美國無線通訊 (USM) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the TDS and UScellular Fourth Quarter 2022 Operating Results Conference Call.

你好，謝謝你的支持。我叫 Regina，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。此時，我想歡迎大家參加 TDS 和 UScellular 2022 年第四季度運營業績電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Colleen Thompson, Vice President, Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給公司關係副總裁 Colleen Thompson。請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. 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 UScellular websites. With me today and offering prepared comments are from TDS, Vicki Villacrez, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; from UScellular, LT Therivel, President and Chief Executive Officer; Doug Chambers, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer; and from TDS Telecom, Michelle Brukwicki, Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

早上好，感謝您加入我們。我們想讓大家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 UScellular 網站的投資者關係部分找到這些演示文稿。今天和我一起提供準備好的評論的是 TDS 執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Vicki Villacrez；來自 UScellular，LT Therivel，總裁兼首席執行官； Doug Chambers，執行副總裁、首席財務官兼財務主管；來自 TDS Telecom 的財務高級副總裁兼首席財務官 Michelle Brukwicki。

This call is being simultaneously webcast on the TDS and UScellular Investor Relations websites. Please see the websites for slides referred to on this call, including non-GAAP reconciliations. 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 UScellular's wireless partnerships. TDS and UScellular filed our SEC forms 8-K including the press releases and our 10-K as yesterday. 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.

此電話會議正在 TDS 和 UScellular 投資者關係網站上同時進行網絡直播。請參閱本次電話會議中提到的幻燈片的網站，包括非 GAAP 對賬。我們為調整後的折舊和攤銷前營業收入或 OIBDA 以及調整後的利息、稅項、折舊和攤銷前利潤或 EBITDA 提供指導，以突出 UScellular 無線合作夥伴關係的貢獻。 TDS 和 UScellular 昨天提交了我們的 SEC 表格 8-K，包括新聞稿和我們的 10-K。如幻燈片 2 所示，本次電話會議期間演示文稿中所列和討論的信息包含有關預期未來事件和財務結果的前瞻性陳述，並受風險和不確定性的影響。

Please review the safe harbor paragraphs in our press releases and the extended version included in our SEC filings. In terms of our upcoming IR schedule on Slide 3, in early March, we will be attending the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando and the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference in San Francisco, and then we will also be attending the New Street's second annual Fiber to the Future Conference on March 28. And as always, we have an open door or video call policy, so please reach out if you're interested in speaking with us. I will now turn the call over to Vicki Villacrez. Vicki?

請查看我們新聞稿中的安全港段落和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中包含的擴展版本。關於幻燈片 3 即將到來的 IR 時間表，3 月初，我們將參加在奧蘭多舉行的 Raymond James 機構投資者會議和在舊金山舉行的摩根士丹利 TMT 會議，然後我們還將參加 New Street 的第二屆年度光纖會議到 3 月 28 日的未來會議。和往常一樣，我們有開放的大門或視頻通話政策，所以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 Vicki Villacrez。薇琪？

Okay. Thank you, Colleen, and good morning, everyone. This year-end call is important as it gives us the opportunity to reflect upon our accomplishments over the past year. recognizing all the actions that both business units have taken to strengthen their competitive positions and plans to support our long-term strategic objective of higher returns.

好的。謝謝你，科琳，大家早上好。這次年終電話會議很重要，因為它讓我們有機會反思過去一年的成就。認識到兩個業務部門為加強其競爭地位而採取的所有行動，併計劃支持我們實現更高回報的長期戰略目標。

I'll remind you that our mission at TDS is to provide outstanding communication services to all our customers and to meet the needs of our shareholders, our people and our communities. We continue to make substantial investments in our businesses in 2022, pressuring free cash flow. However, we made substantial progress towards our network goals as both business units will talk to. And while investing still remains a high priority, we will moderate our CapEx spend in 2023 across the enterprise.

我會提醒您，我們在 TDS 的使命是為我們所有的客戶提供出色的通信服務，並滿足我們的股東、我們的員工和我們的社區的需求。我們將在 2022 年繼續對我們的業務進行大量投資，給自由現金流帶來壓力。但是，我們在實現網絡目標方面取得了實質性進展，因為兩個業務部門都將與之交談。雖然投資仍然是重中之重，但我們將在 2023 年降低整個企業的資本支出。

Turning to Slide 4. Our balance sheet remains healthy at year-end with approximately $1.5 billion in available sources of liquidity, including cash, term loans, revolvers and asset securitization facility, and we have long-dated maturities and preferred equity, extending any sizable maturities to very far in the future. We believe that we have the right mix of both long-term maturities and shorter-term financings to help fund our investments while appropriately managing through the current interest rate environment. Both business units are continuing their rigorous multiyear cost discipline programs taking place throughout their organizations, focusing on both OpEx and CapEx, which should contribute favorably to cash flow going forward. I also want to highlight that during the quarter, Slide 5, we once again repurchased a modest amount of stock in both companies and for the full year 2022.

轉到幻燈片 4。我們的資產負債表在年底保持健康，有大約 15 億美元的可用流動性來源，包括現金、定期貸款、循環貸款和資產證券化工具，我們有長期期限和優先股，擴大任何規模在很遠的將來到期。我們相信，我們擁有長期期限和短期融資的正確組合，以幫助為我們的投資提供資金，同時適當地管理當前的利率環境。兩個業務部門都在繼續其在整個組織中實施的嚴格的多年成本紀律計劃，重點關注運營支出和資本支出，這應該會對未來的現金流做出有利貢獻。我還想強調的是，在本季度（幻燈片 5）中，我們再次回購了兩家公司和 2022 年全年的少量股票。

We repurchased $40 million of stock at TDS and $14 million (sic) [$43 million] at UScellular. Importantly, we remain committed to our dividend and we raised it once again for the 49th consecutive year.

我們在 TDS 回購了 4000 萬美元的股票，在 UScellular 回購了 1400 萬美元（原文如此）[4300 萬美元]。重要的是，我們仍然致力於我們的股息，我們連續第 49 年再次提高股息。

This stretch of 49 years puts us with an elite group of companies that have this many consecutive years of dividend increases for their shareholders. And now I'll turn the call over to LT.

在這 49 年的時間裡，我們看到了一群精英公司，這些公司連續多年為股東增加股息。現在我將把電話轉給 LT。

Thanks, Vicki. Good morning, everybody. Hope everyone is doing well. Just a quick edit. We repurchased $43 million worth of stock at UScellular. I think Vicki's number got cut off, at least I heard $14 million, it's $43 million, just for everybody's notes.

謝謝，趙薇。大家早上好。希望每個人都做得很好。只是一個快速的編輯。我們在 UScellular 回購了價值 4300 萬美元的股票。我覺得Vicki的號碼被截斷了，至少我聽說是1400萬美元，是4300萬美元，只是為了大家的筆記。

Okay. I'm on Slide 7, a fair amount to be proud of in 2022. I don't think it's a surprise. Last year was a challenging year both from a subscriber standpoint and with an aggressive competitive environment and shifts in the macro economy. Based on that competitive pressure, we had a lot of testing and innovation on a number of different promotional approaches. And our goal, and we've talked about this in the past, has always been to balance subscriber goals with financial goals.

好的。我在幻燈片 7 上，這是 2022 年值得驕傲的一個數字。我認為這不足為奇。去年是充滿挑戰的一年，無論是從訂戶的角度來看，還是從激烈的競爭環境和宏觀經濟的變化來看。基於這種競爭壓力，我們對許多不同的促銷方式進行了大量的測試和創新。我們的目標，我們過去也談到過，一直是平衡訂戶目標和財務目標。

So midyear, we pivoted to providing much more abreast of offers for existing customers. And the goal there was to drive higher upgrade rates. And we launched flat rate pricing in a subset of markets in the second quarter and the third quarter. And we expanded that offering across the entire footprint in November. And those moves drove steady quarter-over-quarter subscriber improvements and back to that concept to balance our postpaid ARPU growth was one of the best in the industry, and that was really a highlight for us in the year.

因此，年中，我們轉向為現有客戶提供更多最新優惠。目標是推動更高的升級率。我們在第二季度和第三季度在部分市場推出統一費率定價。我們在 11 月將該產品擴展到整個足跡。這些舉措推動了訂戶的季度環比穩定增長，並回到這個概念來平衡我們的後付費 ARPU 增長是業內最好的之一，這對我們來說確實是今年的一大亮點。

We're seeing good initial adoption of those flat rate plans. On average, nearly 1/4 of our customers that are choosing flat rate are choosing higher tier unlimited plans. And customers on flat rate pay full price for their device, not significant change for that reduced pricing, and that helps lower our promotional expenses and mitigates the financial impact of this lower planned pricing.

我們看到這些統一費率計劃的初步採用情況良好。平均而言，我們選擇統一費率的客戶中有近 1/4 選擇更高級別的無限制計劃。統一費率的客戶為他們的設備支付全價，對於降低的定價沒有重大變化，這有助於降低我們的促銷費用並減輕這種較低計劃定價的財務影響。

Both flat rate pricing along with our new and existing offers has led to a meaningful improvement in our in-contract rate. So we ended the year at 64% of our postpaid handset customers in contract, and that's in comparison to 59% in June when we initially launched our new promotions. And that's significant because those in-contract customers churn at a much lower rate than out-of-contract customers. Additionally, we also generated operational savings and capital efficiency through our cost optimization programs, and that's helped us mitigate the effects of increased promotional spend and inflation. More specifically, excluding the impact of increased loss on equipment and bad debt expense, our remaining cash costs were down 2% year-over-year on a full year basis. And we still -- we think there's significant opportunities to reduce costs in 2023 and beyond. We're seeing positive results from our investment in our digital platform, and that's in terms of both an improved customer experience as well as increased traffic.

統一費率定價以及我們新的和現有的報價都使我們的合同費率有了有意義的改善。因此，我們在今年結束時有 64% 的後付費手機客戶簽約，而在我們最初推出新促銷活動時的 6 月份，這一比例為 59%。這很重要，因為那些合同內客戶的流失率遠低於合同外客戶。此外，我們還通過成本優化計劃節省了運營成本並提高了資本效率，這有助於我們減輕促銷支出增加和通貨膨脹的影響。更具體地說，排除設備損失增加和壞賬費用的影響，我們剩餘的現金成本全年同比下降 2%。而且我們仍然 - 我們認為在 2023 年及以後有很大的機會來降低成本。我們從對數字平台的投資中看到了積極的結果，這既改善了客戶體驗又增加了流量。

Our customer experience now exceeds 4 stars in the mobile apps, and they are averaging more than 1 million app sessions per month. That's up 54% compared to 2021. And this will be another driver of cost reduction moving forward as interactions move from our stores and from our care centers to digital. Other areas of the business, we have good progress in pursuing our growth initiatives. We're seeing strong momentum in fixed wireless. We ended the year with 77,000 fixed wireless customers. That's up from 49,000 a year ago. Towers produced another strong quarter of results, growing revenues by 14% in the quarter and ending up the full year up 13%. On the network side, our modernization program and multiyear low-band 5G deployment is making good progress. We currently have approximately 50% of our POPs covered with 5G and 80% of our overall traffic is carried by sites supporting 5G. You'll notice we achieved these results efficiently because we ended the year at the lower end of our CapEx guidance. We have plans in 2023 to continue our low-band 5G build-out along with making significant progress on our mid-band 5G build-out.

