美國無線通訊 (USM) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is David, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the TDS and U.S. Cellular First Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

早上好。我的名字是大衛，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 第一季度收益結果電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）

Colleen Thompson, Vice President of Corporate Relations, you may begin your conference.

公司關係副總裁科琳·湯普森（Colleen Thompson），您可以開始會議了。

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 section of the TDS and U.S. Cellular websites.

早上好，感謝您加入我們。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; Vicki Villacrez, incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; from U.S. Cellular, 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.

TDS 執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Pete Sereda 今天和我一起提供準備好的意見； Vicki Villacrez，即將上任的執行副總裁兼首席財務官；來自 U.S. Cellular，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 U.S. Cellular Investor Relations website. 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 U.S. Cellular's wireless partnerships.

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的網站，包括非 GAAP 對賬。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 無線合作夥伴的貢獻。

We filed the majority of our documents with the SEC after market close yesterday, but due to issues with EDGAR, they are not yet appearing on the SEC's website. All but the TDS 10-Q are on our websites this morning.

昨天收市後，我們向 SEC 提交了大部分文件，但由於 EDGAR 的問題，它們尚未出現在 SEC 的網站上。今天早上，除了 TDS 10-Q 之外的所有產品都在我們的網站上。

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 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, on May 23, we are attending JPMorgan's 50th Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston. And on June 2, we are doing a non-deal roadshow in New York with Citi. And as always, our open door policy can now be in open door, phone or video policy so please reach out if you're interested in speaking with us.

關於我們即將在幻燈片 3 上發布的 IR 日程安排，我們將在 5 月 23 日參加摩根大通在波士頓舉行的第 50 屆技術、媒體和通信會議。 6 月 2 日，我們將與花旗在紐約進行非交易路演。與往常一樣，我們的開門政策現在可以採用開門、電話或視頻政策，所以如果您有興趣與我們交談，請聯繫我們。

Turning to Slide 4, we continue to make progress on our environmental, social and governance or ESG program. And as you can see on the slide, we have had a number of initiatives that illustrate our commitment. I will now turn the call over to Pete Sereda. Pete?

轉到幻燈片 4，我們繼續在環境、社會和治理或 ESG 計劃方面取得進展。正如您在幻燈片上看到的那樣，我們已經採取了許多舉措來表明我們的承諾。我現在將把電話轉給 Pete Sereda。皮特？

Good morning. I'm confident that when I retire at the end of this month, TDS will be in good hands with Vicki Villacrez as CFO. Vicki has over 30 years of experience with the TDS enterprise, and she and I has spent the last 6 months working closely together to ensure a smooth transition. In her 10 years as CFO of TDS Telecom, she was a key leader and business driver, and she deserves much of the credit for the creation and execution of the fiber transformation that is underway as well as the general financial success of the company. We are very lucky to have someone with her level of ability. She's a very talented leader and will do an outstanding job as CFO of TDS.

早上好。我相信，當我在本月底退休時，TDS 將在 Vicki Villacrez 擔任首席財務官的情況下得到妥善處理。 Vicki 在 TDS 企業擁有超過 30 年的經驗，她和我在過去 6 個月中密切合作以確保順利過渡。在她擔任 TDS Telecom 首席財務官的 10 年中，她是一位重要的領導者和業務推動者，她在創建和執行正在進行的光纖轉型以及公司的總體財務成功方面值得稱讚。我們很幸運能遇到像她這樣能力的人。她是一位非常有才華的領導者，並將作為 TDS 的 CFO 出色地完成工作。

And with that, I will turn the call over to Vicki. Vicki?

有了這個，我會把電話轉給 Vicki。維姬？

Thank you, Pete, and good morning, everyone. As I step into this role, I am fortunate to be the CFO at a company with such a strong financial foundation and exceptional talent. Going forward, we will continue to ensure that we maintain this position so that each of our businesses can take advantage of their growth opportunities to enhance their competitive positions and ultimately improve long-term returns. We expect to also continue to return value to shareholders, primarily through cash dividends, which have increased every year for the past 48 years.

謝謝你，皮特，大家早上好。當我踏上這個角色時，我很幸運能在一家擁有如此強大的財務基礎和傑出人才的公司擔任首席財務官。展望未來，我們將繼續確保我們保持這一地位，以便我們的每項業務都可以利用其增長機會來增強其競爭地位並最終提高長期回報。我們預計還將繼續向股東回報價值，主要是通過在過去 48 年中每年都在增加的現金股息。

In addition, we repurchased a modest amount of stock this quarter and may continue to do so opportunistically and again, at a modest level, depending on market conditions. Both of our businesses are focused on executing on their strategic priorities and meeting the financial expectations that we guided to at the beginning of the year. U.S. Cellular is continuing to make improvements in its high-performing network, and TDS Telecom is seeing good success in its fiber expansion program.

此外，我們在本季度回購了少量股票，並且可能會繼續以機會主義的方式一次又一次地回購，具體程度取決於市場情況。我們兩家公司都專注於執行其戰略重點並滿足我們在年初制定的財務預期。 U.S. Cellular 繼續改進其高性能網絡，TDS Telecom 在其光纖擴展計劃中取得了巨大成功。

Inflation and supply chain are 2 areas we are watching closely. We've developed strategies to mitigate any impacts, and overall, I believe the organization is managing well. At the same time, we are working to ensure that we'll be a key player in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, program at both businesses. We also strongly advocate the extension of the FCC's A-CAM program, which we currently participate in today. Each business unit will touch on their specific areas of focus on these topics this morning.

通貨膨脹和供應鍊是我們密切關注的兩個領域。我們已經制定了減輕任何影響的策略，總的來說，我相信該組織管理得很好。與此同時，我們正在努力確保我們將成為基礎設施投資和就業法案 (IIJA) 計劃中兩家企業的關鍵參與者。我們還強烈主張擴展我們目前參與的 FCC 的 A-CAM 計劃。今天上午，每個業務部門都將討論他們關注這些主題的特定領域。

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

現在我將把電話轉給 LT。

Thanks, Vicki. Good morning, everybody. As you can see on Slide 7, our mission remains consistent: just keep customers connected and the people in the places that matter most to them. And on that slide, you can see some of the strategic priorities that support our mission.

謝謝，維姬。大家早上好。正如您在幻燈片 7 中看到的那樣，我們的使命始終如一：讓客戶保持聯繫，讓人們在對他們最重要的地方保持聯繫。在這張幻燈片上，您可以看到支持我們使命的一些戰略重點。

Let me turn to Slide 8. On this slide, you can see the strategies that we've developed to drive revenue growth and increase return on capital over time, and let me start with postpaid. I'm not satisfied with our subscriber results in the first quarter. We continually try to optimize financial outcomes with subscriber outcomes. And the environment over the past 4 months -- over the past 2 years, really, has been extremely competitive. And although we've regionally tested aggressive offers in the marketplace, particularly from an acquisition standpoint, we've also tried to be disciplined from a financial perspective, and you see that in our strong adjusted operating income performance for the quarter.

讓我轉到幻燈片 8。在這張幻燈片上，您可以看到我們為推動收入增長和隨著時間的推移增加資本回報而製定的策略，讓我從後付費開始。我對第一季度的訂戶結果不滿意。我們不斷嘗試通過訂閱者的結果來優化財務結果。過去 4 個月的環境——在過去的 2 年裡，真的，競爭非常激烈。儘管我們已經在市場上測試了區域性的激進報價，特別是從收購的角度來看，但我們也試圖從財務角度遵守紀律，你可以在我們本季度強勁的調整後營業收入表現中看到這一點。

I'm sure when we get to the Q&A section, there may be some questions around AT&T's recent price move. Although I certainly don't have insight into all the drivers of the decision, we operate in a highly capital-intensive industry. And although the industry is somewhat insulated from inflationary effects and our industry generally fares well in challenging economic conditions, we're all experiencing increasing labor costs and increasing costs across our supply chain.

我敢肯定，當我們進入問答部分時，可能會有一些關於 AT&T 最近價格變動的問題。儘管我當然無法深入了解該決定的所有驅動因素，但我們在一個資本高度密集的行業運營。儘管該行業在一定程度上不受通脹影響，而且我們的行業通常在充滿挑戰的經濟條件下表現良好，但我們都在經歷不斷增加的勞動力成本和整個供應鏈的成本。

That being said, we view this as an opportunity. We're committed to caring for our customers during tough economic times, and we'll be committing to our customers that we will not raise prices on their existing rate plans through at least the end of 2023. We're highly focused on improving churn. This commitment is 1 component, just 1 component of our plan to do this.

