Cable One, Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Cable One Incorporated Q3 2024 earnings call. All participants are in a listen-only mode at this time. Later, we will conduct a -and-answer session. To ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, just press star and the number one. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Jordan Moorcurt, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Please go ahead. Good afternoon and welcome to Cable One's third quarter 2024 earnings call. We're glad to have you join us as we review our results. Before we proceed, I would like to remind you that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements relating to future events that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding future broadband revenue and customer growth, customer losses due to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program, future ARPU, future levels of wired competition, growth in carrier, wholesale, and enterprise market segments, the future capabilities of our network, anticipated benefits from AI, the timing and anticipated benefits of our new billing system implementation, capital expenditures, the purchase price payable if the MVI put option is exercised in the anticipated timeline to consummate such transaction, our ability and sources of capital to fund the MVI put price, and our future financial performance. Capital allocation, dividend policy, leverage ratios, and financing plans. You can find factors that could cause Cable One's actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements discussed during today's call and today's earnings release and in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-KA. Cable One is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any obligation except as required by law to update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, today's remarks will include a discussion of certain financial measures that are not presented in conformity with the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAP. Reconciliation of non-GAP financial measures discussed on this call to the most directly comparable GAP measures can be found in our earnings release or on our website at .CableOne.net. Joining me on today's call is our President and CEO Julie Lawless and Todd Pucci, our CFO. With that, let me turn the call over to Julie.

Thank you, Jordan, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for today's call. In the third quarter, we continued to execute on our phased plan for long-term broadband growth. As expected, residential ARPUs stabilized and our customer base remained essentially unchanged. After excluding the impact of customer losses from the expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program and minimal customer gains from a small acquisition in July, business broadband growth also accelerated, driven by rising demand across enterprise segments. Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to grow broadband revenue over the long term. This confidence is rooted in insights we've gained with new -to-market tactics, recent talent additions and organizational changes, new product offerings, and the resilience of our highly secure network, which has maintained significant capacity amidst double-digit increases in data demand. This quarter also marked several significant milestones, including advancements in digital transformation and expanded use of AI, a strategic rebranding, and ongoing organizational alignment, all guided by a customer-first mindset. Before Todd reviews our financial performance in detail, I'll dive deeper into topics of broadband growth, product and network enhancements, and strategic initiatives. I want to emphasize that despite the early stages of a phased plan for long-term growth, we remain confident that our steadfast approach will help us successfully navigate the evolving competitive landscape while delivering shareholder value. Starting with residential broadband, HSD subscribers were essentially flat for the quarter, excluding the impact from the discontinuation of ACP, which ended in April. We were able to accomplish this despite the ongoing transition to our new billing system, which has required a suspension of price adjustments for more than a quarter, limiting our ability to make marketing adjustments to approximately 20% of our HSD customers. To support our growth and drive our strategy in the upcoming quarters, we've also made significant enhancements to our marketing team, which I will detail a bit later. Specific to the third quarter, while we saw a decrease of 3,400 customers on a sequential quarterly basis, discontinuation of the ACP program cost us 5,300 customers. I would also like to call out that while we took proactive measures to support our customers after ACP ended, which helped maintain our commitment to offer affordable services, we consciously avoided extreme tactics to retain customers at any cost. Looking ahead, we believe the accelerated churn due to the discontinuation of the program is behind us, and we will consider any further churn from this cohort as part of the normal customer lifecycle. One example of how we're working to deliver affordable service to value-conscious customers is our pilot -You-Go Internet offering, a service tailored for residential customers to seek flexibility in managing their Internet expenses. Accessible through a user-friendly mobile app, it allows customers to purchase high-speed Internet in increments as well as the freedom to adjust their speed as needed, ensuring they only pay for what they require. This product