Peter Supino: Great. Thanks, Peter.
Brady Connor: Hey, Brad, we’re ready for the next question.
Operator: The next question comes from Bryan Kraft of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, sir.
Bryan Kraft: Hi, good morning. I had two, if I could. First, following up on John’s earlier question, can you give us a sense for how much of the year-over-year improvement in gross adds in the fourth quarter was the result of healthy industry volumes versus the improved execution and product that you’ve got in the market now? And, additionally on that, did you see stronger performance in December versus the rest of the quarter? I ask because I think your last public presentation was in early December and your results seemed even more positive than your tone back then. So, it seems like maybe you picked up momentum as the quarter progressed. And then, I just had a separate question on the issue of lead cables. I was wondering if you would comment on the latest media report that the EPA has conducted its own testing near some of your lead sheath cables that have shown lead levels above the EPA standard for safety.
Any sense for whether these reports are accurate? And if so, how you’re thinking about the potential impact at this point around this issue? Thank you.
Hans Vestberg: Yeah. Thank you, Bryan. Let me start with the market in the fourth quarter. We don’t know. I mean, the others haven’t reported. We only know that we have performed really well. And — but that has been — it’s not the one-quarter phenomena. If you think about from the second quarter, third quarter, even in the first quarter, we were sequentially improving all the time, and we have done that in a very disciplined ways with a lot of actions, and that we need to keep up. And then, the comment on how the quarter shaped, so you probably talk about Consumer more than anything else. I think we’re solid through the quarter. There was nothing sort of different in — during the month in the quarter. We were solid through the quarter doing well performance.
On the lead, as I said before, we take that very seriously. I cannot comment what media doing. We work with all the agencies to see that we are following this up and we have revealed all the information we have, so we don’t have any more. We have also disclosed how much lead cable we have in the network, which is very little. But again, we take it serious and work with all the agencies.
Bryan Kraft: Okay. Thank you.
Brady Connor: Yeah. Thanks, Bryan. Hey, Brad, we have time for one more question.
Operator: Your last question will come from Walter Piecyk of LightShed. Your line is open, sir.
Walter Piecyk: Thanks. Hey, Hans, this is — I apologize, probably the fourth time you’re coming back to the gross add question. But I think earlier you made mention of kind of the change in structure from nationalization to localization. I think that was something that Sampath has had kind of stated as one of his specific things and probably something that maybe could be more sustainable than just a change in a rate plan that obviously could be replicated or just addresses the market. So, just a couple of questions on that. First, if you think about kind of the ramp in fourth quarter, I know this is kind of a soft question, but like the impact of localization and that change in the structure of the sales organization versus myPlan, which had a larger impact?
And then, I guess more importantly, the sustainability, meaning that, yeah, you typically do see sequential growth seasonally around this time of year, obviously more pronounced this year than past, but are we going to see even more sequential growth or more abnormal growth in the first half of the year as some of the implementation of that localization continues, or have we largely already seen that impact as we go into 2024? Thank you.
Hans Vestberg: Hey, Walt, I think that was — it’s a good question. So, the whole — we started — remember, we started with the network. As the C-Band, it’s sort of rolling out in different ZIP codes all the time, we are engaging locally. The same we did with the Consumer group to be much more local, to be able to do local marketing, cater for what the local market, have local flavors of our marketing. We worked with the sports league like NFL and the teams in different markets to see that happen. So, of course, I’m going to attribute part of our growth during the year to the decentralization. But we just got started to see that we have that team in place, and Sampat and the team are working with them with these market precedents to make it.
But it’s also a sign of where the market is going. You need to be local and you need to be on the ground in the different societies in order to perform and be acknowledged, and Verizon is most visible in all the grounds, and now we’re taking next step with our structure. So, very pleased with what I’ve seen so far, but more to be done.
Tony Skiadas: Yeah, Walt, just to add on to what Hans said, the regional structure is a lot closer to the customer, and we’ve run the business this way for many, many years. And we can do things like different promos for different markets and local resources, and decision making and the localization offset some of the price ups as well. So, we feel really good about where we’re heading, especially with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 rollouts with C-Band and the opportunity that provides.
Walter Piecyk: Tony, can you also remind us when the Board considers share repurchase as it relates to leverage? And I think the leverage that you mentioned earlier in the call, excludes the unsecured debt, because you were referencing a 2.6 number. So, assuming we’re basing it off the 2.6 number, I think your long-term target was 2.0 times. So, clearly, you wouldn’t let it go below 2.0 times before you start buying stock back. But is there a consideration under 2.5 times where the Board starts to consider share repurchase? Thank you.
Hans Vestberg: Thank you, Walt. I think this is something that we have been very disciplined. Our capital allocation priorities are clear. Number one, money to the business, basically our CapEx. Number two, continue to put the Board in a place where they can continue to increase our dividend. And number three, paying down debt. When we come down to 2.25 times, we have said we will start considering buybacks, but our ultimate long-term goal is to get around 2 times. So, yeah, that’s the plan. But of course, it will play in where the market is, where the interest rates are, where the capital, and where the equities. But clearly, that’s the plan we have right now and the Board is fully tuned to that plan.
Walter Piecyk: Thank you.
Brady Connor: Yeah, thanks, Walt. Brad, back to you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for your participation and for using Verizon Conference Services. You may now disconnect.