話雖如此，我們認為這是一個機會。我們致力於在經濟困難時期照顧我們的客戶，我們將向客戶承諾，至少在 2023 年底之前，我們不會提高他們現有費率計劃的價格。我們高度專注於改善客戶流失率.這一承諾是其中的一個組成部分，只是我們計劃中的一個組成部分。

Let me come back to the theme of balance. We have challenging subscriber results to better drive positive ARPU results, and we certainly did. As Doug will touch on in a moment, our postpaid ARPU was up 4% year-over-year, and you can see the impact on our service revenues. Very encouraged by our ability to grow postpaid ARPU over time. We've grown this metric by 2% over each of the last 2 years, and you've seen strong growth in the first quarter of 2022. And this ARPU growth is despite the headwind of a highly promotional environment, and that includes providing monthly credits associated with device discounts, and this had a negative impact on postpaid ARPU.

讓我回到平衡的主題。我們有挑戰性的訂戶結果，以更好地推動積極的 ARPU 結果，我們當然做到了。 Doug 稍後會談到，我們的後付費 ARPU 同比增長 4%，您可以看到對我們服務收入的影響。我們隨著時間的推移增加後付費 ARPU 的能力讓我們深受鼓舞。在過去 2 年中，我們每年都將這一指標增長 2%，並且您已經看到 2022 年第一季度的強勁增長。儘管受到高度促銷環境的不利影響，這種 ARPU 的增長仍然存在，其中包括每月提供與設備折扣相關的信用，這對後付費 ARPU 產生了負面影響。

Let's switch to prepaid. Though the top line prepaid results don't look tremendous, but I'm actually quite pleased with the performance of that business from a relative basis. Our prepaid results were impacted by a lower switching pool in the first quarter across the entire industry. Our share of gross adds in that switching pool continues to perform quite well. We continue to see positive momentum in the growth investment areas of our business. We had another strong quarter of high-speed Internet results. Gross adds up 27% year-over-year, most of those on our low-band product, while we continue to expand our 5G millimeter wave footprint. We now have 5G millimeter wave fixed wireless access service available in 10 cities. We do plan to offer this service in dozens of more cities throughout the year.

讓我們切換到預付費。雖然頂線預付結果看起來並不大，但我實際上對這項業務的相對錶現感到非常滿意。我們的預付結果受到整個行業第一季度較低的轉換池的影響。我們在該轉換池中的總增量份額繼續表現良好。我們繼續看到我們業務增長投資領域的積極勢頭。我們在高速互聯網上又取得了強勁的季度業績。 Gross 同比增長 27%，其中大部分是我們的低頻段產品，同時我們繼續擴大我們的 5G 毫米波足跡。我們現在在 10 個城市提供 5G 毫米波固定無線接入服務。我們確實計劃全年在數十個城市提供這項服務。

Our tower business produced double-digit revenue growth. The momentum there continues to build. And we're seeing continued positive growth in the B2B space. We signed our first private networking deal recently, and we continue to see really positive deal momentum in the IoT space as well. We're also beginning to see positive results from our investments in digital, digital capabilities to provide a better life cycle management, targeting, messaging.

我們的鐵塔業務實現了兩位數的收入增長。那裡的勢頭繼續增強。我們看到 B2B 領域的持續正增長。我們最近簽署了我們的第一份私人網絡交易，我們也繼續看到物聯網領域真正積極的交易勢頭。我們也開始看到我們在數字化、數字化能力方面的投資取得了積極成果，以提供更好的生命週期管理、定位和消息傳遞。

For example, we've seen significantly higher mobile app traffic and mobile app transactions, and this substantially improves the customer experience as measured by App Scores. This has resulted in a 45% year-over-year increase in app sessions at the end of the quarter. This improves our customer experience, deepens our engagement. It also helps us manage costs over the long term.

例如，我們看到移動應用程序流量和移動應用程序交易量顯著增加，這大大改善了以應用程序分數衡量的客戶體驗。這導致本季度末應用會話數量同比增長 45%。這改善了我們的客戶體驗，加深了我們的參與度。它還有助於我們長期管理成本。

Turning to the network. We continue our network modernization program and multiyear 5G deployment. The majority of our traffic is carried by sites that have 5G deployed. And equally important, we're getting 5G devices in our customers' hands. So far, 34% of our subscribers have 5G-capable devices.

轉向網絡。我們繼續我們的網絡現代化計劃和多年的 5G 部署。我們的大部分流量由部署了 5G 的站點承載。同樣重要的是，我們將 5G 設備交到客戶手中。到目前為止，我們 34% 的用戶擁有支持 5G 的設備。

Vicki mentioned the IIJA. We continue to meet with key stakeholders that maximize our opportunity for wireless under that program. Let's put some context around this. In terms of dollars, the IIJA will allocate nearly $43 billion of broadband funding to individual states. And the specific allocations are still being worked out, but we believe as much as $8 billion explored areas where we operate our network. We know that fixed wireless is a compelling solution for broadband to the home and the business where it's uneconomical to put fiber. You've seen speeds of nearly 1 gig over 7 kilometers in our technical trials. And our product is marketed at 300 megs. That's a tremendous improvement in speeds and capacity for rural America.

Vicki 提到了 IIJA。我們將繼續與關鍵利益相關者會面，以最大限度地利用該計劃下的無線機會。讓我們圍繞這一點做一些背景說明。以美元計，IIJA 將向各個州分配近 430 億美元的寬帶資金。具體分配仍在製定中，但我們相信在我們運營網絡的區域中探索了多達 80 億美元的資金。我們知道，固定無線對於家庭和企業來說是一種引人注目的寬帶解決方案，因為在這些地方鋪設光纖是不經濟的。在我們的技術試驗中，您已經看到 7 公里以上的近 1 gig 速度。我們的產品銷售量為 300 兆。這對美國農村地區的速度和容量來說是一個巨大的進步。

Additionally, the investments we make in wireless broadband provides the additional benefit of improving our wireless mobile network coverage. And clearly, any infrastructure investments to towers also help us drive greater levels of tower revenue.

此外，我們在無線寬帶方面的投資提供了改善我們的無線移動網絡覆蓋範圍的額外好處。顯然，對鐵塔的任何基礎設施投資也有助於我們提高鐵塔收入。

So to summarize, I'm pleased with the financial outcomes in the first quarter. We continue to see positive momentum in growth investment areas of the business. Although subscriber results were challenged, particularly in postpaid, we continue to try to strike the right balance between financial outcomes and subscriber outcomes.

總而言之，我對第一季度的財務結果感到滿意。我們繼續看到業務增長投資領域的積極勢頭。儘管訂戶結果受到挑戰，特別是在後付費方面，但我們繼續嘗試在財務結果和訂戶結果之間取得適當的平衡。

So I'll now turn the call over to Doug, who's going to take you through the financial results. Doug?

因此，我現在將電話轉給 Doug，他將帶您了解財務結果。道格？

Thanks, LT. Good morning. Let's start with a review of customer results on Slide 9. Postpaid handset gross additions decreased by 13,000 largely due to continued aggression in a competitive environment. Postpaid handset net additions were down 33,000, driven by the lower gross additions and an increase in churn, which I will discuss in a moment. We saw connected device gross additions decline by 4,000, driven by lower tablet additions, due in part to global supply constraints. This was partially offset by an increase in fixed wireless additions. Overall, we continue to see solid growth in fixed wireless as unlimited plans are now available in the majority of our network.

謝謝，LT。早上好。讓我們先回顧一下幻燈片 9 上的客戶結果。後付費手機的總增加量減少了 13,000 部，這主要是由於競爭環境中的持續侵略。後付費手機淨增加量下降了 33,000 部，這是由於總增加量減少和客戶流失增加，我稍後會討論。我們看到連接設備的總增加量下降了 4,000 台，這是由於平板電腦增加量減少，部分原因是全球供應限制。這部分被固定無線增加的增加所抵消。總體而言，我們繼續看到固定無線的穩健增長，因為我們的大部分網絡現在都提供無限制計劃。

Next, let's turn to the postpaid churn rate shown on Slide 10. Postpaid handset churn increased from the prior year, driven by higher voluntary churn as a result of increased switching activity and continued aggressive industry-wide competition. Involuntary churn also increased, attributable to changes in consumer payment behavior as we experienced very low involuntary churn rates in 2021 due to the various impacts of the pandemic. Total postpaid churn, combining handsets and connected devices, increased due to higher handset churn in certain business and government customers disconnecting connected devices that were activated for various reasons associated with the pandemic over the past 2 years.

接下來，讓我們看看幻燈片 10 中顯示的後付費手機流失率。後付費手機流失率比上一年有所增加，這是由於更換活動增加和行業範圍內持續激烈的競爭導致自願流失率增加所致。由於大流行的各種影響，我們在 2021 年經歷了非常低的非自願流失率，因此非自願流失率也有所增加。包括手機和聯網設備在內的總後付費客戶流失率有所增加，原因是某些企業和政府客戶在過去 2 年中因各種原因而斷開與大流行相關的聯網設備的連接設備流失率較高。

Moving to Slide 11. Prepaid gross additions declined 7,000, largely driven by a lower prepaid gross add pool in 2022. Net additions decreased by 18,000, driven by lower gross additions and higher churn, which was also lower last year due to the effects of the pandemic.

