Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. Third Quarter 2020 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jennifer Spouty. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, and good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to Consolidated Communications' third quarter 2020 earnings call. On the call today are Bob Udell, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Childers, our Chief Financial Officer. Following the prepared remarks, we will open the call up for questions. Before we proceed, I will remind you our earnings release, financial statements, and presentation are all posted on the investor relations section of our website, which can be found at consolidated.com. Please review the Safe Harbor provisions on slide two of our presentation. Today's discussion includes statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to certain risks and uncertainties. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in consolidated filing with the SEC. Today's discussion will also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Our earnings release includes reconciliations of these measures to the nearest GAAP equivalent. I will now turn the call over to Bob Udell.

Thank you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing well and staying safe. Wow, we've got great things to talk about today. I'm going to kick it off with an overview of our strong Q3 results and our new strategic partnership with Searchlight. Steve will provide an update on the financial results and an overview on the new capital structure. I'll close with a discussion on our strategic imperatives and fiber build plans that will enable us to return to growth and future-proof our business. I'm very pleased that our third quarter results demonstrate both the resiliency of our business and the very strong execution in improving revenue trends, growing adjusted EBITDA, and strengthening the balance sheet. In addition to our very strong third quarter results, we recently completed a recapitalization which included both a strategic investment and a global refinancing in which we raised $2.25 billion in new secured debt. This new capital structure and capital infusion will significantly bolster our growth plans, which I'll discuss later. First, let me remind you that we set out on a path a year and a half ago to transform the business when we announced a deliberate capital allocation plan. And that's exactly what we've done. I fully expect consolidated communications transformation to continue and will look very different in another 18 months from today. We now have the foundation to do this with a strong balance sheet, increased capital and liquidity. Before jumping into quarterly results, let me provide an update on how the pandemic is impacting our business. In this new normal, our communication services remain critical. and play a fundamental role in keeping consumer, commercial, and carrier customers connected. We turn technology into solutions, connecting people wherever they work and live. People are depending on connectivity now more than ever, and we are working harder than ever to ensure reliable and continuous high-quality services for them. As we look back on the past six months, COVID has certainly changed how we operate. but we're determined to ensure resilience in our business, and we are fortunate to have a team that has adjusted quickly and continues to adapt as needed. Our network architecture continues to successfully handle the increased traffic and usage. The proactive measures we immediately implemented have kept our employees and customers safe. At this time, we have not experienced any material impacts to our business as a result of the pandemic. Now turning to third quarter results. I'm very pleased with the solid and stable results we delivered in the recent quarter and year to date. Revenue growth trends in both broadband and data transport services combined with lower operating expenses contributed to our overall results. Starting with commercial and carrier, we grew data and transport 1.6%, which further demonstrates our consistent track record of growing this strategic revenue stream. Our carrier channel is active with 5G fiber and new wireless backhaul prospects. Our sales team is doing an excellent job of maintaining strong relationships and collaborating closely with carriers to identify upgrade opportunities. Our tower connections under contract increased roughly 2% year over year, totaling approximately 3,900 connections. As we build out carrier-grade capacity, our fiber network investments allowed us to increase on-net buildings 12.5% from a year ago, totaling approximately 13,200. The vast majority of our new sales across all customer groups are on net, which correlates to higher margins, increased opportunity to upsell, and a greater ability to ensure the best customer experience, ultimately contributing to customer retention. Within our commercial channel, we continue to see demand for bandwidth upgrades, and our ProConnect VoIP revenue is up 12% year over year. We recently launched Enterprise at Home, which is a direct response to business customer needs right now. This new service provides business class internet and full-featured unified communications to remote employees, removing obstacles to productivity and providing priority of service and support for our commercial clients when working from residential locations. In addition, we launched WebEx Contact Center and expanded our Microsoft productivity suite to all markets. Our commercial sales teams, CCI Ignite sales approach fits the market and environment using a hybrid of virtual tools to meet customers where it makes sense for them. Now, turning to the consumer channel, we grew broadband revenue 2.6%, representing the sixth consecutive quarter of broadband revenue growth. Our broadband services are competitive, and we are even more excited about our fiber expansion, which will accelerate this growth in 2021. CCI TV, our streaming video service, is fully launched in northern New England, Texas, and most recently in California and Illinois. We continue to see the majority of subscribers bringing their own device and higher broadband speed adoption with CCI TV. This easy self-install product reduces the capital intensity compared to traditional video. We have nine public-private partnership fiber builds in process, most in New Hampshire totaling approximately 10,000 homes passed when complete. Our fiber density positions as well to partner with communities through public-private agreements and federal CARES funding. This gives us additional opportunities in rural areas that would otherwise be difficult to justify financially. These nine public-private community builds are all slated for completion in late 2020 or early 2021. Our consumer channel has been stable, and we're eager to accelerate our fiber growth plans to build a best-in-class consumer service experience. We executed well across all of our three customer channels, and our teams are laser-focused on the right priorities. I will now turn the call over to Steve, who will provide more details on our financial results for third quarter. Steve?