我們的客戶體驗現在在移動應用程序中超過 4 星，他們平均每月應用程序會話超過 100 萬次。與 2021 年相比增長了 54%。隨著互動從我們的商店和護理中心轉向數字化，這將成為降低成本的另一個推動力。在業務的其他領域，我們在追求增長計劃方面取得了良好進展。我們看到固定無線領域的強勁勢頭。我們在年底擁有 77,000 名固定無線客戶。這比一年前的 49,000 個有所增加。 Towers 產生了另一個強勁的季度業績，本季度收入增長 14%，全年增長 13%。在網絡方面，我們的現代化計劃和多年的低頻段 5G 部署正在取得良好進展。目前，我們大約 50% 的 POP 覆蓋了 5G，80% 的總流量由支持 5G 的站點承載。您會注意到我們有效地取得了這些結果，因為我們在年底時處於資本支出指導的下限。我們計劃在 2023 年繼續我們的低頻段 5G 建設，同時在我們的中頻段 5G 建設方面取得重大進展。

We plan to be able to make mid-band available in portions of our network when that spectrum is cleared in late 2023. I also want to highlight, we recently partnered with some local communities to bring broadband access using fixed wireless to some very hard-to-reach areas in both Maine and North Carolina. Although the amount of state-funded grants that we received is pretty small, it highlights how we can put funding to work to help bridge the digital divide.

我們計劃在 2023 年底清除該頻譜時，能夠在我們的部分網絡中提供中頻。我還想強調，我們最近與一些當地社區合作，將使用固定無線的寬帶接入帶到一些非常困難的地方——到達緬因州和北卡羅來納州的地區。儘管我們收到的國家資助的贈款數額很小，但它凸顯了我們如何將資金用於幫助彌合數字鴻溝。

Turning to 2023 on Slide 8 are our strategic goals and those build on our investments and progress in 2022. First and foremost, you won't be surprised by this our top priorities to improve our customer results. You can expect to see us continue to pulse and trial pricing and promotions regionally balancing subscriber growth with financial discipline. You can also expect continued emphasis on our growth initiatives. We had our best year by far in fixed wireless in 2022. We expect more growth in 2023. And that's even prior to us getting access to that mid-band spectrum. We expect our tower portfolio revenues to maintain growth, and that team is highly focused on expanding our opportunities in that space. We're also expecting strong growth in B2B, particularly in the IoT space. As it relates to our mid-band network rollout, UScellular has been engaging in pre coordination with the FAA ahead of our planned 5G deployment, our joint coordination efforts to date confirm that our C-band deployment can proceed without delay once that spectrum is cleared. And that's crucial.

在幻燈片 8 上談到 2023 年是我們的戰略目標，這些目標建立在我們 2022 年的投資和進展之上。首先，您不會對我們改善客戶結果的首要任務感到驚訝。您可以期待看到我們繼續調整和試驗定價和促銷活動，以在區域範圍內平衡訂戶增長與財務紀律。您還可以期待繼續強調我們的增長計劃。 2022 年是迄今為止我們在固定無線領域表現最好的一年。我們預計 2023 年會有更多增長。甚至在我們獲得中頻段頻譜之前。我們預計我們的塔組合收入將保持增長，並且該團隊高度專注於擴大我們在該領域的機會。我們也期待 B2B 的強勁增長，尤其是在物聯網領域。由於涉及我們的中頻段網絡部署，UScellular 一直在我們計劃的 5G 部署之前與美國聯邦航空局進行預先協調，我們迄今為止的聯合協調努力證實，一旦頻譜被清除，我們的 C 頻段部署可以毫不拖延地進行.這很關鍵。

Because any delay in deployment of mid-band will harm Americans to need connectivity, the most and it'll impede our collective effort to bridge the digital divide.

因為中頻部署的任何延遲都會損害美國人對連接的需求，這將阻礙我們彌合數字鴻溝的集體努力。

Before I hand it off to Doug, let me share a few thoughts on guidance. Our guidance assumes a continuation of aggressive ongoing promotional activities, a focus on cost reductions and efficient capital spend. Our long-term goal remains to grow return on capital while generating positive free cash flow, and we're going to be pulling every lever at our disposal to improve it over time. I also want to thank the entire UScellular team for navigating through a dynamic and challenging year. I'm excited about the opportunities in front of us. I think we're on the right path to drive the business forward and deliver long-term value. So I'm going to turn the call over to Doug, who will now take you through the operating and financial results in some more detail. Doug?

在我把它交給道格之前，讓我分享一些關於指導的想法。我們的指導假設繼續積極開展促銷活動，重點放在降低成本和有效的資本支出上。我們的長期目標仍然是在產生積極的自由現金流的同時增加資本回報率，我們將竭盡所能隨著時間的推移改善它。我還要感謝整個 UScellular 團隊度過了充滿活力和充滿挑戰的一年。我對我們面前的機會感到興奮。我認為我們正走在推動業務向前發展和創造長期價值的正確道路上。所以我要把電話轉給道格，他現在將帶你更詳細地了解運營和財務結果。道格？

Thanks, LT. Good morning. Let's start with a review of the customer results on Slide 9. Postpaid handset gross additions decreased year-over-year by 20,000 and net additions correspondingly declined 18,000 largely due to the continued highly competitive environment, a decrease in the switcher pool and an increase in involuntary churn. Connected device gross additions increased by 9,000 and net additions increased by 13,000 driven by fixed wireless customer growth. As LT mentioned, we continue to see momentum in fixed wireless with our base of customers up 57% from the end of 2021 and 17% from the third quarter of 2022.

謝謝，LT。早上好。讓我們從幻燈片 9 上的客戶結果回顧開始。後付費手機總增加量同比減少 20,000 部，淨增加數相應減少 18,000 部，這主要是由於持續的高度競爭環境、切換器池減少和增加不由自主的流失。在固定無線客戶增長的推動下，聯網設備總增加量增加了 9,000 台，淨增加量增加了 13,000 台。正如 LT 所提到的，我們繼續看到固定無線的發展勢頭，我們的客戶群比 2021 年底增長了 57%，比 2022 年第三季度增長了 17%。

Postpaid handset churn increased from the prior year, driven by higher involuntary churn and throughout 2022, the frequency of non-paid customers increased to pre-pandemic norms. This was offset by a decrease in voluntary churn, partially driven by the growth in the percentage of in-contract customers.

在非自願流失率上升的推動下，後付費手機流失率比上一年有所增加，在整個 2022 年，非付費客戶的頻率增加到大流行前的水平。這被自願流失的減少所抵消，部分原因是合同客戶百分比的增長。

Now let's turn to the financial results, starting on Slide 11. Total operating revenues for the fourth quarter decreased 2% from the prior year. Retail service revenues were also -- relatively flat as higher average revenue per user was offset by a decrease in average postpaid connections. Inbound roaming revenue declined 54% due primarily to lower negotiated rates with other carriers, which also has the impact of decreasing our roaming expense. Overall, roaming expense declined at higher amounts than roaming revenue in the fourth quarter and the full year 2022. Equipment sales revenues decreased by 4% due primarily to a decline in the average revenue per unit as a result of our promotional offers.

現在讓我們來看看財務結果，從幻燈片 11 開始。第四季度的總營業收入比去年同期下降 2%。零售服務收入也相對持平，因為每個用戶平均收入的增加被平均後付費連接的減少所抵消。入站漫遊收入下降了 54%，這主要是由於與其他運營商的協議費率較低，這也降低了我們的漫遊費用。總體而言，第四季度和 2022 年全年漫遊費用的降幅高於漫遊收入。設備銷售收入下降 4%，主要原因是我們的促銷優惠導致單位平均收入下降。

Our postpaid ARPU and ARPA results are presented on Slide 12. LT mentioned the strong increase in ARPU, and this increase, along with the increase in ARPA was driven primarily by favorable plan and product offering mix, an increase in cost recovery surcharges and an increase in device protection revenues. These increases were partially offset by an increase in promotional costs. We continue to see consistent growth in our highest tiers of unlimited plans and 41% of our postpaid handset customers are in these higher-tier plans at the end of the quarter.

我們的後付費 ARPU 和 ARPA 結果顯示在幻燈片 12 中。LT 提到 ARPU 的強勁增長，這種增長以及 ARPA 的增長主要是由有利的計劃和產品組合、成本回收附加費的增加以及在設備保護收入方面。這些增長部分被促銷成本的增加所抵消。我們繼續看到最高級別的無限制計劃持續增長，我們 41% 的後付費手機客戶在本季度末參與了這些更高級別的計劃。

Our quarterly financial results are shown on Slide 14. For this discussion, I will refer to adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization as adjusted operating income. Adjusted operating income declined 10%, driven by increases in loss on equipment and bad debts expense. As LT commented earlier, we continued our new and existing promotion throughout the fourth quarter. This promotion rewards our existing customers, increased our in-contract rate and contributed to the strong increase in ARPU as our customers adopted our higher-value plans in conjunction with these offers. This promotion was also the primary driver of a $9 million increase in loss on equipment.

我們的季度財務結果顯示在幻燈片 14 中。在本次討論中，我將折舊和攤銷前的調整後營業收入稱為調整後營業收入。受設備損失和壞賬費用增加的推動，調整後的營業收入下降了 10%。正如 LT 之前評論的那樣，我們在整個第四季度繼續進行新的和現有的促銷活動。此次促銷獎勵了我們的現有客戶，提高了我們的合同率，並促進了 ARPU 的強勁增長，因為我們的客戶結合這些優惠採用了我們的更高價值的計劃。這一促銷活動也是設備損失增加 900 萬美元的主要驅動因素。

Net debt expense increased $17 million as our involuntary churn rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels and the average write-off has increased as a result of customers selecting higher-priced devices, partially attributable to promotional incentives. As a reminder, bad debts expense trended lower throughout 2021 as a result of the continuing impacts of the pandemic, including relatively higher personal savings rates, which resulted in stronger customer payment behavior in the prior year.