轉到幻燈片 11。預付總增加量下降了 7,000，主要是由於 2022 年預付總增加量減少。淨增加量減少了 18,000，這是由於總增加量減少和流失率增加，去年由於大流行。

Now let's turn to the financial results, starting on Slide 12. Total operating revenues for the first quarter declined 1% from the prior year. Retail service revenues improved by 3% due primarily to a higher average revenue per user, which I will discuss in a moment. Inbound roaming revenue declined 27% due to lower data volume and lower rates. One of the factors contributing to this data volume decrease is the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile and the continued migration of Sprint roaming traffic to T-Mobile's network. Other service revenues were up 8% due to both higher tower rental revenues and miscellaneous/other service revenues. Finally, equipment sales revenues decreased by 12% due to a decrease in units sold as well as a decrease in average revenue per unit, which was driven by an increase in the value of promotional offers as a result of the competitive environment.

現在讓我們看看財務業績，從幻燈片 12 開始。第一季度的總營業收入比去年同期下降了 1%。零售服務收入增長了 3%，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。由於較低的數據量和較低的費率，入境漫遊收入下降了 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。由於塔租金收入和雜項/其他服務收入的增加，其他服務收入增長了 8%。最後，設備銷售收入減少了 12%，原因是銷售量減少以及單位平均收入減少，這是由於競爭環境導致促銷優惠價值增加所致。

Turning to Slide 13. Average revenue per user and average revenue per account were up 4%. The increases were driven by favorable plan and product operating mix and increase in cost recovery surcharges and an increase in device protection revenues. These were partially offset by an increase in promotional costs. Currently, 33% of our handset customers are on our 2 highest tiers of unlimited plans, and we are focused on continuing to grow this number to further improve ARPU and to provide our customers with the enhanced value of these plans.

轉到幻燈片 13。每個用戶的平均收入和每個帳戶的平均收入增長了 4%。這些增長是由有利的計劃和產品運營組合以及成本回收附加費的增加和設備保護收入的增加推動的。這些都被促銷成本的增加所部分抵消。目前，我們 33% 的手機客戶使用我們的 2 個最高級別的無限計劃，我們專注於繼續增加這一數字，以進一步提高 ARPU 並為我們的客戶提供這些計劃的增強價值。

As you can see on Slide 14, we continue to see steady growth in tower rental revenues, which increased by 10% from the prior year, driven by an increase in our tower tenancy rate.

正如您在幻燈片 14 中看到的那樣，我們繼續看到塔租金收入穩步增長，在我們的塔租賃率增加的推動下，該收入比去年增長了 10%。

Our overall financial results for the quarter are shown on Slide 15. For this discussion, I will refer to adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization and accretion and gains and losses as adjusted operating income. As I commented earlier, total operating revenues declined 1% while total cash expenses were essentially flat. Cost of equipment sold decreased 6%, driven by a decrease in units sold. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 6%, driven by an increase in bad debt expense due to an increase in write-offs related to involuntary actions which have increased from very low levels experienced throughout the pandemic to historical pre-pandemic levels. Total system operations expense was essentially flat.

我們本季度的總體財務結果顯示在幻燈片 15 中。在本次討論中，我將在折舊、攤銷和增值前調整後的營業收入以及損益作為調整後的營業收入。正如我之前評論的那樣，總營業收入下降了 1%，而總現金支出基本持平。設備銷售成本下降 6%，主要受銷售單位減少的推動。銷售、一般和管理費用增長了 6%，原因是與非自願行為相關的核銷增加導致壞賬費用增加，這些非自願行為已從整個大流行期間的極低水平增加到大流行前的歷史水平。總系統運營費用基本持平。

Excluding loss on equipment, which reflects the impact of the highly promotional environment and bad debt expense, which is returning to pre-pandemic levels, other cash expenses were essentially flat year-over-year and is a result of our operating expense discipline and the execution of our multiyear cost optimization program, which continues to yield strong results. Adjusted operating income declined 6%, and adjusted EBITDA, which incorporates the earnings from our equity investments, along with interest and dividend income, decreased 4%. Capital expenditures have increased 10%, mainly driven by the timing of expenditures in 2022 relative to the prior year.

排除設備損失（反映了高度促銷環境的影響）和壞賬費用恢復到大流行前的水平，其他現金費用與去年同期基本持平，這是我們的運營費用紀律和執行我們的多年成本優化計劃，該計劃繼續產生強勁的成果。調整後的營業收入下降了 6%，調整後的 EBITDA（包括我們的股權投資收益以及利息和股息收入）下降了 4%。資本支出增加了 10%，主要是由於 2022 年支出的時間與上一年相比。

Turning to Slide 16, I will cover our guidance for the full year 2022. Our guidance range for total service revenues, adjusted operating income and adjusted EBITDA remain unchanged. This reflects our estimates for low single-digit growth in retail service revenue, continued decline in high-margin roaming revenue and the expectation of a continued highly competitive and promotionally-focused environment. For capital expenditures, we are also maintaining our guidance range as our investments in 5G and network modernization and initial preparation for our mid-band spectrum deployments remain on track.

轉到幻燈片 16，我將介紹我們對 2022 年全年的指導。我們對總服務收入、調整後營業收入和調整後 EBITDA 的指導範圍保持不變。這反映了我們對零售服務收入的低個位數增長、高利潤漫遊收入持續下降以及對持續高度競爭和以促銷為重點的環境的預期。對於資本支出，我們也在維持我們的指導範圍，因為我們對 5G 和網絡現代化的投資以及我們的中頻頻譜部署的初步準備工作仍在進行中。

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

我現在將把電話轉給 Michelle Brukwicki。米歇爾？

Thanks, Doug, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased with our results at TDS Telecom for the first quarter. We are tracking to our financial guidance expectations and had strong growth in our fiber program. As planned, we added 22,000 marketable fiber service addresses to our footprint and continue to execute on our fiber strategy. Since February, we announced our expansion into 4 new markets in Montana and several communities in Wisconsin. We also completed fiber construction in our central Wisconsin cluster and are pleased with our results to date.

謝謝，道格，大家早上好。我們對 TDS Telecom 第一季度的業績感到滿意。我們正在跟踪我們的財務指導預期，並在我們的纖維計劃中實現了強勁增長。按照計劃，我們在我們的足跡中增加了 22,000 個適銷對路的光纖服務地址，並繼續執行我們的光纖戰略。自 2 月以來，我們宣布進軍蒙大拿州的 4 個新市場和威斯康星州的幾個社區。我們還在威斯康星州中部集群完成了光纖建設，並對我們迄今為止的成果感到滿意。

We remain committed to the same strategic pillars we have focused on for several years. Our primary strategic objective is to provide growth and improve returns by investing in our flagship product, high-speed broadband. We are directing our investments to expand our fiber footprint in new and existing markets and to enhance our product offerings, and these investments are driving revenue growth.

我們將繼續致力於我們多年來關注的相同戰略支柱。我們的主要戰略目標是通過投資於我們的旗艦產品高速寬帶來提供增長和提高回報。我們正在引導我們的投資以擴大我們在新市場和現有市場的纖維足跡，並增強我們的產品供應，這些投資正在推動收入增長。

At the FCC's upcoming meeting in May, an extension of the A-CAM program will be considered, which we aggressively advocated for and fully support. We anticipate an extension program would provide additional years of revenue support in exchange for deploying higher speed -- higher broadband speeds. Extending the current federal A-CAM program, along with the IIJA broadband funding, would provide even more opportunities for TDS Telecom to help bridge the digital divide in our most rural areas.

在 FCC 即將於 5 月召開的會議上，將考慮擴展 A-CAM 計劃，我們積極倡導並全力支持。我們預計擴展計劃將提供額外多年的收入支持，以換取部署更高的速度——更高的寬帶速度。擴展當前的聯邦 A-CAM 計劃以及 IIJA 寬帶資金，將為 TDS 電信提供更多機會，幫助彌合我們大多數農村地區的數字鴻溝。

Turning to Slide 19. We highlight the achievements we've made for this quarter. As mentioned, we announced 4 new fiber markets in Montana, Great Falls, Butte, Missoula and Helena. We also announced 2 new markets in Wisconsin: Janesville and Brookfield, and we expanded our western Wisconsin cluster by 2 additional communities. Beginning in 2022, we are now measuring fiber service addresses in our cable markets as we are deploying fiber in opportunistic areas such as greenfield development. We deployed 22,000 marketable fiber service addresses in the quarter and are working hard to reach our target of 160,000 for the year. Seasonality will impact the quarterly cadence of fiber service address delivery, starting slowly in the first quarter and steadily building throughout the year.

