Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Tamika, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Consolidated Communications first quarter earnings conference call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Jennifer Spouty, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Jennifer, you may begin your conference.

Thank you and good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to Consolidated Communications' first quarter 2021 earnings call. On the call today are Bob Udell, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Childers, our Chief Financial Officer. Bob's comments today will highlight our strategic initiatives and progress with our fiber build plans. Steve will provide details on our first quarter financial performance and an update on guidance for 2021. Following the prepared marks, we will open up the call for questions. Before we proceed, I will remind you our earnings release Financial statements and earnings presentation are all posted on the investor relations section of our website at consolidated.com. Please review the safe harbor provisions on slide two of this presentation. Today's discussions include 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 filings with the SEC, and our 10Q will be filed tomorrow. 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.

Bob Udell Thank you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. We are excited to be with you today, especially pleased to update you on the early phases of our Gigabit Fiber Growth Plan. We have never been better positioned with a stronger balance sheet, a fully funded growth plan, and a strong first quarter result to begin an investment year. First quarter marked the official start of our transformation as we set out to achieve a five-year plan to upgrade at minimum 1.6 million locations. This will result in more than 70% of our total 2.7 million addressable homes and businesses across our footprint available to have gigabit broadband speeds or higher. We're off to a great start having upgraded nearly 46,000 passings to gigabit fiber capable services in first quarter. To put this into perspective, the first quarter number of fiber passings upgraded is 20 times the number we built in all of 2020. We are making great progress on fiber builds and network upgrades, and I'm proud of what the team accomplished in first quarter. Our first quarter results reflect strong operational performance and execution, which produced stable revenue and a very fast start to our fiber builds. Starting with our consumer channel, broadband revenue grew 2.6%. This is the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year broadband revenue growth. The consumer data ARPUs grew 7%, and we added more than 3,800 fiber broadband connections, a 10 times increase over the same period last year. With our build rate in first quarter, we are on track with our overall plan to upgrade at least 300,000 locations in 2021, as outlined on slide six of our investor deck. The gigabit fiber upgrades were primarily in Northern New England, California, and Texas. Cruise constructed 770 miles of new fiber just in the first quarter, placing 288 fiber count or larger cables to meet the high capacity needs of our consumer, commercial, and carrier customers for years to come. Our near net regional fiber networks provide for very attractive cost per passing. For first quarter, we had a cost per passing of approximately $350, and it's in line with our expectations. These early upgrades are very attractive and benefit from a large amount of aerial fiber across our northern New England markets. We believe this multi-gig symmetrical nature of our fiber to the premise technology delivers a differentiated customer experience. Our go-to-market strategy has been meticulously planned out. We will offer easy-to-understand packages, attractive pricing, and a stellar customer experience, all to create a truly differentiated service offering. We're excited about the many benefits these fiber services will provide our customers and their communities. In the first quarter, we launched new fiber speeds and pricing tiers in upgraded markets. Customers can choose from three tiers of service with simple and transparent pricing structures. We also launched a dedicated customer care channel for our gigabit fiber customers and kicked off a pilot of a new premium tech support feature. We have streamlined our installation process and continue to reduce the intervals between customer order and fiber broadband installation to less than five days. We are focused on delivering the best in-home experience possible using the latest Wi-Fi technology and advanced yet simple to use troubleshooting tools. Our investments in our digital transformation projects will give our customers new self-serve options, allowing them to do business with us in the manner which they prefer. And while it is early, We're seeing a very positive penetration rate in our recent cohorts or recently built neighborhoods that are in line with our expectations and similar to our previous fiber builds in New York and New Hampshire at comparable stages. It's a powerful combination of delivering not only the fastest symmetrical speeds, but also a transformed customer experience keyed our value proposition for our new fiber services. We have proven experience with public-private partnerships and have completed seven already and are well positioned to take advantage of any additional funding to expand broadband into rural America. Over the last three months, we have won bids for 13 additional municipal partnerships and have dozens more in the planning stages, not to mention our track record with state and federal programs. Simply put, we understand the funding sources, we have the right relationships, and we have the infrastructure in place to build fiber at a scale and at a lower cost when additional dollars become available. Turning to our commercial and carrier channel, I'll begin by recapping our strategy. Both of these customer groups leverage our best-in-class IP or native Ethernet core, which rides our robust fiber networks. Our commercial go-to-market strategy is based on leveraging our network and service experiences as we grow data and Ethernet revenue. Our sales teams are focused on network, and we utilize a solutions-based sales approach. Many conversations with prospects begin with technology and discussions around their business challenges. We provide simple solutions for these evolving business opportunities through our experienced sales force, and we work to become a trusted advisor for our customers. We have an expanded product portfolio, which includes best in breed partners like VeloCloud, Palo Alto, Sienna, and Cisco, which supports our ability to provide end-to-end solutions. Our network reach, solutions-based sales approach, and strong local presence are key differentiators for us in the commercial channel. And there's a strong demand for our ProConnect unified communications platform, as demonstrated by revenue growth of over 7% in the quarter, as businesses leverage the benefits and flexibility of this service across office and remote employees. We are also seeing increased demand for switched Ethernet gig services and SD-WAN. As an example, we recently won a contract for a 69-site school network in Minnesota. This five-year, $4 million contract includes dedicated internet and managed security services. We won this business based on our ultra-fast, reliable internet connectivity. As we build out carrier-grade capacity, we increase on-net buildings 11% year-over-year. More on-net buildings mean more opportunities to win business. Our strengthened capital structure enables us to support this channel better than ever before. Moving to our carrier team, this channel continues to be very active on deals of all sizes as we leverage our core regional fiber networks to create and capture regional and national carrier demand, as well as the emerging 5G network opportunities. The carrier product mix, like commercial, is weighted towards Ethernet. We are seeing more interest in carrier-grade wave solutions as well. The carrier team is doing a great job of upselling on any opportunity and has a solid success with 100 gig upgrades. Our primary differentiators within the commercial and carrier channel are the experience of our sales team and our ability to be nimble and proactive with reliable solutions that we can deliver in a timely manner. It was clear during the height of COVID, customer decision-making was slower and businesses were pausing and delaying some of their network upgrade plans. We are optimistic about business recovery and remain focused on targeting the vast majority of our sales on network. This correlates to higher margins, increased upsell opportunities, and greater ability to ensure the best customer experience, which ultimately contributes to higher customer retention. I will now turn the call over to Steve, who will provide more insight on our first quarter 2021 financial results. Steve?