淨債務支出增加了 1700 萬美元，因為我們的非自願流失率已恢復到大流行前的水平，並且由於客戶選擇價格較高的設備（部分歸因於促銷激勵措施），平均註銷增加了。提醒一下，由於大流行的持續影響，包括相對較高的個人儲蓄率，導致上一年客戶支付行為增強，壞賬費用在整個 2021 年呈下降趨勢。

LT mentioned our ongoing cost optimization program, and this continues to deliver results. Despite our current inflationary environment and our ongoing 5G rollout, excluding cost of equipment sold and bad debts expense, other fourth quarter cash expenses decreased 3% year-over-year. This was driven by lower roaming expenses resulting from favorable rates with other carriers, as mentioned earlier, and actions to keep all other cash expenses flat year-over-year.

LT 提到了我們正在進行的成本優化計劃，並且該計劃繼續取得成果。儘管我們目前的通脹環境和我們正在進行的 5G 推出，不包括銷售設備成本和壞賬費用，其他第四季度現金費用同比下降 3%。如前所述，這是由於與其他運營商的優惠利率導致漫遊費用降低，以及為保持所有其他現金費用同比持平而採取的行動。

Now let's turn to Slide 15 where we show our full year financial results. Adjusted operating income for the year declined 9% driven by similar factors mentioned for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, which incorporates the earnings from our equity method investments along with interest and dividend income also decreased 9%. This decrease is primarily driven by the impact of the implementation of C-band spectrum leases and certain partnerships, and we expect this impact to continue in future periods.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 15，我們在其中展示了我們的全年財務業績。受本季度提到的類似因素的推動，今年調整後的營業收入下降了 9%。調整後的 EBITDA（包括權益法投資收益以及利息和股息收入）也下降了 9%。這一下降主要是由於實施 C 波段頻譜租賃和某些合作夥伴關係的影響，我們預計這種影響將在未來持續。

Turning to Slide 16. I will cover our guidance for the full year 2023. Our guidance contemplates the impact of our subscriber base decline in 2022, a continued highly competitive and promotional environment and a continued decline in roaming rates, which we expect will cause a corresponding decline in both roaming revenues and roaming expense. We expect ranges of approximately $3.05 billion to $3.15 billion in service revenues, $725 million to $875 million in adjusted operating income and $875 million to $1.025 billion in adjusted EBITDA.

轉到幻燈片 16。我將介紹我們對 2023 年全年的指導。我們的指導考慮了 2022 年用戶群下降的影響、持續的高度競爭和促銷環境以及漫遊費率的持續下降，我們預計這將導致漫遊收入和漫遊費用均相應下降。我們預計服務收入約為 30.5 億美元至 31.5 億美元，調整後營業收入約為 7.25 億美元至 8.75 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 約為 8.75 億美元至 10.25 億美元。

For capital expenditures, the estimate is in the range of $600 million to $700 million. We're very pleased with the progress we have made to date in our 5G rollout. Our investments for low-band and network modernization and mid-band 5G deployment remain on track, and this guidance reflects our continued commitment to invest 5G in our outstanding network while prudently managing the level of this investment and the free cash flow of our business.

對於資本支出，估計在 6 億至 7 億美元之間。我們對迄今為止在 5G 推出方面取得的進展感到非常高興。我們對低頻段和網絡現代化以及中頻段 5G 部署的投資仍在進行中，該指南反映了我們繼續致力於在我們出色的網絡中投資 5G，同時審慎管理這項投資水平和我們業務的自由現金流。

I will now turn the call over to Michelle Brukwicki, Michelle?

我現在將電話轉給 Michelle Brukwicki，Michelle？

Thanks, Doug. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report on TDS Telecom's fourth quarter and full year results. And I'm also proud to highlight the progress we made in 2022 towards reaching our longer-term 2026 goals that we shared with you last year. At TDS Telecom, we are grounded in our mission, and that mission is to create a better world by providing high-quality communication services, connecting people and businesses, supporting education and strengthening communities. Our goal is to be the preferred broadband provider in the markets we serve.

謝謝，道格。大家，早安。我很高興報告 TDS Telecom 的第四季度和全年業績。我也很自豪地強調我們在 2022 年為實現我們去年與大家分享的 2026 年長期目標所取得的進展。在 TDS Telecom，我們立足於我們的使命，這個使命是通過提供高質量的通信服務、連接人與企業、支持教育和加強社區建設一個更美好的世界。我們的目標是成為我們所服務市場中首選的寬帶提供商。

On Slide 18, you can see our strategic areas of focus that will help us achieve this goal. Investments in these strategic priorities will drive profitability and improved returns over time, ultimately strengthening TDS Telecom's financial and market position. So what exactly are we doing? We're growing our scale and revenue primarily through our fiber market expansion, and we're continuously streamlining and automating our operations to reduce legacy costs. We keep this customer at the center of everything we do, continuously investing in customer experience improvements.

在幻燈片 18 上，您可以看到我們的戰略重點領域將幫助我們實現這一目標。隨著時間的推移，對這些戰略優先事項的投資將推動盈利能力和更高的回報，最終加強 TDS Telecom 的財務和市場地位。那麼我們到底在做什麼呢？我們主要通過光纖市場擴張來擴大規模和收入，並且不斷精簡和自動化我們的運營以降低遺留成本。我們始終以客戶為中心，不斷投資改善客戶體驗。

And finally, the foundation of our entire business is our highly engaged, resilient and dedicated workforce. We invest in our people to ensure we can attract and retain top talent.

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，以確保我們能夠吸引和留住頂尖人才。

So moving to Slide 19. Let me update you on our progress towards achieving our longer-term goals. And I'll tell you that the headline is we are on track. There are certain metrics we're monitoring to ensure we're moving at a pace to reach our 2026 targets. I'll highlight those 3 metrics for you now. The first metric is number of service addresses. We are targeting 1.2 million marketable fiber service addresses by 2026. We ended 2022 with 582,000, so we are halfway there. The second metric is the percent of service addresses that are served by fiber.

現在轉到幻燈片 19。讓我向您介紹我們在實現長期目標方面取得的進展。我會告訴你，標題是我們走上正軌。我們正在監控某些指標，以確保我們正在按照實現 2026 年目標的步伐前進。我現在將為您重點介紹這 3 個指標。第一個指標是服務地址的數量。我們的目標是到 2026 年有 120 萬個可銷售的光纖服務地址。我們到 2022 年結束時有 582,000 個，所以我們已經完成了一半。第二個指標是光纖服務的服務地址的百分比。

We're targeting 60% of our total service addresses to be served by fiber by 2026 and we ended 2022 with fiber to 39%. This reflects progress in growing fiber through our expansion markets as well as fibering up our incumbent markets. And specifically, we're working to serve 50% of our ILEC service addresses with fiber and we're making good progress. At the end of 2022, we were at 36% of our ILEC addresses being fibered up. The third metric is the percent of our footprint with speeds of 1 gig or higher. By 2026, we're expecting to offer those speeds to at least 80% of our footprint. And we finished '22 -- 2022 with 66% at gig speeds. So we're pleased with the pace of our fiber builds and with our fiber expansion results so far. We have continued to successfully navigate challenges in getting those builds completed. We've been scaling up our service address deployment since we launched this program, and we plan to continue that in 2023.

我們的目標是到 2026 年我們總服務地址的 60% 將由光纖提供服務，到 2022 年底，光纖將達到 39%。這反映了通過我們的擴張市場以及加強現有市場在發展纖維方面取得的進展。具體來說，我們正在努力為 50% 的 ILEC 服務地址提供光纖服務，並且我們正在取得良好進展。到 2022 年底，我們有 36% 的 ILEC 地址被光纖接入。第三個指標是速度為 1 gig 或更高的足跡百分比。到 2026 年，我們預計至少 80% 的足跡都能提供這些速度。我們以 66% 的零工速度完成了 22 - 2022 年。因此，到目前為止，我們對光纖構建的速度和光纖擴展結果感到滿意。我們繼續成功應對完成這些構建的挑戰。自推出該計劃以來，我們一直在擴大服務地址部署，我們計劃在 2023 年繼續這樣做。

Based on our experience, we are seeing positive contributions from our market launches starting around the 3-year mark, and we still expect to achieve broadband penetration rates of at least 40% in steady states. The success that we've seen in our early markets is validating our business cases and our expectation of low to mid-double digit returns on these projects.

根據我們的經驗，我們看到從 3 年左右開始的市場推出帶來的積極貢獻，我們仍然期望在穩定狀態下實現至少 40% 的寬帶普及率。我們在早期市場中看到的成功正在驗證我們的業務案例以及我們對這些項目中低至中兩位數回報的期望。

On Slide 20, I'll highlight some key accomplishments from 2022. We grew our footprint by 9%, which came from delivering 133,000 marketable fiber service addresses. This is a 50% increase over what we delivered in 2021 and 60,000 of those service addresses were added in the fourth quarter. That was our highest quarter yet. At year-end, we had about 100 communities that are in various stages of development.

在幻燈片 20 上，我將重點介紹 2022 年以來的一些主要成就。我們的足跡增長了 9%，這來自提供 133,000 個可銷售的光纖服務地址。這比我們在 2021 年交付的數量增加了 50%，其中 60,000 個服務地址是在第四季度增加的。那是我們迄今為止最高的季度。到年底，我們有大約 100 個處於不同發展階段的社區。

During the fourth quarter, we began offering service in several new communities including Oshkosh, Eau Claire and Janesville, Wisconsin, along with Nampa, Idaho. Our momentum is strong and we're going to continue scaling up to deliver 175,000 fiber service addresses in 2023. This will be an increase of over 30% from what we delivered in 2022.

在第四季度，我們開始在幾個新社區提供服務，包括威斯康星州奧什科甚、歐克萊爾和簡斯維爾，以及愛達荷州南帕。我們的勢頭強勁，我們將繼續擴大規模，到 2023 年交付 175,000 個光纖服務地址。這將比我們在 2022 年交付的數量增加 30% 以上。

As a reminder, we expect seasonality will impact the quarterly cadence of service address delivery. So this is going to steadily build throughout the year. We also continue to address the broadband needs in our most rural markets by upgrading our copper networks with support from state broadband grant programs and by meeting our obligations under the federal A-CAM program. We are still optimistic that the FCC will adopt an extension of the A-CAM program, and we hope to have a final decision soon. We also still believe that extending the current federal A-CAM program first and then pursuing the BEAD program funding would provide the fastest path for TDS Telecom to take fiber deeper into our communities.