轉到幻燈片 19。我們強調我們在本季度取得的成就。如前所述，我們在蒙大拿州、大瀑布城、比尤特、米蘇拉和海倫娜宣布了 4 個新的纖維市場。我們還宣布了威斯康星州的 2 個新市場：簡斯維爾和布魯克菲爾德，並且我們將威斯康星州西部集群擴大了 2 個社區。從 2022 年開始，我們現在正在測量我們的電纜市場中的光纖服務地址，因為我們正在綠地開發等機會性領域部署光纖。我們在本季度部署了 22,000 個可銷售的光纖服務地址，並正在努力實現我們今年 160,000 個的目標。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。

33% of our total footprint is now served by fiber, and this metric, as I mentioned, now includes fiber in our cable markets. As a reminder, as reported in February, we expect to serve approximately 60% of our total footprint with fiber by 2026. As we look to deliver our service address goals for the rest of the year, we continue to manage a variety of industry-wide headwinds, including inflation, supply chain and contractor performance challenges. We are working to mitigate these headwinds and are pleased to have a robust pipeline of markets to help us pivot if necessary.

我們總足蹟的 33% 現在由光纖提供服務，正如我所提到的，這個指標現在包括我們電纜市場中的光纖。提醒一下，正如 2 月份報導的那樣，我們預計到 2026 年，我們將使用光纖服務約 60% 的總足跡。隨著我們希望在今年剩餘時間實現我們的服務地址目標，我們將繼續管理各種行業-廣泛的不利因素，包括通貨膨脹、供應鍊和承包商績效挑戰。我們正在努力緩解這些不利因素，並很高興擁有強大的市場渠道，以幫助我們在必要時進行調整。

In line with our growth objectives, service addresses grew 7% year-over-year. In the first quarter, we completed the network upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 in our continuum market and increased our availability of 1-gig speeds to 62% of our total service addresses, up from 55% a year ago. We also continue to see positive trends in our broadband penetration rates for markets that have been fully launched for more than 12 months, and we still anticipate 40% to 50% consumer penetration in a steady state.

根據我們的增長目標，服務地址同比增長 7%。在第一季度，我們在我們的連續市場中完成了對 DOCSIS 3.1 的網絡升級，並將 1-gig 速度的可用性提高到我們總服務地址的 62%，高於一年前的 55%。我們還繼續看到已全面啟動超過 12 個月的市場的寬帶普及率呈現積極趨勢，我們仍預計穩定狀態下的消費者普及率將達到 40% 至 50%。

On Slide 20, you can see the broadband connection growth across all markets. Total broadband residential connections grew 6% 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. Shown on the graph on the right, we continue to see demand for greater broadband speeds, with 67% of our customers taking 100 megabits per second or greater, up from 62% a year ago. Our 1-gig product, along with our 2-gig product in certain markets, are important tools that will allow us to defend and win new customers.

在幻燈片 20 上，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，本季度寬帶住宅連接總數增長了 6%。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。如右圖所示，我們繼續看到對更高寬帶速度的需求，67% 的客戶每秒使用 100 兆比特或更高，高於一年前的 62%。我們的 1-gig 產品以及我們在某些市場中的 2-gig 產品是重要的工具，可以讓我們捍衛和贏得新客戶。

In areas where we offer 1-gig service, we are seeing 21% of our new customers taking this superior product compared with 17% a year ago. Our focus on fast reliable service has generated a 10% increase in total residential broadband revenue.

在我們提供 1-gig 服務的地區，我們看到 21% 的新客戶使用這種優質產品，而一年前這一比例為 17%。我們專注於快速可靠的服務，使住宅寬帶總收入增長了 10%。

On Slide 21, total operating revenues increased 1% year-over-year, largely driven by growth in residential revenues, which increased 4% across all markets. As shown in the chart on the left, expansion market revenues have increased year-over-year, following the timing of service address delivery. Residential wireline incumbent market revenue was flat year-over-year due to growth in broadband connections, offset by a decline in video and voice connections. Cable residential revenues grew 3% due to an increase in broadband connections. Commercial revenues decreased 6% in the quarter, primarily driven by lower CLEC connections, and wholesale revenues decreased 2%. Overall product mix changes drove a 2% increase in average residential revenue per connection.

在幻燈片 21 上，總營業收入同比增長 1%，主要受住宅收入增長推動，所有市場均增長 4%。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。由於寬帶連接的增長，住宅有線現有市場收入與去年同期持平，但被視頻和語音連接的下降所抵消。由於寬帶連接的增加，有線住宅收入增長了 3%。本季度商業收入下降 6%，主要是由於 CLEC 連接減少，批發收入下降 2%。整體產品組合變化推動每個連接的平均住宅收入增長 2%。

Let me sum up the combined financial results for the quarter as shown on Slide 22. As we just mentioned, revenue increased 1% from the prior year as growth from our fiber expansions and increases in broadband subscribers exceeded the declines we experienced in our legacy business. Cash expenses were flat year-over-year, with increases to support current and future growth offset by savings in our platform costs. As a result, adjusted EBITDA improved 3%. Capital expenditures increased 50% from last year as we continue to increase our investment in fiber deployment and focus on broadband growth.

讓我總結一下本季度的綜合財務業績，如幻燈片 22 所示。正如我們剛才提到的，由於我們的光纖擴張和寬帶用戶的增長超過了我們在傳統業務中所經歷的下降，收入比上一年增長了 1% .現金支出與去年同期持平，支持當前和未來增長的增長被我們節省的平台成本所抵消。因此，調整後的 EBITDA 提高了 3%。隨著我們繼續增加對光纖部署的投資並專注於寬帶增長，資本支出比去年增加了 50%。

Moving to Slide 23. We have presented guidance, which is unchanged from what we shared in February. We continue to progress on our fiber deployments in new markets which, as a reminder, will put pressure on adjusted EBITDA during the year as reflected in our guidance. I want to thank all our team members for their continued dedication to our ambitious growth agenda. We have had a successful start to the year and look forward to updating you on the second quarter.

轉到幻燈片 23。我們提供了指導，與我們在 2 月份分享的內容沒有變化。我們繼續在新市場的光纖部署方面取得進展，提醒一下，這將在我們的指導中反映在年內對調整後的 EBITDA 施加壓力。我要感謝我們所有的團隊成員對我們雄心勃勃的增長議程的持續奉獻。我們今年有一個成功的開端，期待在第二季度為您提供更新。

Now I will turn the call back over to Colleen.

現在我將把電話轉回給科琳。

Okay. David, we are now ready for questions.

好的。大衛，我們現在可以提問了。

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們將向摩根士丹利的 Simon Flannery 提出第一個問題。

So LT, just coming back to the wireless competitive environment. The churn was up quite a bit, as you noted on the competition. Is this T-Mobile's rural build? Is this cable getting more aggressive? What are you seeing in the marketplace? And then on the involuntary, Verizon had talked about a softening in store traffic. What are you seeing on the macro? Is this just that last year was very low and that this is more normal? Or are you sensing some slowdown in the consumer behavior that some others are talking about?

所以LT，剛剛回到無線競爭環境。正如您在比賽中所指出的那樣，流失率上升了很多。這是 T-Mobile 的農村建築嗎？這條電纜是否變得更具侵略性？你在市場上看到了什麼？然後在非自願的情況下，Verizon 談到了商店客流量的減弱。你在宏上看到了什麼？這只是去年非常低而且這更正常嗎？或者您是否感覺到其他人正在談論的消費者行為有所放緩？

You kind of quickly triangulated toward the pressure from the subscriber results. I'll answer the churn question to put a tiny bit of context around. The gross add side of the equation actually is still relatively strong. We've seen the switcher pool in our footprint is down almost 7% year-over-year. I expect a lot of that is because people are spending their tax refunds on things other than mobile devices. And so when I adjust for that, our new account gross adds are down 2% from last year. Overall share of gross adds is actually up from '19 and '20. And so the gross add side of the equation, while we clearly need to continue to focus on it and need to drive good performance there, it's actually quite good.

您很快就從訂戶結果中獲得了壓力。我將回答流失問題以提供一些背景信息。等式的總附加值實際上仍然相對較強。我們已經看到我們足跡中的切換台池同比下降了近 7%。我預計其中很大一部分是因為人們將退稅花在移動設備以外的其他東西上。因此，當我對此進行調整時，我們的新賬戶總增加量比去年下降了 2%。總增量的總體份額實際上比 19 和 20 年有所上升。所以等式的總附加值，雖然我們顯然需要繼續關注它並需要在那裡推動良好的表現，但它實際上非常好。

The challenge is on [add lines] and we've got some plans in place to address that, and then on churn, as you correctly identified. When I look at the competitive environment that you asked about, what we're seeing in the footprint is not particularly different from what you see nationally. You see T-Mobile continue to grow but not, in any way, incrementally in our footprint than what you see nationally. Same with cable, except we're actually a little bit more insulated from cable than overall national trends. Cable is really present, about 50% of our footprint. And so although we do continue to see them present in our marketplace, we think we're a little bit more insulated, given the rural nature of our footprint.

