與 TDS Telecom 合作，在我們擁有足蹟的機會中。我們還將與其他玩家合作。因此，我們絕對會採取合作夥伴關係的方式來服務。

There's an alternative approach where a state could say, look, I'm going to allocate a certain amount of dollars to fiber, and I'm going to allocate another amount of dollars to other technologies like fixed wireless. For something like that, we would obviously bid independently, and there's not as much opportunity to work together. So I think we have a huge benefit in terms of bidding because we have a fiber partner like TDS Telecom. And I would argue they have a similar opportunity by having a fixed wireless provider that can fill in gaps in their footprint when they decide to bid for those grants as well. So I think we're absolutely more powerful together.

還有另一種方法，一個州可以說，看，我將分配一定數量的美元用於光纖，我將分配另一數量的美元用於固定無線等其他技術。對於這樣的事情，我們顯然會獨立出價，並且沒有那麼多合作的機會。所以我認為我們在投標方面有很大的好處，因為我們有像 TDS 電信這樣的光纖合作夥伴。我認為他們也有類似的機會，因為他們有一個固定的無線提供商，可以在他們決定競標這些贈款時填補他們的足跡空白。所以我認為我們在一起絕對更強大。

There are no further questions at this time. Colleen, I'll turn the call back over to you.

目前沒有其他問題。科琳，我會把電話轉給你的。

Okay. Thanks, everyone, for your time today. Again, please feel free to reach out to Investor Relations if you have any additional questions. Have a great weekend.

好的。謝謝大家，今天的時間。同樣，如果您有任何其他問題，請隨時聯繫投資者關係部。週末愉快。

And that does conclude today's conference. Again, thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

這確實結束了今天的會議。再次感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。