提醒一下，我們預計季節性將影響服務地址交付的季度節奏。因此，這將在全年穩步建立。我們還通過在州寬帶贈款計劃的支持下升級我們的銅線網絡並履行我們在聯邦 A-CAM 計劃下的義務，繼續滿足我們大多數農村市場的寬帶需求。我們仍然樂觀地認為 FCC 將通過 A-CAM 計劃的擴展，我們希望盡快做出最終決定。我們仍然相信，首先擴展當前的聯邦 A-CAM 計劃，然後尋求 BEAD 計劃資助將為 TDS 電信提供最快的途徑，使光纖更深入地進入我們的社區。

All of these broadband investments are driving positive results. As shown on Slide 21, we experienced a 4% increase year-over-year in total broadband residential connections. Shown on the graph on the right, we see demand for greater broadband speeds with 72% of our customers taking 100 megabits per second or greater, and that's up from 66% a year ago.

所有這些寬帶投資都在推動積極成果。如幻燈片 21 所示，我們的寬帶住宅連接總數同比增長 4%。如右圖所示，我們看到對更高寬帶速度的需求，72% 的客戶需要每秒 100 兆比特或更高的速度，而這一比例高於一年前的 66%。

As I mentioned before, TDS Telecom can now offer at least 1 gig service to 66% of its footprint. And in some markets, we are now even offering an 8-gig speed product. In areas where we offer gig service, we're seeing 22% of our new customers taking this product. And finally, our focus on fast reliable service has generated an 8% increase in total residential broadband revenue.

正如我之前提到的，TDS Telecom 現在可以為其 66% 的足跡提供至少 1 個演出服務。在某些市場，我們現在甚至提供 8-gig 速度的產品。在我們提供零工服務的地區，我們看到 22% 的新客戶使用了該產品。最後，我們對快速可靠服務的關注使住宅寬帶總收入增長了 8%。

On Slides 22 and 23, I'll share some financial highlights. Total revenues increased 1% for the quarter and for the full year as broadband growth offset our legacy declines. Residential revenues across all of our markets increased 4% in the quarter. Price increases and overall product mix partially offset by promotions drove a 4% increase in average residential revenue per connection.

在幻燈片 22 和 23 中，我將分享一些財務亮點。由於寬帶增長抵消了我們遺留下來的下滑，本季度和全年的總收入增長了 1%。我們所有市場的住宅收入在本季度增長了 4%。價格上漲和整體產品組合部分被促銷抵消，推動每個連接的平均住宅收入增長 4%。

As shown in the chart on the left, expansion market revenues increased year-over-year following the timing of service address delivery. Residential wireline incumbent and cable revenues increased year-over-year due to price increases and growth in broadband connections, partially offset by declines in video and voice connections. Commercial revenues decreased 5% in the quarter and for the full year, primarily driven by lower CLEC connections. And lastly, wholesale revenues decreased 2% for the quarter and for the year. Cash expenses increased 8% in the quarter and 5% for the year due to both supporting our current growth as well as future growth.

如左圖所示，隨著服務地址交付時間的推移，擴展市場收入同比增長。由於價格上漲和寬帶連接的增長，住宅有線和有線電視收入同比增長，部分被視頻和語音連接的下降所抵消。本季度和全年的商業收入下降了 5%，這主要是受 CLEC 連接減少的推動。最後，本季度和全年的批發收入下降了 2%。由於支持我們當前的增長以及未來的增長，本季度現金支出增長了 8%，全年增長了 5%。

So we're incurring costs, but the revenues have not come yet. These costs to support our fiber expansion include direct costs such as sales, marketing, real estate and technicians in addition to shared services. As expected, the increased cash expenses to support our growing fiber program resulted in a decline in adjusted EBITDA of 13% for the quarter and 6% for the full year. Capital expenditures of $556 million were up from the prior year due to increased investment in fiber deployment as well as advanced capital purchases to mitigate longer supply chain lead times. Keep in mind that these investments support our multiyear strategy and our goal of increasing free cash flow and return on capital over the long run.

所以我們產生了成本，但收入還沒有到來。這些支持我們光纖擴展的成本包括直接成本，如銷售、營銷、房地產和技術人員以及共享服務。正如預期的那樣，為支持我們不斷增長的纖維計劃而增加的現金支出導致本季度調整後的 EBITDA 下降 13%，全年下降 6%。資本支出為 5.56 億美元，比上一年有所增加，原因是光纖部署投資增加以及提前資本採購以緩解更長的供應鏈交貨時間。請記住，這些投資支持我們的多年戰略以及我們增加自由現金流和長期資本回報的目標。

On Slide 24, we provided guidance for 2023. Our guidance factors in the foundational investments we're making to enhance our network and expand our footprint over the next several years. We're forecasting total telecom revenues of $1.03 billion to $1.06 billion. This reflects our goal of topline growth driven by continued improvements in residential revenues across all of our markets, offsetting declines in the legacy parts of our business.

在幻燈片 24 上，我們提供了 2023 年的指導。我們在未來幾年為增強我們的網絡和擴大我們的足跡而進行的基礎投資中的指導因素。我們預測電信總收入為 10.3 億美元至 10.6 億美元。這反映了我們在所有市場住宅收入持續改善的推動下實現收入增長的目標，抵消了我們業務遺留部分的下滑。

Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $260 million and $290 million in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA reflects our continued fiber expansion, which requires upfront spending. By the end of 2023, however, almost all of our 100 communities will have been launched. As our market builds mature and we increase our penetration, we expect the pressure on adjusted EBITDA to lessen over time. Capital expenditures are expected to be between $500 million and $550 million in 2023. This reflects increased spend on fiber service address delivery and reduced advanced equipment purchases as supply chain constraints are expected to lessen. And nearly 90% of our capital spending is allocated to broadband growth.

預計 2023 年調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2.6 億美元至 2.9 億美元之間。調整後的 EBITDA 反映了我們持續的光纖擴張，這需要前期支出。然而，到 2023 年底，我們的 100 個社區幾乎都將啟動。隨著我們市場的成熟和我們滲透率的提高，我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 的壓力會隨著時間的推移而減輕。到 2023 年，資本支出預計將在 5 億美元至 5.5 億美元之間。這反映出隨著供應鏈限制預計將減少，光纖服務地址交付支出增加以及先進設備採購減少。我們將近 90% 的資本支出分配給了寬帶增長。

Before turning over the call, I want to thank the team for all of their hard work in 2022. We accomplished a lot, and we are executing on our priorities, and I expect that momentum to continue into 2023. And I'll now turn the call back over to Colleen.

在轉交電話會議之前，我要感謝團隊在 2022 年所做的所有辛勤工作。我們取得了很多成就，我們正在執行我們的優先事項，我希望這種勢頭會持續到 2023 年。我現在要轉電話回撥給科琳。

Okay. Operator, we are ready for the first question.

好的。接線員，我們準備好回答第一個問題。

Our first question will come from the line of Rick Prentiss with Raymond James.

我們的第一個問題將來自 Rick Prentiss 和 Raymond James 的台詞。

A couple of questions, if I could. First, for UScellular LT, you laid out with kind of the '23 guidance. If we think back to '22 guidance, you did pivot midyear and you've addressed kind of a more competitive marketplace, the aggressive promotions. It sounds like the '23 guidance assumes that competitive pressure continues as opposed to maybe a pivot that might be needed in the middle of the year? Just trying to compare how we started '22 guidance with how we're starting '23 guidance.

幾個問題，如果可以的話。首先，對於 UScellular LT，您制定了類似 '23 的指南。如果我們回想一下 22 年的指導方針，你確實在年中進行了調整，並且你已經解決了競爭更加激烈的市場，即積極的促銷活動。這聽起來像是 23 年的指南假設競爭壓力持續存在，而不是年中可能需要的支點？只是想比較我們如何開始 '22 指南和我們如何開始 '23 指南。

Rick, I'd say that the way you've characterized it is accurate. We take the trends and essentially the more -- the moves that we made in the market in the second half of '22 meaning a more aggressive approach to upgrade, pulsed in and out. You may notice we only did it here about a week or 2 ago, we actually pulled our existing same-as-new promotions and we've replaced them with no hidden requirements offer that's specifically designed to appeal to kind of multiline customers. At the same time, we also have our flat rate pricing in place, which we think is highly competitive in the marketplace. So those moves -- those kinds of moves in response to the competitive environment you can expect to see in 2023. And so -- and we've seen the benefit of it, right? If you look quarter-over-quarter, we've seen continued positive movement in our net add performance. And so in general, yes, I think you can probably expect to think of 2023 in a similar fashion to second half of '22 both in terms of our view on the competitive environment as well as the moves that we're doing to compete well in it.

里克，我想說你描述它的方式是準確的。我們順應趨勢，從本質上講，我們在 22 年下半年在市場上採取的舉措意味著更積極的升級方法，不斷進出。您可能會注意到我們大約一兩週前才在這裡這樣做，我們實際上取消了現有的與新促銷相同的促銷活動，我們用專門為吸引多線客戶而設計的無隱藏要求優惠取而代之。同時，我們還制定了統一費率定價，我們認為這在市場上具有很強的競爭力。因此，這些舉措——這些舉措是為了應對您預計在 2023 年看到的競爭環境。所以——我們已經看到了它的好處，對吧？如果您按季度看，我們會看到我們的淨增業績持續出現積極變化。所以總的來說，是的，我認為你可能會以與 22 年下半年類似的方式來看待 2023 年，無論是在我們對競爭環境的看法，還是我們為保持良好競爭而採取的措施方面在裡面。

Okay. There's been a lot of debate about the industry level of adds coming back down to a more normalized level versus what maybe happened? What's your view of the industry level on the wireless adds area?

好的。關於添加的行業水平回到更正常的水平與可能發生的情況有很多爭論？您如何看待無線添加領域的行業水平？

Let me get it to Doug. I think he's got a sense for this. Go ahead, Doug.

讓我把它交給道格。我認為他對此有所了解。來吧，道格。

Yes, Rick, we're projecting about 1.5% for an industry increase during 2023. So above the population growth or below where it's been, so kind of in between those 2 data points.

是的，里克，我們預計 2023 年行業增長約 1.5%。因此高於人口增長或低於人口增長，所以介於這兩個數據點之間。

Okay. And we're sitting here in February, you've instituted the -- getting more people under contract. How is that playing out? Sometimes, I think you've said in the past maybe 6 to 9 months, that should hopefully benefit into churn. Are we seeing that? Have you got enough data points to get comfortable? And does that mean as we think about '23 ending, we're not going to have negative postpaid phone adds or royalty is negative. Just trying to think through the churn action, with the contract and how you set up with the postpaid phone for the year?