挑戰在於[添加行]，我們已經制定了一些計劃來解決這個問題，然後是流失，正如您正確指出的那樣。當我查看您詢問的競爭環境時，我們在足跡中看到的與您在全國范圍內看到的並沒有特別的不同。您會看到 T-Mobile 繼續增長，但無論如何，我們的足跡不會比您在全國范圍內看到的增長。與電纜相同，除了我們實際上與電纜的絕緣程度比整體國家趨勢要高一些。電纜確實存在，約占我們足蹟的 50%。因此，儘管我們確實繼續看到它們出現在我們的市場中，但考慮到我們足蹟的農村性質，我們認為我們更加絕緣。

So what else are we seeing? It's really been a very aggressive upgrade environment. Particularly from AT&T. Verizon has matched that. And so we really have to focus on 2 things. One is add lines and the other 1 is we've got to continue to focus on churn with our customers. And you'll notice I talked about the announcement we're going to be putting out there about not raising prices on any of our customers, postpaid or prepaid, until at least the end of 2023. And we think it's the right thing to do. I think customers are looking for certainty. And given the position of telecom and the overall in economic conditions, right, telecom. There is a recession, we enter it late and we exit early so I think we're relatively insulated.

那麼我們還看到了什麼？這確實是一個非常激進的升級環境。特別是來自 AT&T。 Verizon 已經做到了這一點。所以我們真的必須專注於兩件事。一個是添加線，另一個是我們必須繼續關注客戶流失問題。你會注意到我談到了我們將發布的公告，即至少在 2023 年底之前不會提高任何客戶的價格，無論是後付費還是預付費。我們認為這是正確的做法.我認為客戶正在尋找確定性。鑑於電信的地位和整體經濟狀況，對，電信。有經濟衰退，我們進入它很晚，我們很早就退出，所以我認為我們相對絕緣。

That being said, if we do see really high levels of inflation, we do have the flexibility to raise prices, if we need to, on new customers, or we can always require new rate plans, if you want to qualify for device promotions. So we still have flexibility to adjust, if we need to, but we think it's the right thing for customers. And we think it will be very attractive for bringing down churn. We also have a couple of other plans that we're going to be rolling out later in the quarter to address the churn problem. So I'm optimistic in our ability to address churn while we continue to improve gross adds.

話雖如此，如果我們確實看到了高水平的通貨膨脹，我們確實可以靈活地提高價格，如果我們需要的話，對新客戶，或者我們總是可以要求新的費率計劃，如果你想有資格獲得設備促銷。因此，如果需要，我們仍然可以靈活調整，但我們認為這對客戶來說是正確的。我們認為這對於降低客戶流失率非常有吸引力。我們還有一些其他計劃，我們將在本季度晚些時候推出，以解決客戶流失問題。因此，我對我們在繼續改善總添加量的同時解決客戶流失問題的能力持樂觀態度。

Doug, let me turn it to you to answer the invol questions.

道格，讓我來回答你的問題。

Yes. Sure, Simon. The reason on the invol side is what you cited. During the heart of the pandemic in 2021, we experienced somewhat of a low watermark for bad debt expenses, $56 million for the entire year. Consumer savings rates were high. There was government stimulus. Consumers are paying their bills and that manifests itself in really favorable bad dept expense. What we've seen in the first quarter is bad debt expense really returned to pre-pandemic levels. We plan for this to speak in our guidance, nothing unusual. We're just not experiencing that same sort of benefit that we did during the pandemic.

是的。當然，西蒙。 invol 方面的原因是您所引用的。在 2021 年大流行的核心期間，我們的壞賬費用處於較低水平，全年為 5600 萬美元。消費者儲蓄率很高。有政府刺激措施。消費者正在支付他們的賬單，這體現在非常有利的不良部門費用上。我們在第一季度看到的是壞賬費用確實回到了大流行前的水平。我們計劃為此在我們的指導中發言，這沒有什麼不尋常的。我們只是沒有體驗到與大流行期間相同的好處。

Okay, great. And store traffic any sense of the consumer slowing down or the industry slowing down after a strong year?

好，太棒了。商店客流量對消費者放緩或行業在強勁的一年後放緩的感覺有什麼影響嗎？

No. I mean, our store traffic is down slightly year-over-year but nothing concerning.

不。我的意思是，我們的商店客流量同比略有下降，但沒有什麼關係。

Next, we'll go to Sergey Dluzhevskiy with GAMCO Investors.

接下來，我們將與 GAMCO Investors 一起前往 Sergey Dluzhevskiy。

My first question is on kind of your go-to-market strategy, LT. So obviously, you have a differentiated regional approach and you're trying different things in different markets. You have various clusters that are noncontiguous, so you can do that. Maybe if you could reflect, since you implemented this approach, what have been the results so far. What has worked on that front? What could be improved? And how do you make this approach more effective to maximize potential gross add and share gain opportunity going forward?

我的第一個問題是關於你的上市策略，LT。所以很明顯，你有一個差異化的區域方法，你在不同的市場嘗試不同的東西。您有各種不連續的集群，因此您可以這樣做。也許如果你能反思一下，自從你實施了這種方法，到目前為止的結果是什麼。在這方面有什麼作用？有什麼可以改進的？您如何使這種方法更有效地最大限度地增加潛在的總收入和未來的份額收益機會？

Sergey, the regional approach you've talked to, I'm very pleased with, and let me put it in context. It is not easy to pivot to create -- not only creating regions and putting the processes and the structures in place to use those regions as test beds but then executing on that. And over the last 12 months, we've executed over 40 discrete pricing and promotional and marketing mix trials across our regions.

謝爾蓋，你談到的區域方法，我很滿意，讓我把它放在上下文中。轉向創建並不容易——不僅要創建區域並將流程和結構放在適當的位置以將這些區域用作測試平台，然後還要在其上執行。在過去的 12 個月裡，我們在我們的地區進行了 40 多次離散定價以及促銷和營銷組合試驗。

One of the -- I hate doing this on calls like this but I can't give details on the specific plan we're going to be rolling out. But later in the quarter, we're going to be doing a relatively substantial move that was educated by the regional trial. Another example I'll give is the ARPU increase we've seen, so we've seen very attractive ARPU performance. I'd contrast that with some of our competitors.

其中之一——我討厭在這樣的電話中這樣做，但我無法詳細說明我們將要推出的具體計劃。但在本季度晚些時候，我們將採取一項相對重大的舉措，該舉措受到區域試驗的啟發。我要舉的另一個例子是我們看到的 ARPU 增加，所以我們看到了非常有吸引力的 ARPU 性能。我會將其與我們的一些競爭對手進行對比。

And we've been able to do that because of lessons learned from individual or regional trials. We haven't had to require specific plan upsell to get the ARPU growth that we've seen. We've done it with sales. We've done it with strong execution, and we've done that because we're able to trial different approaches, as you mentioned, different go-to-market in our individual regions. And so very pleased with what we've seen so far and you can expect to see it continue.

我們之所以能夠做到這一點，是因為從個人或區域試驗中吸取的教訓。我們不必要求特定的計劃追加銷售來獲得我們所看到的 ARPU 增長。我們已經通過銷售做到了。我們以強大的執行力做到了這一點，我們之所以這樣做，是因為我們能夠嘗試不同的方法，正如你所提到的，在我們的各個地區進行不同的市場推廣。到目前為止，我們對我們所看到的非常滿意，您可以期待看到它繼續下去。

At times, we will roll out national programs like the 1 I just talked about around the rate plan guarantee. But at the same time, we continue to test, whether it's individual device promotions. We vary our prepaid rate plans fairly substantively region to region to make sure we strike the right approach. We vary our distribution approach fairly significantly. So we're really trying to test and learn, and it's helped us optimize and will continue to help us optimize. So I'm very pleased with how it's proceeding.

有時，我們會圍繞費率計劃保證推出像我剛才談到的 1 這樣的國家計劃。但與此同時，我們還在繼續測試，是否是單個設備的促銷活動。我們在不同地區相當大地改變我們的預付利率計劃，以確保我們採取正確的方法。我們相當顯著地改變了我們的分配方法。所以我們真的在嘗試測試和學習，它幫助我們優化並將繼續幫助我們優化。所以我對它的進展感到非常滿意。

Great. My next question is on your fixed wireless strategy. You're out in 10 markets and you said that you're going to be out with fixed wireless and millimeter wave in dozens more markets throughout the year. At a high level, could you talk a little bit about your approach to fixed wireless in 2022? What kind of speeds do you expect to comfortably market in your fixed wireless footprint? And how quickly do you expect to scale this wireless offering? Maybe what kind of markets you're prioritizing in your fixed wireless build?