provides a true -You-Go experience with no long-term commitments, contracts, or extra fees for the customer, and a lower cost basis for the company. This is a pilot program, and we are just starting to gather insights from it, which will inevitably lead to program evolution as we refine how to best serve this cohort of customers moving forward. As anticipated, our ARPUs stabilize sequentially, and we expect this trend to continue for the remainder of the year. Notably, new customer selection of speed tiers of 600 megs or higher increased significantly by 900 basis points year over year and 300 basis points sequentially, reaching an all-time high of 62%. ARPUs benefited from this higher sell-in as well as our ongoing refinement of competitive responses, promotional roll-offs, and the successful implementation of our Pay Plus program. Turning to competitive dynamics, we believe there are early signs that competition is stabilizing. Specifically, we have observed more rational pricing on some of our competitors, reflecting the economic realities of our markets. We believe the economics required for viable returns for wired operators in our markets effectively discourages long-term aggressive pricing strategies. High material costs, construction costs from challenging topography, and limited labor resources also act as a barrier to new entrants in a host of our markets. Most importantly, our deep local knowledge gives us a competitive edge in these communities, enabling us to maintain a strong market position even in areas with elevated competition. Business broadband continues to be an important driver of our long-term growth strategy, with revenues up .9% year over year and acceleration from the previous quarter's year over year growth rate. We are observing significant demand across our carrier, wholesale, and enterprise segments. These business segments are in earlier stages of growth and continue to show consistent progress. In all segments, we are taking action to improve our position, whether through pricing, customer experience, or expansion into new product types. I would like to take a few minutes to elaborate on the importance of our strong network. Our senior leadership recently gathered at the National SCTE Conference, and the excitement around the future of HSC networks was palpable. Indeed, Daxus 4.0 makes the future look brighter than ever, as it will be able to deliver up to 10 gig speeds through an intelligent, capital-efficient infrastructure. Future advancements promise even greater capabilities, with speeds potentially reaching 25 gigabits or more. Today, we offer gigabit speeds across our entire footprint, with multi-gig capabilities available in over 40% of our markets. We plan to expand these products to all markets as we transition from linear video to IPTV. But our story isn't just about speed. Our network surpasses the performance and security of cell phone internet competitors, positioning us to meet the growing data demands of our customers, now averaging 730 gigabits of data per month. Notably, 25% of our customers exceed 1 terabyte of usage per month, up from 21% last year. Even with this rising demand, our network peak utilization remains low, at just 19% downstream and 18% upstream, demonstrating our ability to support continued growth without capacity limitations or substantial increase in capital intensity. We also understand that seamless and secure connectivity within the home is essential. That's why we offer Intelligent Wi-Fi, designed to ensure customers enjoy the best possible online experience at all times. Our Intelligent Wi-Fi continuously adapts to the user's needs, optimizing speed and ensuring secure connectivity, even with a large number of devices online. This smarter network is part of our commitment to delivering technology that enhances our customers' -to-day lives. And even more exciting things lie ahead for our customers in a more adaptive era, when our network will become increasingly proactive and intuitive. We are laying the groundwork for this future by integrating AI, machine learning, data analytics, and smart equipment into our infrastructure. We're investing in a network that anticipates the needs of our customers, delivering speed, reliability, and adaptability that transforms the customer experience. These advancements position us not only to meet market demand, but shape the future of Whether through our investment in multi-gig capabilities, Intelligent Wi-Fi, or cybersecurity solutions, we are committed to driving sustained growth through innovation, reliability, and an unwavering focus on our customers. As one example, we recently introduced a top-tier security package for $8 a month, designed to protect our customers from a wide range of online threats, including viruses, malware, and phishing attacks. This package and others like it will create meaningful opportunity for ARPU growth while enhancing customer loyalty and retention. By aligning the interests of our customers and the company, we can create a more integrated and valuable experience for all stakeholders. Shifting to strategic initiatives, we plan to go live next week with our new billing system, consolidating our Fidelity, ValueNet, and Cable America customers onto a single billing platform. This will dramatically streamline operations for associates and customers, accelerate product launches, and strengthen our Sparklight brand presence. As we have noted previously, this enables us to retire more than 30 disparate software platforms, yielding several million dollars in anticipated annual savings. Additionally, we successfully