好的。我們二月份坐在這裡，你已經制定了——讓更多的人簽訂合同。結果如何？有時，我想你在過去可能說過 6 到 9 個月，這應該有望從客戶流失中獲益。我們看到了嗎？你有足夠的數據點來適應嗎？這是否意味著當我們考慮'23 結束時，我們不會有負面的後付費電話增加或版稅是負面的。只是想通過客戶流失行為、合同以及你如何設置今年的後付費電話？

Yes. So Rick, I mean, we've stayed away from kind of projecting specific net add performance or when we're positive or when we're not in general, what I'll tell you is that the moves that we've made to get people more under contract, get more upgrades. We're starting to see some positive signs on the consumer side when it comes to improved churn. We offset that a little bit in the fourth quarter with some higher B2B churn, and you don't really see that in the numbers. In general, we expect to see that churn continue to improve throughout the year because of getting more customers under contract, couple that with what we believe will be improved gross add performance due in those small part to flat rate. And we do expect to see that general momentum year-over-year of improved net adds continue. I mean important to highlight, we showed a pretty dramatic improvement every quarter when it comes to net adds quarter-over-quarter. Q1 is always a tricky quarter relative to Q4. So I don't necessarily expect that you can just draw a straight line. But in general, I think the moves that we have in the marketplace are resonating, and I expect them to continue to drive positive performance.

是的。所以里克，我的意思是，我們已經遠離了某種預測特定的淨增加性能，或者當我們是積極的或者當我們不是一般的時候，我要告訴你的是我們已經採取的行動讓更多人簽訂合同，獲得更多升級。在改善客戶流失率方面，我們開始看到消費者方面的一些積極跡象。我們在第四季度用更高的 B2B 流失率稍微抵消了這一點，但你並沒有真正在數字中看到這一點。總的來說，我們希望看到流失率在全年繼續改善，因為有更多的客戶簽訂合同，再加上我們認為，由於這些小部分固定費率，總增加性能將得到改善。我們確實希望看到淨增加量同比改善的總體勢頭繼續下去。我的意思是要強調的是，在淨增加季度環比方面，我們每個季度都顯示出相當顯著的改善。相對於第四季度，第一季度始終是一個棘手的季度。所以我不一定期望你可以畫一條直線。但總的來說，我認為我們在市場上的舉措引起了共鳴，我希望它們能繼續推動積極的表現。

Okay. Last thing for me. Vicki, I appreciate the comments about CapEx moderating to the market likes hearing that from the standpoint of free cash flow monitoring and in this interest rate environment. But circling back to CapEx, what it means to wireless. LT, do customers understand what 5G means, what 5G gives them? And if not, what will it take to help customers understand what 5G means?

好的。最後一件事對我來說。 Vicki，我很欣賞關於資本支出緩和市場的評論，喜歡從自由現金流監控的角度和在這種利率環境中聽到這些評論。但回到資本支出，這對無線意味著什麼。 LT，客戶是否了解5G意味著什麼，5G給了他們什麼？如果不能，如何幫助客戶理解 5G 的含義？

An interesting question. I mean I think that there's a couple of different ways you could think about answering that. You've got, in one hand, when you look at how the industry has talked about 5G. I sometimes wonder if customers are a little numb to all the various competing messages in the marketplace. They hear best this and fastest that and broadest this. And I do wonder sometimes how it's resonating with customers. We're pleased, I will tell you with the rate of our 5G build-out and what we've been able to deliver in terms of capabilities to customers. And so we talked earlier about the specific metrics in over 50% of our sites modernized, carrying over 80% of our traffic.

一個有趣的問題。我的意思是，我認為您可以通過幾種不同的方式來回答這個問題。一方面，當您查看行業如何談論 5G 時，您就會知道。我有時想知道客戶是否對市場上所有各種競爭信息有點麻木。他們聽得最好，最快，最廣泛。有時我確實想知道它是如何引起客戶共鳴的。我們很高興，我將告訴您我們 5G 建設的速度以及我們能夠為客戶提供的功能。因此，我們之前談到了超過 50% 的現代化站點的具體指標，承載了我們 80% 的流量。

We do see our customers give us feedback that where we modernize the network, not only are the network performance metrics better but the perception is meaningfully better, right? And so that would be the flip side to the coin of our customers getting numb to it. I think that customers are numb to claims. I don't think they're numb to the performance that we're bringing. And so we see in the performance, and we see in the perception scores, that's an important distinction, right? Because, I mean, I'm chuckling, Mike Irizarry is sitting here next to me, right? Engineers will always say, well, the numbers are a lot better. And then you'll say, okay, but do customers care.

我們確實看到我們的客戶給我們反饋，在我們對網絡進行現代化改造的地方，不僅網絡性能指標更好，而且感知也明顯更好，對吧？因此，這將是我們的客戶對它麻木的硬幣的另一面。我認為客戶對索賠已經麻木了。我不認為他們對我們帶來的表現感到麻木。所以我們在表現中看到，我們在感知分數中看到，這是一個重要的區別，對吧？因為，我的意思是，我在笑，Mike Irizarry 就坐在我旁邊，對吧？工程師總是會說，嗯，數字好多了。然後你會說，好吧，但客戶關心嗎？

The perception where we modernize our network says that, yes, customers care that the speed performance that we're able to deliver is meaningfully better. We're in the early stages of our 5G SA block. And so I think as we roll out SA, customers will start to see a meaningfully improved experience. And we also talk about mid-band.

我們對網絡進行現代化改造的看法表明，是的，客戶關心我們能夠提供的速度性能明顯更好。我們正處於 5G SA 塊的早期階段。因此，我認為隨著我們推出 SA，客戶將開始看到有意義的改進體驗。我們還談論中頻帶。

So as we roll out mid-band, that will result in a meaningfully better experience. So now I'll just kind of look back to how you led off the question, which was around capital. And what we're doing is we're balancing the feedback that we're getting back from customers in terms of what is meaningful for them with a prudent and targeted approach to where we spend capital. And so we feel very good about how we're managing the balance of spending the money where we need to and getting the customer feedback and the customer metrics in a place that we're pleased. So hopefully, that gives you a sense of how we're tackling it.

因此，當我們推出中頻段時，這將帶來有意義的更好體驗。所以現在我只是回顧一下你是如何提出這個問題的，這個問題是圍繞資本的。我們正在做的是，我們正在平衡我們從客戶那裡得到的反饋，這些反饋對他們來說是有意義的，而我們對我們的資本支出採取審慎和有針對性的方法。因此，我們對如何在需要的地方花錢和在我們滿意的地方獲得客戶反饋和客戶指標之間取得平衡感到非常滿意。希望這能讓您了解我們是如何解決它的。

Your next question comes from the line of Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simon Flannery。

If I can start, LT, with fixed wireless, good to hear the momentum is going well. You've obviously got the C-band coming on later this year. So what's your latest thought on where you want to deploy this product? Is it still going to be kind of an ex-urban, rural kind of a product? Or do you think we might see a broader footprint? We've seen quite a lot of suburban success with T-Mobile and Verizon, a lot of B2B interest as well. And then both for you and on the wireline side, just latest thoughts on the BEAT program. Do you think that's something that you have a lot of interest in participating in either on the wireless or wireline side?

如果我可以開始，LT，固定無線，很高興聽到勢頭進展順利。你顯然已經在今年晚些時候推出了 C 波段。那麼，您對將此產品部署到何處有何最新想法？它仍然會是一種前城市、鄉村的產品嗎？或者您認為我們可能會看到更廣泛的足跡？我們已經看到 T-Mobile 和 Verizon 在郊區取得了相當大的成功，也看到了很多 B2B 的興趣。然後為您和有線線路方面提供有關 BEAT 計劃的最新想法。您認為您有興趣參與無線或有線方面的活動嗎？

Simon, good to hear it from you. Let's start with fixed wireless. So our approach really is -- I mean, I suppose from a deployment perspective, it's a little bit different. It's almost the inverse of what T-Mobile is doing, but I actually don't think we view the market that differently. And so let me just explain. Where we've seen huge success in this product is in a rural and then, let's call it, the bridge between rural and suburban. And recall that right now, what we're deploying is really, it's basically a low-band product. We have a couple of mid-band -- I'm sorry, a couple of millimeter wave trials. But the vast majority of our sales of this product thus far have been on low band. And we feel proud of the experience that we're delivering, but that is not a particularly high-speed experience. To me, it speaks to the opportunity that's in front of us because when we do put -- when we do start launching this on mid-band, we'll be able to deliver a product tentatively, we're looking at 300 megs down. And when you deliver that, that opens up, I think, a whole new market opportunity for us. And so if I think about 2023, still, we see a lot of growth potential ahead just on low band. That product will be rural, call it suburban. We see a lot of opportunity when there's a cable monopoly. This product works very well against cable.

西蒙，很高興聽到你的消息。讓我們從固定無線開始。所以我們的方法確實是——我的意思是，我想從部署的角度來看，它有點不同。這幾乎與 T-Mobile 正在做的相反，但實際上我認為我們對市場的看法並沒有不同。所以讓我解釋一下。我們看到這個產品取得巨大成功的地方是在農村，我們稱之為農村和郊區之間的橋樑。回想一下，現在我們正在部署的實際上是一種低頻段產品。我們有幾個中頻帶 - 對不起，幾個毫米波試驗。但到目前為止，我們對該產品的絕大部分銷售都是低頻段的。我們為我們提供的體驗感到自豪，但這並不是特別高速的體驗。對我來說，這說明了擺在我們面前的機會，因為當我們開始在中頻段推出這個產品時，我們將能夠暫時交付產品，我們正在尋找 300 兆以下的產品.當你交付它時，我認為，這為我們打開了一個全新的市場機會。因此，如果我考慮到 2023 年，我們仍然會在低頻段看到很多增長潛力。該產品將是農村產品，稱之為郊區產品。當有線電視壟斷時，我們看到了很多機會。該產品對電纜非常有效。

As we launch mid-band starting in 2023, we'll then, I think, be able to move from suburban to more closer to urban areas because we have a highly competitive product. The one place and I've been consistent about this. The one place I don't see this hunting is where there's robust fiber to the home.

當我們從 2023 年開始推出中頻段時，我認為我們將能夠從郊區轉移到更靠近城市的地區，因為我們擁有極具競爭力的產品。一個地方，我一直對此保持一致。我沒有看到這種狩獵的一個地方是有堅固的光纖到家的地方。

We'll still obviously happily sell to whichever customers want to buy it from us. But I mean, the basic physics of fiber-to-the-home would say that those customers should go with fiber and fiber players will be able to price it accordingly. But we think this product is compelling everywhere else, and that's a really substantive geography that's still available to us. So we see a lot of runway with this, not just in '22 with our -- I'm sorry, in '23 with low band, but in '24 and beyond as you roll mid-band now.