偉大的。我的下一個問題是關於您的固定無線策略。您在 10 個市場中脫穎而出，並且您說您將在全年在數十個市場中使用固定無線和毫米波。在高層次上，你能談談你在 2022 年的固定無線方法嗎？您希望在您的固定無線足跡中以什麼樣的速度輕鬆營銷？您希望以多快的速度擴展此無線產品？也許您在固定無線構建中優先考慮什麼樣的市場？

So the -- let me start with low-band because we've actually driven substantive increases in gross adds year-over-year, 24% increase in gross adds year-over-year and that's also gone down to the net adds, and we've done most of that with our low-band product. That low-band product performs very well in rural areas, primarily where your best competition is DSL or satellite. But what we see is customers like the product, they like the experience, they're sticking with it.

所以 - 讓我從低頻段開始，因為我們實際上推動了總增加量同比大幅增長，總增加量同比增長 24%，這也下降到淨增加量，並且我們已經用我們的低頻段產品完成了大部分工作。該低頻段產品在農村地區表現非常好，主要是您最好的競爭對手是 DSL 或衛星。但我們看到的是客戶喜歡產品，他們喜歡這種體驗，他們會堅持下去。

And we can learn a lot of operational lessons from that low-band build-out. We're now north of 60,000 customers on that product. And we can apply that to, first, our millimeter wave buildout. And then as we bring our mid-band spectrum online, C-band 3.45, we're also planning -- we also plan on using that spectrum to support fixed wireless. And so we mentioned we've rolled it out now we rolled that millimeter wave product out to 10 cities. We're marketing speeds of 300 megabits. We believe that's relatively conservative in terms of the actual experience we can provide.

我們可以從低頻段的擴建中學到很多操作經驗。我們現在擁有該產品的 60,000 名客戶。我們可以首先將其應用於我們的毫米波擴建。然後，當我們將我們的中頻段頻譜上線時，C 頻段 3.45，我們也在計劃 - 我們還計劃使用該頻譜來支持固定無線。所以我們提到我們已經推出了它，現在我們將毫米波產品推出了 10 個城市。我們的營銷速度為 300 兆位。我們認為，就我們可以提供的實際體驗而言，這是相對保守的。

I mentioned our technical trials are almost 1 gig over 7 kilometers. Of course, that's sunny day, no rain, no wind. So we try to be a bit more conservative in what we actually put out there in the market. But we're offering a very high-quality product at 300 megs. And we'll continue to offer that product as we roll out mid-band. And so you can sort of think about our go-to-market strategy for mid-band and millimeter wave in 2 categories.

我提到我們的技術試驗幾乎是 7 公里以上的 1 場演出。當然，那是晴天，無雨無風。因此，我們嘗試對我們實際投放市場的產品更加保守。但是我們提供了 300 兆的非常高質量的產品。我們將在推出中頻段時繼續提供該產品。因此，您可以考慮一下我們針對 2 個類別的中頻和毫米波的上市策略。

The first category is areas where it is economically attractive on a stand-alone basis. I'll explain what I mean by that. But we have -- there are plenty of places in the U.S. in our network footprint where we can put millimeter wave on a tower, we can put C-band 3.45 as it becomes available. And we can serve homes and businesses in that area, and we will be able to provide a really good product at a really. The interesting opportunity, I think you mentioned the IIJA. Right now, it costs us, back of the envelope, between $500,000 and $600,000 to put a tower in rural America, wide range, by the way, around that cost estimate but let's call it $500,000 to $600,000.

第一類是在獨立基礎上具有經濟吸引力的領域。我會解釋我的意思。但是我們有——在我們的網絡足跡中，美國有很多地方可以將毫米波放在塔上，我們可以在 C 波段 3.45 可用時放置它。我們可以為該地區的家庭和企業提供服務，我們將能夠提供非常好的產品。有趣的機會，我想你提到了 IIJA。現在，我們在美國農村建一座塔的成本在 500,000 到 600,000 美元之間，順便說一句，在這個成本估算附近，但我們稱之為 500,000 到 600,000 美元。

We need a density of a couple of hundred customers who are in a 5-kilometer radius of that tower in order to make money on the fixed wireless product alone. If with the IIJA, we can take that cost from $500,000 to $200,000 or to $100,000 or make it free. Now all of a sudden, we can profitably roll out that product in much lower density areas, which is what states want us to do. When you look at the IIJA, it's focused on unserved and underserved areas. Those areas are unserved and underserved for a reason. It's very costly to support and there's very low customer densities.

我們需要在該塔方圓 5 公里範圍內擁有數百名客戶，以便僅在固定無線產品上賺錢。如果使用 IIJA，我們可以將成本從 500,000 美元增加到 200,000 美元或 100,000 美元，或者免費提供。現在突然之間，我們可以在密度低得多的地區推出該產品，這是各州希望我們做的。當您查看 IIJA 時，它專注於未得到服務和服務不足的地區。這些地區沒有服務和服務不足是有原因的。支持成本非常高，而且客戶密度非常低。

Those aren't great areas for fiber. They are great areas for fixed wireless. And so we're very optimistic about our ability to participate in those plans on a state-by-state level. And the beautiful thing about it, and this is what's very compelling to the governors and the broadband commissions that I've spoken with is that when we make that investment, and assuming that those towers are subsidized in part by IIJA dollars to the states, the combination of those dollars helps fund fixed wireless to homes and to businesses, but it also dramatically improves the 5G mobile experience in that area that will help our mobile business.

這些不是纖維的好地方。它們是固定無線的好地方。因此，我們對我們在各州層面參與這些計劃的能力非常樂觀。關於它的美妙之處，這對州長和我與之交談的寬帶委員會來說非常有吸引力的是，當我們進行投資時，假設這些塔部分由 IIJA 美元補貼給各州，這些資金的結合有助於為家庭和企業的固定無線提供資金，但它也極大地改善了該領域的 5G 移動體驗，這將有助於我們的移動業務。

And because we're the fifth largest tower company in the country, we can then also market those towers to other carriers and that helps us fulfill location revenue. So there's really a 3-part benefit if we're able to get some of those funds. That's why we're spending as much time on it as possible. So I'm very optimistic about that business, Sergey.

而且因為我們是該國第五大鐵塔公司，我們還可以將這些鐵塔推銷給其他運營商，這有助於我們實現位置收入。因此，如果我們能夠獲得其中的一些資金，那麼確實有 3 部分的好處。這就是為什麼我們要花盡可能多的時間在它上面。所以我對這項業務非常樂觀，謝爾蓋。

Great. And my last question is for Doug on the guidance and cost savings opportunities. So I think the midpoint of your EBITDA guidance implies about 200 basis points, a little less, of margin pressure compared to actual 2021 results.

偉大的。我的最後一個問題是關於指導和成本節約機會的問題。因此，我認為您的 EBITDA 指導的中點意味著與 2021 年的實際結果相比，利潤率壓力約為 200 個基點，略少一些。

And I guess my question is, what are some of the things that you are doing to take costs out of the business right now to mitigate some of those pressures? And maybe over a longer -- maybe a 2- to 3-year horizon, what are some of the cost-cutting efficiency initiatives that you are pursuing and how meaningful they could be over time? What are some of the larger buckets of those cost-efficiency opportunities?

我想我的問題是，您現在正在採取哪些措施來降低業務成本以減輕其中的一些壓力？也許在更長的時間——也許是 2 到 3 年的範圍內，您正在推行哪些削減成本的效率舉措以及隨著時間的推移它們會有多大意義？這些具有成本效益的機會中有哪些更大的機會？

Yes. We have a cost optimization program that we're highly focused on. We've been executing it. It's going on our sixth year right now in 2022, and it's really across the business. It's on the engineering side, focused on everything from backhaul with sell-side rent to maintenance agreements and the IT and the mix of labor between contracts and internal and doing things more efficiently as well. Really, even our insurance provider, we changed recently across the business. We're finding cost and revenue opportunities.

是的。我們有一個我們高度關注的成本優化計劃。我們一直在執行它。到 2022 年，這將是我們的第六個年頭，而且它確實涉及到整個業務。它在工程方面，專注於從帶有賣方租金的回程到維護協議和 IT 以及合同和內部之間的勞動力組合以及更有效地做事的方方面面。真的，即使是我們的保險提供商，我們最近也在整個業務領域發生了變化。我們正在尋找成本和收入機會。

And you can see the results of that part. When you look at our margins in 2017 as a percentage of service revenues, they were in the 22s, they steadily increased to in excess of 28% in 2020. Now in 2021, a little step backward because of all the dollars we had to invest in promo, but we're still making progress on this cost. And similar way, in 2022, because of the promo expense using that high-margin roaming revenue, which we're mitigating partially with roaming expense savings and the bad debt expense increase that I talked about earlier, we're losing a little bit of margin because those things are all happening very quickly.

