TDS Telecom remains on track in its multi-year fiber program
May 05 2023 - 12:20PM
TDS Telecommunications LLC (TDS®) is pleased with its first quarter
results and is on track to meet its operational and financial goals
for the year. The telecommunications company deployed 25,000
marketable fiber service addresses in the quarter and remains
confident it will reach 175,000 by year-end. Senior Vice President
of Finance and CFO Michelle Brukwicki updated the company’s
progress on its fiber expansion program, a multi-year journey that
includes fiber construction in about 100 communities primarily in
the Pacific Northwest and Wisconsin. TDS is targeting 1.2 million
marketable fiber service addresses by 2026; it ended the quarter
with 607,000. The company is also targeting 60% of total service
addresses to be served by fiber by 2026; it ended the quarter with
40%. And the company plans to offer speeds of 1Gig or higher to at
least 80% of its footprint by 2026; it finished the quarter with
67% at Gig speeds.
“We are pleased with the pace and progress of our fiber builds
and our expansion results so far,” said Brukwicki. “We’ve been
scaling up our service address deployment since we launched the
program and have a repeatable process in place as we expand it.”TDS
continues to address the broadband needs of its most rural markets
as well. It is upgrading copper networks with support from state
broadband grant programs and by meeting its obligations under the
federal A-CAM program, which the company expects the FCC to
extend.
“We are very enthusiastic about an A-CAM extension,” said
Brukwicki. “It would provide an additional 6 years of support for
speeds of 100 down and 20 up, the same speeds as BEAD, the
Broadband Equity, Access and Development program.” The company
believes that extending the A-CAM program first and then pursuing
BEAD would provide the fastest path for TDS to take fiber deeper
into its communities.
The company shared its broadband investments continue to drive
positive results. TDS experienced a 4% increase year over year in
total broadband residential connections and is seeing a demand for
faster broadband speeds with 72% of customers taking 100Mbps or
greater, up from 67% a year ago. In some markets, TDS is now
offering 8 Gig speeds. Total residential broadband revenue
increased 8% while total revenues increased 1%. Price increases and
overall product mix, partially offset by promotions, drove a 4%
increase in average residential revenue per connection.
TDS’ 2023 guidance remains unchanged with forecasted revenues of
$1.03 billion to $1.06 billion. This reflects the goal of top-line
growth driven by continued improvements in residential revenues
across all markets, offsetting declines in commercial and wholesale
revenues. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $260 to $290
million; capital expenditures are expected to be between $500 and
$550 million in 2023. Both metrics reflect continued upfront
spending to support the company’s fiber expansion program.
For more information please visit the TDS newsroom at
https://tdstelecom.com/about/news.html or contact Kit Beyer.
Kit Beyer
TDS Telecommunications LLC
(608) 664-4428
kit.beyer@tdstelecom.com
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