Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE:TDS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And the last quarter was the first time we actually sold not just access to the tower but also access to the shelter. 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. 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 by the way, pay out the notes 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.

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

Sergey Dluzhevskiy: My first question is for LT on the fixed wireless side, as C-band spectrum becomes available and you start deployment. How do you plan to prioritize the 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?

LT Therivel: 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 have really attractive margins and those attractive margins turn into attractive cash flows. 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. 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.