顯然，我們仍然會很樂意將其出售給任何想從我們這裡購買的客戶。但我的意思是，光纖到戶的基本物理原理表明，這些客戶應該選擇光纖，而光纖運營商將能夠相應地為其定價。但我們認為該產品在其他任何地方都具有吸引力，而且這是一個我們仍然可以使用的真正實質性的地理區域。因此，我們看到了很多關於這個的跑道，不僅僅是在 22 年我們的 - 對不起，在 23 年的低頻段，但在 24 年及以後，你現在滾動中頻段。

Let me talk BEAD for a moment, and then I'll hand it over to Michelle so she can give you a sense of how telecom is viewing the BEAD opportunity. We're still quite optimistic about BEAD and about BEAD dollars flowing to fixed wireless. We've done both a fair amount of math on our own, and we have a lot of conversations with states. And our sense is that notwithstanding $46 billion going across the United States that is still not going to be sufficient to cover every home in business with fiber. And I know there's people that are trumpeting that and they are saying that this -- we can connect everything with fiber. Those people have not spent much time in rural America, I have. And there's a lot of places out there where it simply is not going to be cost efficient, neither cost efficient nor time efficient to connect these homes and businesses with fiber.

讓我先談談 BEAD，然後我會把它交給米歇爾，這樣她就能讓你了解電信公司是如何看待 BEAD 機會的。我們仍然對 BEAD 以及流向固定無線的 BEAD 美元持樂觀態度。我們已經自己完成了大量的數學計算，並且我們與各州進行了很多對話。我們的感覺是，儘管美國投入了 460 億美元，但仍不足以用光纖覆蓋每個家庭。我知道有人大肆宣揚這一點，他們說的是——我們可以用光纖連接一切。那些人在美國農村待的時間不多，我有。在很多地方，用光纖連接這些家庭和企業根本不符合成本效益，既不符合成本效益也不符合時間效益。

It's a tough sell to go to people in rural areas and to say, hey, no problem, we're going to be able to cover you, just wait 10 years. We can deliver a product -- certainly, when we rolled out mid-band, we can deliver a product that's 300 megs down. Keep in mind, the threshold for BEAD is 100 megs down in 20 megs up. So we can safely meet that threshold. We can do it with fixed wireless, and we can do that in a relatively short period of time. And so we do see a lot of opportunity in working with the states on this. As you know, I mean, I think we're in the middle right now of the map challenge process. We're going to have to get through the back end of that. I don't expect to see meaningful state dollars flowing until early 2024 at the earliest. But we still view that as a significant opportunity for us, both in terms of overall growth, so bringing new customers on with fixed wireless.

很難說服農村地區的人們說，嘿，沒問題，我們將能夠為您提供保障，只需等待 10 年。我們可以提供產品——當然，當我們推出中頻段時，我們可以提供低 300 兆的產品。請記住，BEAD 的閾值是 100 兆下降 20 兆上升。所以我們可以安全地達到這個門檻。我們可以用固定無線來做到，而且我們可以在相對較短的時間內做到這一點。因此，我們確實看到了很多與各州合作的機會。如你所知，我的意思是，我認為我們現在正處於地圖挑戰過程的中間。我們將不得不完成它的後端。我預計最早要到 2024 年初才能看到有意義的州資金流動。但我們仍然認為這對我們來說是一個重要的機會，無論是在整體增長方面，還是通過固定無線吸引新客戶。

And then the beautiful part about that is that when we bring those new customers on with fixed wireless, we have a pretty aggressive wireless-wireline bundle in the market right now. And so that will help us grow our wireless space, so our mobile base, along with the fixed wireless customer. But the other beautiful thing it will do is it will bring down our capital growth. So as we have -- as we want to expand towers and as we want to expand the tower business, being able to do so in a more economical way because we're able to leverage some of these BEAD dollars will help us put towers in places where we haven't to before -- haven't been able to before. And then we have the revenue opportunity when we have those towers in place to grow our tower revenue. So right now, our colocation rate is just north of [1.5] and we're the one (inaudible), industry average is [2.3]. And so we have the opportunity to put tower colocation revenue to work. And so -- we really see 3 revenue streams coming off that BEAD dollar, the fixed wireless stream, revenue stream, the mobility revenue stream and the tower colocation revenue stream and based on our early conversations with states, we're pretty optimistic that a good part of that money is going to go to fixed wireless. I know telecom has thought about this as well in terms of fiber opportunities. And so Michelle, let me hand it to you, you can give a little bit of color on that side.

然後最棒的部分是，當我們用固定無線吸引這些新客戶時，我們現在在市場上有一個非常激進的無線有線捆綁。因此，這將幫助我們擴大無線空間、移動基地以及固定無線客戶。但它會做的另一件美好的事情是它會降低我們的資本增長。因此，正如我們所擁有的那樣——因為我們想要擴建塔樓以及我們想要擴大塔樓業務，所以能夠以更經濟的方式這樣做，因為我們能夠利用其中的一些 BEAD 美元，這將幫助我們將塔樓投入使用我們以前沒去過的地方——以前沒能去過的地方。然後，當我們擁有這些塔來增加我們的塔收入時，我們就有了收入機會。所以現在，我們的主機託管率剛好在 [1.5] 以北，我們是（聽不清），行業平均水平是 [2.3]。因此，我們有機會將塔託管收入投入使用。因此——我們確實看到 3 個收入流來自 BEAD 美元，固定無線流、收入流、移動收入流和塔託管收入流，並且根據我們與各州的早期對話，我們非常樂觀這筆錢的很大一部分將用於固定無線。我知道電信在光纖機會方面也考慮過這一點。所以米歇爾，讓我把它交給你，你可以在那邊給一點顏色。

Thanks, LT. So Simon, generally from the TDS Telecom perspective, we agree with everything that LT said, but we do have a little bit of a unique perspective from the wireline side. So for us, there's actually 2 federal programs that are in front of us. The first 1 is the A-CAM program. We already participate in that. We're already almost halfway through that program. And the SEC is considering a proposal to take the addresses that are under that program. And they require higher speeds to be provided to those addresses in exchange for more years of revenue support on the back end of that program. From our perspective, that would be a great development that would help us get those faster speeds. They're talking the same speeds as the BEAD program, 100 megs down 20 megs up. That would be a great opportunity to get those BEADs faster to the customers that are already part of that A-CAM program. And that program is already established. It's already running. And that's something that we could pivot into very, very quickly. So that's one track for us that we see as a great opportunity. But then the BEAD program is also another opportunity for us. And we do believe that there are going to be other areas that we can take fiber under the BEAD program, and we would be excited to participate in that program.

謝謝，LT。所以西蒙，一般來說，從 TDS 電信的角度來看，我們同意 LT 所說的一切，但我們確實從有線方面有一點獨特的觀點。所以對我們來說，實際上有 2 個聯邦計劃擺在我們面前。第一個是 A-CAM 程序。我們已經參與其中。我們幾乎已經完成了該計劃的一半。 SEC 正在考慮一項提案，以獲取該計劃下的地址。他們需要為這些地址提供更高的速度，以換取該程序後端更多年的收入支持。從我們的角度來看，這將是一個偉大的發展，可以幫助我們獲得更快的速度。他們說的速度與 BEAD 程序相同，向下 100 兆，向上 20 兆。這將是一個很好的機會，可以更快地將這些 BEAD 提供給已經參與該 A-CAM 計劃的客戶。該計劃已經建立。它已經在運行了。這是我們可以非常非常迅速地轉向的事情。所以這對我們來說是一個很好的機會。但是 BEAD 計劃對我們來說也是另一個機會。我們確實相信，在 BEAD 計劃下，我們可以在其他領域採用光纖，我們很高興參與該計劃。

We agree with what LT said that it's probably going to take until 2024 until money and funds start flowing under that program. We've got to get through the mapping challenge first this year. And our companies are working hard with the FCC on that. But yes, the combination of A-CAM and BEAD, we really think those are going to be 2 important opportunities to continuing to get higher, faster, better broadband, likely all through fiber out to the most rural areas of our serving territories. But there are going to be places where, like LT said, probably doesn't make sense to take fiber all the way out.

我們同意 LT 所說的，可能要到 2024 年，資金和資金才能根據該計劃開始流動。今年我們必須首先完成製圖挑戰。我們的公司正在與 FCC 就此努力合作。但是，是的，A-CAM 和 BEAD 的結合，我們真的認為這將是繼續獲得更高、更快、更好的寬帶的兩個重要機會，很可能通過光纖連接到我們服務地區的大部分農村地區。但是，正如 LT 所說，在某些地方，完全採用光纖可能沒有意義。

And there are opportunities for us to work with UScellular and partner in order to best serve those customers, we're certainly already talking about that as well, and we'll pursue that as an opportunity.

我們有機會與 UScellular 和合作夥伴合作，以便為這些客戶提供最好的服務，我們當然也已經在討論這個問題，我們將抓住這個機會。

Great. That's good to hear. And you talked about accelerating the fiber build this year. I think Lumen had talked about a higher cost to pass going up to about $1,200. Have you got any color on what's kind of developing there? There's concerns about inflation, labor supply or that stuff? Any color there would be great.

偉大的。聽起來還不錯。你談到了今年加快光纖建設。我認為 Lumen 曾談到過更高的傳遞成本，最高可達 1,200 美元左右。你對那裡的發展有什麼了解嗎？是否擔心通貨膨脹、勞動力供應或其他問題？任何顏色都會很棒。

Yes. So we are planning to keep scaling up and keep delivering more addresses in 2023. We're shooting for 175,000 service addresses under the program this year compared to the 133,000 that we delivered in 2022. Each year, we keep developing a nice increase in address delivery. So yes, we are going to keep accelerating that program on our path to our 1.2 million by 2026. In terms of the actual cost of the build, that's already all factored into our business cases. Over the last year, 18 months, we did start to see some of our contract RFP proposals come in with slightly higher costs, but we were really diligent in working with those vendors and trying to find opportunities where we can reduce some build costs in those markets. And so when you factor everything into the business case, that's why you'll hear me talk a lot about does the business case still hang together?

是的。因此，我們計劃在 2023 年繼續擴大規模並繼續提供更多地址。今年我們計劃在該計劃下提供 175,000 個服務地址，而我們在 2022 年提供了 133,000 個服務地址。每年，我們都在不斷增加地址送貨。所以，是的，我們將繼續加快該計劃，到 2026 年達到 120 萬。就構建的實際成本而言，這已經全部考慮到我們的業務案例中。在過去的 18 個月裡，我們確實開始看到我們的一些合同 RFP 提案的成本略高，但我們非常勤奮地與這些供應商合作，並試圖找到可以降低這些供應商的構建成本的機會市場。因此，當您將所有因素都考慮到業務案例中時，這就是為什麼您會聽到我經常談論業務案例是否仍然存在？

Can we still achieve the low to mid-double digit returns that we're looking for. Even with all of those cost factors adjusted in that we've all seen over the last 12 to 18 months, we're still getting those really attractive returns out of those business cases. And all of that is already factored into our guidance and our CapEx expectations.

