ATN International, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ATN International Q2 2024 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. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Michelle Cetrowski, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Michelle Cetrowski, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Michelle Cetrowski, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Michelle Cetrowski, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Michelle Cetrowski, Corporate Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. This morning, we'll be reviewing our second quarter 2024 results. As a reminder, we announced our 2024 second quarter results yesterday afternoon after the market closed. Investors can find the earnings release and conference call slide presentation on our investor relations website. Our earnings release and the presentation contain certain forward-looking statements concerning our current expectations, objectives, and underlying assumptions regarding our future operating results. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. In an effort to provide useful information for 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 the factors that may affect our future operating results, please refer to our earnings released on our website at ir.atni.com or the 8K filing provided to the SEC. Lastly, a scheduling note. Historically, APN has held earnings calls four weeks after the quarter's end. Going forward, we'll be shifting the earnings call out a week, and our Q3 call will be during the week of October 28th. Now, I'll turn the call over to Brad.

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We're making progress in our efforts to leverage our FIRSA fiber and glass and steel investments to drive top line growth, improve operating efficiency, and deliver value to our shareholders and customers over the long term. Our second quarter performance is driving the business toward that goal. During the quarter, we grew adjusted EBITDA, delivered top and bottom line growth in our international telecom segment, and benefited from cost management efforts. We remain committed to managing the business prudently to improve our operating leverage and shifting the mix of our products and services to drive higher revenues, ARPU, and margins, with an emphasis on high-speed data, mobile data, and enterprise services. We remain confident that we are positioning ATN to win in these markets with our upgraded network, localized sales teams, and enhanced leadership. Based on our first half performance and the progress we are making delivering on our plan, we are reaffirming our 2024 outlook. I'll begin the call today by covering highlights from our second quarter performance and progress executing our strategy before turning the call over to Carlos to review our second quarter financials and full year guidance in more detail. Starting with highlights from the quarter, Notably in Q2, we grew adjusted EBITDA by 6% year-over-year, supported by strong international telecom segment top-line growth and benefits from the actions initiated at the end of last year and earlier this year to improve operating efficiency. Overall revenue declined 2% as growth in international telecom was offset by an anticipated year-over-year decline in the U.S. telecom revenue. due primarily to the exploration of the Emergency Connectivity Fund program that we've previously discussed. During the quarter, we completed the sale of an international real estate asset, the result of a long-standing commitment to manage the business prudently. As shared last quarter, we also have further sharpened our focus on managing operating and capital costs. Carlos will expand upon the financial impact of the sale and progress with our cost-saving efforts in his remarks. A top priority for the ATN team has been to advance the carrier projects that were delayed in Q1 and sharpen our efforts to accelerate revenue conversion from these programs in the second half of the year. We made good progress with these efforts in Q2, having now addressed the major causes of the delays. We are often running with the deliveries and schedules, keeping us on track to deliver on our 2024 outlook. Turning now to strategic and operational highlights. The growing demand for reliable high-speed data connections is ubiquitous in the remote and rural communities that we serve in the U.S. and abroad. Through the execution of our first-to-fiber and glass-and-steel investment strategies, we continue to enhance the quality, value, and longevity of ATN's fiber-rich digital network. This is incredibly important for positioning ATN to better serve our customers, defend and grow our market share, improve the mix of our business, and maximize our growth opportunities over the long term. As we move to the final year of our three-year investment cycle, we have begun to scale back the level of our investments with the goal of approaching more normalized CapEx spending levels by 2025. Our focus now is on supporting further expansion with more moderate capex investments while aggressively pursuing U.S. government-funded infrastructure programs to supplement our growth. At the same time, our team is focused on harvesting the investments we have already made in our network to drive strong, sustainable recurring revenues, durable free cash flow, and enhanced shareholder value. We made notable progress with these efforts in Q2 as demonstrated by the growth we delivered across several key operational metrics. High-speed data broadband customers is a key metric to drive higher quality revenues and margins and ultimately helps us unlock the full potential of ATN's assets. In the second quarter, we increased the number of homes passed by high-speed broadband to more than 403,000, up 22% from a year ago. We also saw contiguous strength with our conversion of subscribers onto our high-speed network, with high-speed data subscribers increasing 141,000, up 9% compared with last year. Regarding overall broadband subscribers, it is important to note that as we build out our next-generation network, we also are intentionally decommissioning older legacy network as we optimize our network footprint and technology. As a result, By design, we are seeing broadband subscriber churn on these legacy low-speed networks. Now taking a closer look at operational highlights by segment. Starting with our international telecom segment, which represents about half of ATN's revenue, international sales increased 4%, adjusted EBITDA grew by 4.2 million as we benefited from positive shift in our mix and grew ARPU. This includes growing several core high-value growth areas within the international telecom segment. Notably, at the close of the second quarter, we grew gigabit-capable high-speed data homes past by 2% year-over-year to 257,000 homes. In the same period, we grew international high-speed data broadband subscribers by 9%. On the business side in Q2, we completed the launch of BRAVA, our new business solutions brand across our international markets. We also once again grew revenue for international business solutions, which was up over 10% year-over-year, with international business mobility revenue growth of 40% year-over-year, and international fixed business revenue growth approaching 9% year-over-year. In international mobility, while overall revenue was relatively flat year-over-year and churn increased slightly, We made progress improving the quality of our subscriber base by converting customers to higher margin services. This is demonstrated by the increased business mobility revenue growth I just mentioned. Additionally, we increased the number of prepaid and postpaid mobile data plans with subscribers by 9% year over year. In Q1 and Q2, we deployed new 5G networks. And these favorable data adoption trends position ATN to maximize the returns on these investments into the future. Finally, I want to note that the churn in mobility is primarily non-planned, prepaid voice customers, which are our lowest ARPU and margin subscribers. Turning to our US telecom segment, which accounts for the other half of ATN's revenue. Our focus in the US remains on driving high-speed broadband uptake, supporting carrier transition, leveraging grant funding, and expanding our enterprise business opportunities. Additionally, we continue to advance several important operational milestones within our U.S. markets. At the close of the second quarter, we increased broadband homes passed in the U.S. by high-speed data by 85% year-over-year to more than 146,000 homes. As expected, the Q2 impact of the Affordable Connectivity Program exploration was immaterial. and we continue to expect the full year impact from ACP to be minimal to ATN's revenue and net neutral to our profitability. The temporary headwinds from these government programs rolling off have been considered in our guidance and our mitigation efforts are working to plan. Before turning the call to Carlos, I want to reiterate that our priorities for 2024 remain unchanged. We are focused on leveraging our upgraded network assets and localized operations to convert high-value revenue opportunities while managing the business prudently to protect and grow margins. As we complete the final year of our investment plan, we are bringing CapEx down but continue to support targeted network expansions through a combination of internal and government grant funding. And we are prudently managing our balance sheet with the goal of lowering our leverage over time. I want to extend my gratitude to the ATN team for their hard work and dedication. as well as to our customers and partners for the continued trust and support. We are confident in our ability to achieve our goals for 2024 and deliver sustainable growth for our shareholders over the long term. And with that, I'll hand the call over to you, Carlos.