你可以看到那部分的結果。當您查看 2017 年我們的利潤率佔服務收入的百分比時，他們在 22 歲左右，到 2020 年穩步增長到超過 28%。現在到 2021 年，由於我們不得不投資的所有美元，我們有點倒退了在促銷中，但我們仍在此成本方面取得進展。同樣，在 2022 年，由於使用高利潤漫遊收入的促銷費用，我們通過節省漫遊費用和我之前談到的壞賬費用增加來部分緩解，我們損失了一點點保證金，因為這些事情都發生得非常快。

In the background, we are continuing the pressure on the costs, again, going in the sixth year and we're not stopping it. Last year was the first we started doing zero-based budgeting as part of our process as well. So it's really across the business. And it's been a great success. And like I said, we're keeping the pressure on.

在背景中，我們再次在第六年繼續對成本施加壓力，而且我們不會阻止它。去年是我們第一次開始將零基預算作為我們流程的一部分。因此，它確實涉及整個業務。這是一個巨大的成功。就像我說的，我們一直在施壓。

Next, we'll go to Michael Rollins with Citigroup.

接下來，我們將與花旗集團一起前往邁克爾羅林斯。

Just curious where strategically you're thinking about the U.S. Cellular business in terms of opportunities for partnerships or alliances with other carriers in the category to either bridge scale or expand focus and TAM? Any updates on that front would be great, please.

只是好奇您在戰略上考慮美國蜂窩業務的哪些方面，即與該類別中的其他運營商建立合作夥伴關係或結盟以彌合規模或擴大重點和 TAM 的機會？請在這方面進行任何更新。

Mike, the position on this hasn't changed, which is, I'm open for business on that front. My belief is that, and I'll harken back to the conversation that we just had around fixed wireless and IIJA, my belief is that it makes no sense whatsoever to have multiple duplicative 5G networks in rural area 3, 4, 5 , where we're heading towards. Given the capital intensity that's involved, I don't think that makes a lot of sense. And I think there's plenty of opportunities to work together to bring the capital intensity down to make the investments more worthwhile and to deliver a high-quality experience in rural America.

邁克，在這方面的立場沒有改變，也就是說，我在這方面是開放的。我的信念是，我將回到我們剛剛圍繞固定無線和 IIJA 進行的對話，我的信念是，在農村地區 3、4、5 擁有多個重複的 5G 網絡毫無意義，我們在那裡'正朝著。考慮到所涉及的資本密集度，我認為這沒有多大意義。而且我認為有很多機會可以共同努力，降低資本密集度，使投資更有價值，並在美國農村提供高質量的體驗。

So I remain very open for that. We've had multiple conversations. We continue to have multiple conversations. These things do not move quickly. And so I don't want to (inaudible) anything is imminent. But I think that, that viewpoint is shared across the industry around the capital intensity that's required. I think some of that is probably behind AT&T's most recent pricing move. So I think there's opportunity, and we've been quite clear with that with other folks in the industry.

所以我對此保持非常開放的態度。我們進行了多次對話。我們繼續進行多次對話。這些事情不會很快發生。所以我不想（聽不清）任何事情都迫在眉睫。但我認為，圍繞所需的資本密集度，整個行業都認同這一觀點。我認為其中一些可能是 AT&T 最近的定價舉措背後的原因。所以我認為有機會，我們與業內其他人對此非常清楚。

Just maybe going a level deeper on that for a moment. When you think of the cost versus performance of rural builds for 5G, if you work with another carrier and let's say, double the spectrum that you have access to, would that create a lot more performance where you can make the case that you'd do it cheaper and better? Or does U.S. Cellular, because you've built a large spectrum position over time, is spectrum not the gating factor to drive performance relative to cost for those users?

只是可能會更深入地了解一下。當您考慮 5G 農村建設的成本與性能時，如果您與另一家運營商合作，假設您可以訪問的頻譜翻倍，這是否會創造更多的性能，您可以證明您願意做得更便宜更好嗎？或者 U.S. Cellular，因為隨著時間的推移，您已經建立了一個大的頻譜位置，頻譜不是驅動這些用戶相對於成本的性能的門控因素嗎？

So I think you have to divide this up, Mike, into now and future. Right now, Spectrum is not the gating factor. Coverage remains the largest concern and that's why I'm so bullish about IIJA and the ability to put more towers in rural America at a lower cost. Possible partnerships give us the ability to deliver that service to deliver that coverage and do it at an even lower cost and to do it at an even lower level of capital intensity, potentially share OpEx.

所以我認為你必須把它分成現在和未來。目前，頻譜不是門控因素。覆蓋率仍然是最大的擔憂，這就是為什麼我如此看好 IIJA 以及以更低的成本在美國農村建造更多塔的能力。可能的合作夥伴關係使我們能夠提供該服務以提供該覆蓋範圍，並以更低的成本和更低的資本密集度進行，可能會分享運營支出。

It doesn't make sense for me to climb a tower, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Dish, all of us climbing the same tower, putting the same equipment in place, spending the same capital dollars and the same OpEx dollars. Now let's fast forward. In an AR/VR world, autonomous vehicles, those drones, those use cases will place a substantive load on speed requirements for the network. In the long run, finding creative ways to aggregate spectrum, a little level deeper, whether it's our (inaudible) or there's a whole variety of different ways to tackle this problem.

對我來說爬塔沒有意義，AT&T、Verizon、T-Mobile、Dish，我們所有人都在爬同一塔，安裝相同的設備，花費相同的資本和運營支出。現在讓我們快進。在 AR/VR 世界中，自動駕駛汽車、無人機、這些用例將對網絡的速度要求產生實質性的影響。從長遠來看，找到創造性的方法來聚合頻譜，更深一點，無論是我們的（聽不清）還是有各種各樣不同的方法來解決這個問題。

I think we fast forward 5 years, fast forward 10 years, the opportunity to aggregate spectrum in a cost-effective way in rural America will also be able to then provide a differentiated service. So near-term cost efficiencies, long-term experience opportunity.

我認為我們快進 5 年，快進 10 年，在美國農村以具有成本效益的方式聚合頻譜的機會也將能夠提供差異化服務。所以近期的成本效益，長期的經驗機會。

And there are no further questions at this time. I'll now turn the call back over to -- okay. We have a question from -- I apologize. I'll turn it back over to Colleen Thompson for any additional or closing remarks.

目前沒有進一步的問題。我現在將電話轉回——好的。我們有一個問題——我很抱歉。我會將其轉回給科琳·湯普森（Colleen Thompson），以獲取任何補充或結束語。

Actually, we have a question from Rick Prentiss with Raymond James. I apologize.

實際上，我們有一個來自 Rick Prentiss 和 Raymond James 的問題。我道歉。

I apologize for being late. Busy day in earnings again. I wanted to ask the question on partnerships. You guys have talked previously about looking at how you might partner with obviously, adds in the quarter were weak. But any update on partnerships you're working with? Network sharing came up on the DISH call today as far as asking DISH what they'd consider network sharing. What are you thinking about partnerships and network sharing opportunities?

我為遲到而道歉。又是收入忙碌的一天。我想問關於夥伴關係的問題。你們之前已經討論過如何與顯然合作，本季度的補充很弱。但是您正在與之合作的合作夥伴有任何更新嗎？網絡共享出現在今天的 DISH 電話會議上，詢問 DISH 他們認為網絡共享是什麼。您如何看待合作夥伴關係和網絡共享機會？

Ric, I just -- we literally just answered that question, so just in the interest of time, if I could maybe kind of -- we can direct you back to the transcript. Short answer, I think there's opportunity. We certainly made that clear. We continue to have discussions. Nothing imminent but I think there's a long-term opportunity to bring costs down, both on the OpEx and the CapEx side via some of those partnerships, and that's indicated in the conversations that we had.

Ric，我只是——我們真的只是回答了這個問題，所以只是為了節省時間，如果我可以的話——我們可以引導你回到成績單。簡短的回答，我認為有機會。我們當然清楚地表明了這一點。我們繼續進行討論。沒有什麼迫在眉睫的事情，但我認為通過其中一些合作夥伴關係在運營支出和資本支出方面都有降低成本的長期機會，這在我們進行的對話中得到了表明。

Okay. I'll go to another question. Sorry about that. Fixed wireless access, has that come up?

好的。我會去另一個問題。對於那個很抱歉。固定無線接入，出現了嗎？

It did.

它做了。

And did you talk about gross adds as far as are you reporting them? I think you said in the press release that gross adds were up, but is it something you're reporting, where is it reported? Are they included in the numbers anywhere yet?