我們還能實現我們正在尋找的低到中兩位數的回報嗎？即使在過去 12 到 18 個月中我們都看到了所有這些成本因素的調整，我們仍然從這些業務案例中獲得了真正有吸引力的回報。所有這些都已經納入我們的指導和我們的資本支出預期中。

Your next question comes from the line of Phil Cusick with JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Phil Cusick。

It's Jerome on for Phil. Congrats on the quarter. I was hoping to drill down into the solid low single digit to mid-single digit ARPU growth we've seen on the postpaid business. Kind of what's driving your ability to grow ARPU despite the heavy promotional environment and pausing price hikes, et cetera. And then as we look at 2023, how should investors think about ARPU growth moving forward.

杰羅姆替菲爾上場。祝賀這個季度。我希望深入了解我們在後付費業務中看到的穩定的低個位數到中個位數 ARPU 增長。儘管有大量的促銷環境和暫停的價格上漲等因素，但仍能推動您提高 ARPU 的能力。然後，當我們展望 2023 年時，投資者應該如何看待未來 ARPU 的增長。

Yes, Jerome, Doug Chambers here. So with respect to ARPU growth, one thing that drove it during the year was moving customers up the stack. We started the year with 32% of our handsets on our top 2 tier plans ended the year with 41% on top 2 tier plans. A lot of that was driven by strong efforts by our sales team, but also promotional requirements that we had tied to our new and existing offers. So that was really a tailwind for ARPU. We're doing much better in device protection revenue, the profitability of that product. We've been migrating customers to a new provider where we earn a better margin as well as we slightly increased the penetration of that project. We also had some cost recoveries surcharges that went in at the beginning of 2022 that helped as well. So all that led to the 4% increase. I would say, looking to 2023, building an ARPU is still a goal, that growth rate is not likely to sustain at that level. One of the reasons is flat rate pricing. Obviously, we we have a lower rate of flat rate pricing. But in exchange for that, we don't support that with the same level of promotion. So there is an offset there from a profitability standpoint, but just looking at ARPU, flat rate pricing alone is a bit dilutive. But we're still focused on moving customers up the stack. Like I said, 41%. We have a long runway to go to sell our higher value plans to our customers and are optimistic about that. So that's sort of an overview of how we think about 2023.

是的，這裡有杰羅姆和道格·錢伯斯。因此，就 ARPU 的增長而言，推動這一年增長的一個因素是讓客戶增加。今年年初，我們有 32% 的手機採用頂級 2 層計劃，年底時有 41% 的手機採用頂級 2 層計劃。這在很大程度上是由我們的銷售團隊的努力推動的，還有我們與新的和現有的優惠相關的促銷要求。所以這對 ARPU 來說真的是一個順風。我們在設備保護收入方面做得更好，該產品的盈利能力。我們一直在將客戶遷移到一個新的供應商，在那裡我們獲得了更高的利潤，並且我們略微提高了該項目的滲透率。 2022 年初，我們還收取了一些成本回收附加費，這也有所幫助。所以所有這些導致了 4% 的增長。我想說，展望 2023 年，建立 ARPU 仍然是一個目標，增長率不太可能維持在那個水平。原因之一是統一費率定價。顯然，我們的固定費率定價較低。但作為交換，我們不支持相同級別的推廣。因此，從盈利能力的角度來看存在抵消，但僅從 ARPU 來看，僅採用統一費率定價就有點稀釋了。但我們仍然專注於將客戶提升到堆棧中。就像我說的，41%。我們還有很長的路要走，才能向我們的客戶出售我們更高價值的計劃，並且對此感到樂觀。這就是我們對 2023 年的看法的概述。

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

你的下一個問題來自花旗的邁克爾羅林斯。

Just two questions, if I could. One is -- so looking at Slide 16 and just taking a step back, the service revenue guidance is for a slight decline. Can you unpack that a bit more in terms of the impact of roaming relative to what's happening in terms of the core business and the up-tiering opportunities, the competitive landscape? And then -- and as you think about service revenues over time, is there a conviction that UScellular can positively grow these wireless service revenues on a 1- to 3-year timeframe? And I'll follow up with one other if I could.

如果可以的話，只有兩個問題。一個是 - 所以看看幻燈片 16 並退後一步，服務收入指導略有下降。您能否就漫遊相對於核心業務和升級機會以及競爭格局方面發生的事情的影響進行更多分析？然後——當你考慮隨著時間的推移服務收入時，是否相信 UScellular 可以在 1 到 3 年的時間範圍內積極增加這些無線服務收入？如果可以的話，我會跟進另一個。

Yes, sure. Mic, so the service on your guidance, yes, you hit on that roaming revenue has been declining. It will continue to decline that's impacting service revenue. But it's important to remember, the reason for that is that we're driving rates down. And there's an offsetting impact on roaming expense whereby roaming expenses going down. So from a profitability standpoint, it's actually slightly accretive this year, and we project as well into 2023 when you go down to the operating cash flow line. So that's actually a positive, but on the revenue line alone, there is a decrease there. The other thing with service revenue, we lost connections during 2022. There's obviously a carryover impact of that into 2023 that's factored into the guidance. We're certainly offsetting that with some increased B&G revenue on -- particularly in IoT and wholesale as well as the tower revenue and some other areas. But all that factored in as where we ended up on service revenues.

是的，當然。麥克風，所以在您的指導下的服務，是的，您發現漫遊收入一直在下降。它將繼續下降，這會影響服務收入。但重要的是要記住，原因是我們正在壓低利率。並且對漫遊費用有抵消作用，即漫遊費用下降。因此，從盈利能力的角度來看，今年它實際上略有增加，我們也預計到 2023 年，當你進入運營現金流線時。所以這實際上是一個積極因素，但僅在收入方面，那裡就有減少。服務收入的另一件事是，我們在 2022 年失去了聯繫。顯然，這對 2023 年的影響已納入指導中。我們肯定會通過增加 B&G 收入來抵消這一點——特別是在物聯網和批發以及塔收入和其他一些領域。但所有這些都考慮到了我們最終的服務收入。

And over time, absolutely. Our goal is to grow service revenue. And that's a key priority and starts with growing our base of connections, and that's a key motivator for implementing flat rate pricing and having a really compelling 1 in 2 line and up to 3, 4 line price point for our customers and to grow that base and yield service revenue growth over time.

隨著時間的推移，絕對。我們的目標是增加服務收入。這是一個關鍵的優先事項，從擴大我們的連接基礎開始，這是實施統一費率定價並為我們的客戶提供真正引人注目的 1 合 2 線路和最多 3、4 線路價格點並擴大該基礎的關鍵動力並隨著時間的推移產生服務收入增長。

And then just looking at the investment opportunities that you've been describing in fiber and wireless. What are your latest thoughts on the opportunity to monetize the tower business or your wireless investments in whatever term would be in the debt interest for the operating strategy and for shareholders?

然後看看你在光纖和無線領域描述的投資機會。對於將塔式業務或您的無線投資以任何期限從運營戰略和股東的債務利息中獲利的機會，您有何最新想法？

Yes. So Mic, I mean it's something we can't consistently evaluate, right? We want to make sure that the assets that we have and the capabilities that we have can generate more value to us moving forward and put together than they can in isolation and sold. And we continue to believe that, that is the case. I'll use the towers as a good example. Our tower portfolio drove double-digit revenue percentage growth year-over-year. We expect to see continued revenue growth in that portfolio. I mentioned earlier the colocation rates, just over 1.5 versus industry average, 2.3. We've got a lot of growth on the tower side. And interestingly enough, and this is de minimis right now from a revenue perspective, but it gives you a sense about the opportunity here.

是的。所以 Mic，我的意思是這是我們無法持續評估的東西，對吧？我們希望確保我們擁有的資產和我們擁有的能力能夠為我們的前進和整合產生比它們孤立和出售時更多的價值。我們仍然相信，情況確實如此。我會用塔作為一個很好的例子。我們的塔式產品組合推動了兩位數的收入百分比同比增長。我們預計該投資組合的收入將持續增長。我之前提到過託管率，略高於 1.5，而行業平均水平為 2.3。我們在塔式方面取得了很大的增長。有趣的是，從收入的角度來看，現在這是微不足道的，但它讓你了解這裡的機會。

In the last quarter was the first time we actually sold not just access to the tower, but also access to the shelter. And so -- and we're discussing generator access. We're discussing backhaul access. Those are things that we can market to a potential tenant that our tower competitors cannot. And the reason they can't is because they don't operate a wireless network in conjunction with a tower portfolio.

在上個季度，我們實際上不僅出售了塔樓的使用權，還出售了避難所的使用權。所以——我們正在討論生成器訪問。我們正在討論回程接入。這些是我們可以向潛在租戶推銷的東西，而我們的塔式競爭對手卻做不到。他們不能的原因是因為他們沒有將無線網絡與塔組合一起運行。

So having the assets together benefits the tower business and drives more growth in the tower business. Similarly, right, if I fast forward and take a look at the build on 5G and even getting to 6G, we talked about being in a good place with our network build and being able to be a little bit more conservative with capital in the next year. But in the long run, as you move 5G to 6G, what is 6G going to be? Obviously, the standards are still being worked out, but you're talking at a high level, denser networks and more intelligence at the edge. And if you have denser networks and more intelligence at the edge, it means you're going to need to be touching your towers a lot more. And the fact that I don't have to beg permission and know by the way, pay out the nose to a tower landlord makes Mike's network costs lower. And so we continue to evaluate it. It's a question we ask ourselves every quarter. We want to make sure we're comfortable with the answer. But we remain comfortable in the answer that those assets are better together and drive more growth together and that is revenue growth with cash flow growth as well.

因此，將這些資產整合在一起有利於鐵塔業務，並推動鐵塔業務的更多增長。同樣，如果我快進並看一下 5G 甚至 6G 的建設，我們談到了我們的網絡建設處於有利地位，並且在接下來的資本方面能夠更加保守一些年。但從長遠來看，當你將 5G 轉移到 6G 時，6G 會變成什麼樣？顯然，標準仍在製定中，但你正在談論更高層次、更密集的網絡和更多的邊緣智能。如果你在邊緣擁有更密集的網絡和更多的智能，這意味著你將需要更多地接觸你的塔。事實上，我不必請求許可並順便知道，向塔樓房東支付大量費用使 Mike 的網絡成本更低。所以我們繼續評估它。這是我們每個季度都會問自己的一個問題。我們想確保我們對答案感到滿意。但我們仍然對這些資產在一起更好並共同推動更多增長的答案感到滿意，即收入增長和現金流增長也是如此。

Your next question will come from the line of Sergey Dluzhevskiy with GAMCO Investors.

