ATN International, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ATN International Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Justin Benacasa, Chief Financial Officer of the company. Please go ahead, sir.

Great. Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone. Today, we'll be reviewing our third quarter 2022 earnings results. With me here is Michael Pryor, ATN's Chief Executive Officer. Michael will be providing an update on our business and strategy, as well as high-level overview of our quarterly results. I'll cover the relevant financial information and provide additional color where necessary. As a reminder, we released our third quarter earnings press release last night after market closed. Investors can find the release and summary slides for the call on our investor relations website. Before I turn the call over to Michael, I'd like to point out that this call, our press release, and slides contain forward-looking statements concerning our current expectations, objectives, and underlying assumptions regarding our future operating results. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. In an effort to provide useful information to investors, our comments today include non-GAAP financial measures. For details on these measures and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures and for further information regarding these factors that may affect our future operating results, please refer to our earnings release on our website at atni.com or to the 8K filing provided to the SEC. And I'll now turn the call over to Michael for his remarks.

All right. Thank you, Justin, and welcome, everyone. The third quarter of 2022 was another good quarter for ACN, one where we served our customers well, advanced our strategic broadband build-out, and made excellent progress toward our three-year growth objective. For example, we grew the homes passed by our broadband networks to about 614,000 at the end of the quarter, which was 9% higher than a year ago. Of this amount, we added about 29,000 new homes passed by fiber or other higher speed solutions. Our ongoing network investments are also reflected in our subscriber levels. As of September 30, 2022, 54% of our 205,000 broadband subscribers were connected to our higher-speed networks. That represents an increase of nearly 13% year-over-year. Other metrics we track as part of our three-year plan are also showing good progress. For example, we ended the quarter with 356,000 mobile subscribers in our international segments. up about 9.5% from a year ago as a result of our sales and marketing efforts and investments. Both in the Caribbean and in the U.S., most of our expansion work is in markets that we believe will continue to benefit from growing demand and positive secular tailwinds, putting us in an excellent position to benefit from this growth and to help enable it as we provide these communities with the connectivity capabilities that will help them thrive. Towards that end, our efforts in the U.S. to reach many traditionally underserved communities were bolstered by some great wins in securing critical federal funding. Since July, we've been named recipients or subrecipients for roughly $144 million in awarded grants. As part of our Alaska fiber optic project, we were jointly awarded two grants, each with an Alaskan native corporation, for a total of about $103 million. Working with our partners, we plan to utilize this funding to connect household healthcare facilities and schools in 25 communities across Alaska's rural Yukon Delta region to affordable, high-speed internet for the first time. Beyond the clear economic benefits to our business, these collaborations also have the potential to deliver transformative change for better living conditions and outcomes in these previously unconnected communities. In the lower 48, we have been awarded $41 million in federal funding since July of this year, inclusive of the grant we announced last quarter for $10 million, to connect homes and communities in the southwestern U.S. This will be spent to connect thousands of homes and many schools, businesses, and healthcare facilities to advance high-speed services And we anticipate applying for and winning additional grants and other funding support in the coming quarters. And we view this as a nice compliment for our core efforts to execute our U.S. strategy. Now before turning to our quarterly results, I would like to first take a moment to discuss the current economic and financial climate. While we are closely monitoring developments, we remain confident in our market-leading positions as well as our overall business prospects. Along our way to becoming a leading connectivity provider to smaller markets and traditionally underserved segments, we have acquired highly valuable experience investing in as well as building and operating network-based businesses. As part of this progression, we've managed our operations through multiple business cycles and events as well that have had significant economic impacts on the markets we serve. So while we take the recent economic developments and prospects seriously, and we will adjust as we need to, it's worth noting why we believe we are well positioned to continue moving forward and generating value for our stakeholders. First is our differentiated model and strategy. we provide essential communication services to rural and remote markets that most other operators have historically avoided serving. By building out the necessary capabilities to support this market entry strategy, we have secured high recurring revenues, durable cash flows, sticky customer relationships, and a strong competitive footing, as well as other favorable business attributes. And we believe demand for our services will remain high across all our markets. Second is our sound financial and capital allocation strategy. While we invest in those areas that we believe are attractive from a risk-adjusted perspective, we also maintain a strong balance sheet underpinned by high recurring operating cash flows and limited non-discretionary capital expenditures. This provides us with significant flexibility in our capital spending and allocation decisions. Based on market conditions and opportunities that arise, we are able to speed up, slow down, or change the network build-outs in our three-year plan. Similarly, we have the ability to be opportunistic in accessing capital and capitalizing on new growth opportunities, or, alternatively, to add to shareholder value in other ways. While this flexibility is compelling, we believe, in all market cycles, it is of particular relevance today, given the current business climate. Third, and not least, is our high-quality leadership team. Both at the parent and subsidiary levels, we have leadership teams that are operational experience across multiple market cycles. and of course the added benefit of seasoned managers and staff working with them. We are proud of the culture we've built here at ATN over the past 30 plus years and consider it to be a critical strategic asset. So now for a brief overview of our quarterly results before Justin provides a deeper dive into our financial performance. In the third quarter, we grew total revenues by 9% and adjusted EBITDA by 14% year over year. This was driven by positive results across both of our operating segments, including a strong performance in Alaska, fiber and broadband customer addition, and mobile subscriber growth. Consistent with the past, we continued to leverage the cash flow durability from our more mature businesses and to reinvest those proceeds in other markets that are earlier in their growth cycle, as well as in existing network infrastructure upgrades. The healthy growth in our international mobile subscribers and revenue I noted earlier is a nice success story, and we expect to see that positive momentum carry forward as our improved sales and marketing capabilities and completed network upgrades bear fruit. We are steadily expanding our broadband subscriber base and state-of-the-art communications infrastructure both domestically and internationally. In the U.S., as I mentioned at the top of the call, our multi-year network expansion strategy is benefiting from new sources of federal funding, which have both economic value and social benefits for all involved stakeholders. We are proud to be working with our partners both in Alaska and the southwestern U.S. to help bridge the digital divide. Of note, our Alaska operations perform well in the quarter, with a substantial top-line contribution and strong operating cash flow. While we continue to see resilient demand in Alaska for our enterprise and wholesale solutions, we also have made initial inroads to provide fiber-premise services to select markets in the state. This initiative is still in its early stages, and we look forward to updating everyone on its progress in future quarters. So in summary, we deliver good results in both the U.S. and international markets during the third quarter. We remain committed to being first to five in those markets that are aligned with our established criteria and where we believe we can also develop strong first mover advantages. In addition, we continue to prioritize building and owning modern core digital communications infrastructure consistent with our glass and steel strategy. Most importantly, as we execute towards these two strategic objectives underpinning our three-year plan, we are also steadily extending our overall broadband network and subscriber count. And while that gives us confidence in our long-term growth targets, as well as our core financial objectives for the full fiscal year, our financial position allows us to be flexible in the execution of our strategies as we look to maximize value for shareholders. And that's it for now. I'll hand it over to you, Justin, for financial results. Great.