就您報告它們而言，您是否談論過總增加量？我想你在新聞稿中說過總增加量增加了，但這是你要報導的事情嗎？報導在哪裡？它們是否包含在任何地方的數字中？

No. Ric, at this time, we're not separately reporting fixed wireless. It's included in our postpaid count of adds and so forth and so that's where it is. And currently, substantially all of our fixed wireless access customers are low-band 4G customers.

不，Ric，目前，我們沒有單獨報告固定無線。它包含在我們的後付費添加計數等中，這就是它所在的位置。目前，我們幾乎所有的固定無線接入客戶都是低頻段 4G 客戶。

Right. And so I assume that's in postpaid other, not postpaid [phone line].

對。所以我認為這是在後付費其他，而不是後付費[電話線]。

That's correct. Yes, it's in connected devices.

這是正確的。是的，它在連接的設備中。

Okay. And trying to review the transcript as we're talking, too. Did you talk about prepaid churn?

好的。並在我們談話的同時嘗試查看成績單。你談過預付費流失嗎？

So we did not, so happy to tackle prepaid churn. So if I just kind of take a step back on the prepaid business. At a high level, switching pool down fairly substantively. And so our share of gross adds around that switching pool is still quite strong, so we feel good about how we're positioned in the marketplace.

所以我們沒有，很高興解決預付費客戶流失問題。因此，如果我只是在預付費業務上退後一步。在高層次上，相當實質性地切換池。因此，我們在轉換池周圍的總增加份額仍然相當強勁，所以我們對我們在市場中的定位感到滿意。

On the churn side, it's important to understand that, and this is the nuance of the prepaid business, is that Q1 churn generally represents Q4 results because the customers don't churn off until 90 days later. And so you usually will see significantly higher levels of prepaid churn in the first quarter. That was no different for us. It's not something that I think is out of line with expectations. We feel good about the offers that we have. We feel good about the customer life cycle management activity that we have. And so I remain generally quite pleased with prepaid.

在客戶流失方面，重要的是要了解，這是預付費業務的細微差別，第一季度流失通常代表第四季度的結果，因為客戶直到 90 天后才會流失。因此，您通常會在第一季度看到顯著更高的預付費客戶流失率。這對我們來說沒有什麼不同。這不是我認為超出預期的事情。我們對我們提供的報價感覺良好。我們對我們擁有的客戶生命週期管理活動感覺良好。所以我仍然對預付感到非常滿意。

And as you think about the switching pool down, what would you ascribe that to? Because obviously, it's an industry trend we've seen. Is it pre to post migration? Is it the consumers better or worse off? What do you attribute that to? And so what would it take to turn that around, switcher pool or the activity in the area?

當您考慮切換池關閉時，您會將其歸因於什麼？因為很明顯，這是我們已經看到的行業趨勢。是在遷移之前嗎？消費者的處境是好是壞？你把它歸因於什麼？那麼如何扭轉局面，切換台池或該地區的活動？

I think it's macroeconomic. If you look at what's going on with inflation and people getting their tax refunds, people are having to spend their tax refunds on things other than mobile phone service. And so I don't think it's necessarily anything specific to the attractiveness of the prepaid business. There probably is slightly higher prepaid to postpaid migrations because of the aggressive upgrade offers that have been in place in the marketplace. So I think that's probably driving some of it. But that would be the 2 key drivers, I think, prepaid to postpaid migrations because of aggressive upgrades, and then just it's tough out there right now for folks.

我認為是宏觀經濟。如果你看看通貨膨脹和人們獲得退稅的情況，人們不得不將退稅花在手機服務以外的其他東西上。因此，我認為這不一定與預付費業務的吸引力有關。由於市場上已經提供了積極的升級優惠，預付費到後付費遷移的費用可能略高。所以我認為這可能是其中的一部分。但這將是兩個關鍵驅動因素，我認為，由於積極的升級，預付後付遷移，然後對於人們來說現在很難。

Okay. And last one for me. On TDS Telecom, the OIBDA in the quarter was better than you were looking for so be on cost of service. Is that something seasonal low, given the winter time frame? Or was it like a slower ramp on the fiber build? Just trying to understand what happened in 1Q. Was that a more trackable number or should we expect some bigger increases?

好的。最後一個給我。在 TDS Telecom 上，本季度的 OIBDA 比您預期的要好，因此要考慮服務成本。考慮到冬季時間框架，這是季節性低點嗎？或者它就像光纖構建的一個較慢的斜坡？只是想了解 1Q 發生了什麼。這是一個更容易追踪的數字，還是我們應該期待更大的增長？

Ric, thanks for the question. Yes, adjusted EBITDA was up 3% this quarter. But a lot of our fiber deployment, our fiber service addresses are going to come later in the year, so some of our costs are going to be heavier further into the year. And so our guidance is unchanged. We do expect more adjusted EBITDA pressure coming in the future quarters. We do, just like U.S. Cellular, actively manage our costs, and so we are really trying to find opportunities for cost reductions, which we did benefit a little bit from that in the first quarter. But I would say, overall for the year, you should expect heavier adjusted EBITDA pressure towards the latter half.

里克，謝謝你的問題。是的，本季度調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 3%。但是我們的很多光纖部署，我們的光纖服務地址將在今年晚些時候到來，所以我們的一些成本將在今年進一步增加。所以我們的指導沒有改變。我們確實預計未來幾個季度會出現更多調整後的 EBITDA 壓力。我們確實，就像 U.S. Cellular 一樣，積極管理我們的成本，所以我們真的在努力尋找降低成本的機會，我們確實在第一季度從中受益了一點。但我想說，總體而言，你應該預計下半年調整後的 EBITDA 壓力會更大。

Makes sense. And one more back to LT on the switcher pool but for postpaid. What are you seeing as far as the upgrade market out there? I don't know if you reported what's your percent was, but how does that look like? It's trending. It used to be iconic devices would spike it a little bit, but that's really kind of (inaudible). So what was your upgrade number and where do you see it heading?

說得通。還有一個回到切換台池中的 LT，但用於後付費。就升級市場而言，您看到了什麼？我不知道你是否報告了你的百分比是多少，但看起來怎麼樣？這是趨勢。它曾經是標誌性的設備，它會稍微飆升一點，但這確實有點（聽不清）。那麼您的升級編號是多少，您認為它的目標是什麼？

Rick, our upgrade number for Q1 of '22 was 5.0%. That's down from 5.6% in the first quarter of 2021.

瑞克，我們 22 年第一季度的升級數量為 5.0%。這低於 2021 年第一季度的 5.6%。

I'll put a bit of context around it. Look, I think there's a few things happening. I think that the industry-wide, there's been an aggressive push around upgrades and subsidizing upgrades. And it will be interesting to see how, for example, AT&T's price move affects this. We've seen customers hanging on to their devices for much longer. I think their view is that there isn't much differentiation anymore. And so we're seeing people hang on to those devices for longer. I think that affects it.

我將圍繞它提供一些背景信息。聽著，我認為發生了一些事情。我認為整個行業都在積極推動升級和補貼升級。例如，看看 AT&T 的價格變動如何影響這一點將會很有趣。我們已經看到客戶使用他們的設備的時間要長得多。我認為他們的觀點是不再有太大的差異化。因此，我們看到人們使用這些設備的時間更長。我認為這會影響它。

And so finally, we have -- we believe we have an opportunity to really dig in and invest now on the churn side. We tried over the last couple of quarters and we think we've done a really good job of it, to strike a balance between subscriber results and financial results. And when the industry has extremely aggressive upgrade offers out there, we've tried to make sure that we're driving positive ARPU and we're driving positive OCF, and we think we've done that.

所以最後，我們有 - 我們相信我們現在有機會真正挖掘並投資流失方面。我們在過去幾個季度進行了嘗試，我們認為我們做得非常好，在用戶結果和財務結果之間取得了平衡。當行業有非常激進的升級提議時，我們試圖確保我們正在推動積極的 ARPU 和我們正在推動積極的 OCF，我們認為我們已經做到了。

We think we have an opportunity now to go invest substantively in churn and to bring churn down and to further improve that upgrade rate. And that's what underpins the price protection guarantees that I talked about earlier on the call. And so we think there's an opportunity to really dig into that now and go on offense in that area. And so we're excited about that.

我們認為我們現在有機會對流失率進行實質性投資，降低流失率並進一步提高升級率。這就是我之前在電話會議上談到的價格保護保證的基礎。所以我們認為現在有機會真正深入研究並在該領域繼續進攻。所以我們對此感到很興奮。

And there are no further questions at this time. I'll now turn the call back over to Colleen Thompson for any additional or closing remarks.

目前沒有進一步的問題。我現在將電話轉回給 Colleen Thompson 以獲取任何其他或結束語。

Okay. Thanks, everyone, for your time today. Again, please feel free to reach out to IR 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，請隨時與 IR 聯繫。週末愉快。

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。