您的下一個問題將來自 Sergey Dluzhevskiy 與 GAMCO Investors 的對話。

My first question is for LT on the fixed wireless side. As C-band spectrum becomes available and you start deploying it? How do you plan to prioritize as a fixed wireless build in terms of geographies or types of markets? And also, how are you thinking about the capacity needs for fixed wireless business versus capacity needs of your core mobile business to make sure that you have sufficient capacity and the core mobile business doesn't suffer.

我的第一個問題是固定無線端的 LT。當 C 波段頻譜可用並且您開始部署它時？您打算如何根據地理位置或市場類型確定固定無線構建的優先級？此外，您如何考慮固定無線業務的容量需求與核心移動業務的容量需求，以確保您擁有足夠的容量並且核心移動業務不會受到影響。

Sergey, great question. We -- the beautiful thing about that fixed wireless business is that with the exception of a few very, very targeted builds here and there, is that, that business builds on the investments that we make to support our core mobility business. And so although we have a few targeted builds where we kind of have to, where we look to increase capacity to support the needs of our fixed wireless customers, that's very much on the margin. The bulk of that business is driven by the underlying investments made to support our mobility business. And what that means is that the revenues that, that fixed wireless business generates a really attractive margins and those attractive margins turn into attractive cash flows.

謝爾蓋，好問題。我們 - 關於固定無線業務的美妙之處在於，除了一些非常非常有針對性的構建之外，該業務建立在我們為支持我們的核心移動業務而進行的投資之上。因此，儘管我們有一些我們必須做的目標構建，我們希望在這些構建中增加容量來支持我們的固定無線客戶的需求，但這在很大程度上是微不足道的。該業務的大部分是由為支持我們的移動業務而進行的基礎投資推動的。這意味著固定無線業務的收入產生了非常有吸引力的利潤率，而這些有吸引力的利潤率變成了有吸引力的現金流。

Thus far, we have not seen meaningful capacity challenges driven by fixed wireless. We've been able to architect the network. Mike and team have done some really creative things to make sure that we're in a good place from a capacity perspective. And you mentioned the C-band deployment and the 3.45 deployment also, which will happen kind of throughout 2023. That will add more capacity, and it will enable us to serve and support those customers more effectively. So we don't see meaningful capacity challenges arising from this business.

到目前為止，我們還沒有看到由固定無線驅動的有意義的容量挑戰。我們已經能夠構建網絡。 Mike 和團隊做了一些非常有創意的事情，以確保我們從容量的角度來看處於一個好的位置。你還提到了 C 波段部署和 3.45 部署，這將在整個 2023 年進行。這將增加更多容量，使我們能夠更有效地服務和支持這些客戶。因此，我們看不到這項業務帶來的有意義的容量挑戰。

The build of the business will continue to be driven and the prioritization of the business will continue to be driven by the core mobility business. And that's why we continue to be really bullish about the economics. I referenced this when I talked about BEAD. I mean if you were building a -- if you're going to go build a tower in rural America, and you were only going to subsidize that, if you're only going to pay for that tower with fixed wireless customers, you need in the range of 200 to 250 customers within a 7-kilometer range of that tower. That's pretty dense for rural America. And so it's difficult to make the economics stand-alone on fixed wireless. But the beautiful part is we don't have to. We have a core mobility business that subsidizes it. And so that capacity and the capacity demand for that business worked out pretty nicely. And we expect that to continue since we also have the mid-band spectrum coming online.

業務的構建將繼續受到推動，業務的優先級排序將繼續由核心移動業務推動。這就是為什麼我們繼續真正看好經濟。我在談到 BEAD 時提到了這一點。我的意思是，如果你正在建造一個 - 如果你打算在美國農村建造一座塔，並且你只打算補貼它，如果你只打算為固定無線客戶支付那座塔，你需要在該塔 7 公里範圍內的 200 至 250 名客戶範圍內。這對美國農村來說相當密集。因此很難使固定無線的經濟獨立存在。但美妙的部分是我們不必這樣做。我們有一項核心移動業務為其提供補貼。因此，該業務的容量和容量需求非常好。我們希望這種情況繼續下去，因為我們也有中頻頻譜上線。

Great. My second question is for Doug. You mentioned continued cost optimization efforts. And obviously, Uscellular's margins continue to be under pressure for various reasons, part of it is competitive intensity in the market, part of it is your counter moves. All of that is putting pressure on margins. But what are some of the cost efficiency initiatives that you have in place for 2023 and beyond that you think could provide meaningful offset to some of those pressures? What are some of the larger buckets of cost savings that you see over the next few years?

偉大的。我的第二個問題是給道格的。您提到了持續的成本優化工作。顯然，由於各種原因，Uscellular 的利潤率繼續面臨壓力，部分原因是市場競爭激烈，部分原因是你們的反擊行動。所有這些都對利潤率構成壓力。但是，您認為 2023 年及以後實施的哪些成本效率舉措可以有效抵消其中一些壓力？您在未來幾年看到哪些較大的成本節約？

Yes. It's really across the business, Sergey. So every single area we're addressing and we have a significant amount of savings built into our budget. But examples are -- we've been driving backhaul rates way down. Sell-side rents, we have a program to drive those down. We saved quite a bit of money with our marketing media agencies over the past years, and we'll continue that going forward. With respect to network maintenance and network software, we've done quite a bit with respect to renegotiating contracts with our vendors on those. So if you look at the big buckets of spend, that's where we're placing the main focus, but it's really across the business that we're driving savings and we've been doing it in a -- through a formalized program since 2017, and we haven't bought up.

是的。謝爾蓋，這真的涉及整個行業。因此，我們正在解決的每一個領域，我們的預算都節省了大量資金。但例子是——我們一直在推動回程率下降。賣方租金，我們有一個降低租金的計劃。在過去的幾年裡，我們通過營銷媒體代理節省了大量資金，我們將繼續這樣做。關於網絡維護和網絡軟件，我們在與供應商重新談判合同方面做了很多工作。因此，如果你看看大筆支出，那就是我們的主要關注點，但實際上我們正在推動儲蓄的整個業務，而且我們一直在這樣做——自 2017 年以來通過一個正式的計劃，我們還沒有買斷。

Great. And my last question is both for LT and Michelle. So I believe earlier this year at the investor conference, management mentioned that in 2023, UScellular and TDS Telecom will step up their collaboration efforts including an MVNO relationship, we're selling each other's products, potentially applying for big funding or just broadly government funding together, could you provide more color on these initiatives as far as what you have already been doing kind of in 2023? And what forms of collaboration or partnership do you see as the greatest value-creating opportunity for both companies over medium term.

偉大的。我的最後一個問題是針對 LT 和 Michelle 的。所以我相信今年早些時候在投資者會議上，管理層提到 2023 年，UScellular 和 TDS Telecom 將加強合作，包括建立 MVNO 關係，我們正在銷售彼此的產品，可能申請大筆資金或只是廣泛的政府資金總之，就您在 2023 年已經在做的事情而言，您能否為這些舉措提供更多色彩？您認為哪種形式的合作或夥伴關係是兩家公司在中期創造最大價值的機會。

Michelle, do you want to tackle that one?

米歇爾，你想解決這個問題嗎？

Yes, I can start and LT, you can certainly feel free to jump in. So yes, thanks, Sergey. Yes, we did mention a couple -- a few weeks ago, I guess, it was some collaboration efforts that we're doing together. On the MVNO front, TDS Telecom is working our way through all of the details of how we can get an MVNO product launch so that we can get wireless into our bundle of services that we offer to our customers. We hope to get that product launched sometime during 2023 or pull by midyear. And certainly, we would want to partner with UScellular under where our territories overlap.

是的，我可以開始，LT，你當然可以隨意加入。所以是的，謝謝，謝爾蓋。是的，我們確實提到了幾個——幾週前，我想，這是我們一起做的一些合作努力。在 MVNO 方面，TDS Telecom 正在研究如何推出 MVNO 產品的所有細節，以便我們可以將無線納入我們提供給客戶的服務包中。我們希望在 2023 年的某個時候或年中推出該產品。當然，我們希望在我們領土重疊的地方與 UScellular 合作。

However, our territories don't overlap perfectly. About 40% of our addresses can be covered by the U.S. cellular wireless network. So we will have to also supplement and partner with other wireless carriers as well. So we are in the process of working through that. We also mentioned earlier at one of the conferences, and we're still working on the ability to do some cross-selling. So selling TDS Telecom broadband through UScellular retail stores in certain geographies. We're working through the details of that as well and seeing if that could be an uplift opportunity for both companies, and so we'll probably start that in a small way and test that out, do some learnings and then see if that could be expanded into anything bigger. And as I mentioned earlier, on the BEAD program, we don't have all of the state program details yet. Those are still coming. But once we get those, we'll be a little bit more I guess, firm in our discussions with each other, but we've already started high-level discussions about how can we partner in some of those most rural areas in order to reach customers in the most economical way possible through a combination of fiber and fixed wireless. So I think those are the primary things that we're doing and talking about together this year. But LT, is there anything else that you'd like to add?

然而，我們的領土並不完全重疊。美國蜂窩無線網絡可以覆蓋我們大約 40% 的地址。因此，我們還必須補充其他無線運營商並與之合作。所以我們正在解決這個問題。我們之前在其中一個會議上也提到過，我們仍在研究進行一些交叉銷售的能力。因此，通過某些地區的 UScellular 零售店銷售 TDS Telecom 寬帶。我們也在研究這方面的細節，看看這是否對兩家公司來說都是一個提升的機會，所以我們可能會以小規模的方式開始，測試一下，做一些學習，然後看看是否可以擴展成更大的東西。正如我之前提到的，在 BEAD 計劃中，我們還沒有所有州計劃的詳細信息。那些還在繼續。但是一旦我們得到這些，我想我們會更加堅定地討論彼此，但我們已經開始高層討論我們如何才能在一些最農村地區合作，以便通過光纖和固定無線的結合，以最經濟的方式接觸客戶。所以我認為這些是我們今年一起做和談論的主要事情。但是 LT，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

I think you nailed it, Michelle, MVNO, co-selling and BEAD are the 3 big opportunities. So I think you covered it. Thanks, everybody. It was a good chatting with you. Colleen?

我認為你成功了，Michelle、MVNO、聯合銷售和 BEAD 是三大機遇。所以我想你涵蓋了它。謝謝大家。和你聊天很愉快。科琳？

Okay. That was our last question. Thanks again, everyone, for your time today. Again, please reach out to IR if you have any additional questions. Have a good weekend.

好的。這是我們的最後一個問題。再次感謝大家今天的時間。同樣，如果您有任何其他問題，請聯繫 IR。有一個美好的周末。

Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連接。