transitioned our Hargrey brand to our financial ERP, streamlining our financial operations and decreasing costs. We have also made substantial progress in rebranding Fidelity, Hargrey, ValueNet, and Cable America to our Sparklight brand on our website and customer billing systems. Associates across the company are proudly wearing Sparklight uniforms and badges, and we are updating our vehicle wraps and signage as well, consolidating all customers under Sparklight brand and packages, leverages the strength of our brand across the footprint, and secures efficiencies by fully integrating our operations. Collectively, these efforts are designed to drive operational excellence and create a unified brand experience, positioning us well for exciting growth opportunities ahead. Transitioning from operational enhancements to technological advancements, we're pleased to share a significant development in our approach to customer interactions. We've begun integrating an advanced AI module into our customer experience framework, representing the first phase of a broader strategy to transform our approach to improve customer interactions and drive greater efficiency. This AI-powered system allows us to harvest actionable customer insights, enabling our leaders to gain a deeper understanding of our customer needs and continuously elevate the overall customer journey. We continue to recognize the importance of adding talent to our team to achieve our strategy, so I would like to welcome Tony Mokri with our new SVP of Residential Services. Tony brings more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry to his new role. Before joining us at Cable 1, he served as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Cricket Wireless, an AT&T subsidiary, where he led cross-functional teams to enhance brand awareness, identify market trends, and drive revenue growth. Earlier in his career, Tony held several senior roles at AT&T, including Vice President of both states, where his leadership was instrumental in leading market share growth through innovative marketing strategies based on data-driven insights. Tony's addition complements the reorganization we announced last quarter, bringing expertise that will enhance our ability to serve customers, foster sustainable long-term growth, and adapt to the evolving demands of today's competitive landscape. We are pleased with the new talent we've brought in across the organization. Their deep expertise strengthens our executive team and fortifies our strategic direction. Before turning the call over to Todd, I want to recognize the incredible dedication of our associates during this challenging hurricane season. Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest to strike the U.S. in over 50 years, significantly affected communities in the southeast, including our markets in South Carolina and Georgia. Fortunately, all of our associates and their families are safe, and our exposure was limited. Our team swiftly restored services to more than 95% of the approximately 15,000 impacted table-one customers within a week, demonstrating remarkable resilience and commitment to our customers. And now Todd will provide a recap of our third quarter financial performance and further discuss our outlook for the future.

Thanks, Julie. Starting off with revenue, for the third quarter of 2024, our total revenues were $393.6 million, compared to $420.3 million in the third quarter of 2023. The -over-year decrease was due primarily to lower residential data ARPU and continued attrition within our lower margin video product line. After declining sequentially over the first half of the year, residential data ARPU stabilized from Q2 to Q3. As Julie noted, we expect this to continue through the end of this year. Q3 residential data revenues decreased by $17.1 million or .9% -over-year, driven by a .1% decrease in ARPU. This decline was due to targeted pricing and product strategies in specific markets to address select competitors, along with a focus on the value customer segment, which generally has lower selling rates. Shifting to business services, third quarter business data revenues grew by $1.6 million or .9% compared to the same period last year. Business data PSUs grew by 1,100 over the past 12 months. This growth is fueled by strong demand across the carrier, wholesale, and enterprise customer segments, which generate our highest revenues per customer and benefit from long-term contracts with high renewal rates. Operating expenses were $104.6 million. A decrease in expense was driven largely by a $7.6 million decrease in programming and franchise costs, as well as our ongoing focus on optimizing cost structures within our labor base. Selling general and administrative expenses were $88.4 million or .5% of revenues for the third quarter of 2024, compared to $92.7 million and .1% in the third quarter of last year. The decrease in expense was driven in large part by lower labor and other compensation-related costs due to organizational changes implemented during the quarter, partially offset by increased expenses related to new platform implementations and rebranding. Net income was $44.2 million for the third quarter of 2024, compared to $30.3 million in the third quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was $213.6 million or .3% of revenues in Q3 2024, compared to $230 million or .7% of revenues in the prior year quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA margin improved 50 basis points on a sequential basis. Capital expenditures were $77 million in Q3 of this year compared to $77.8 million last year. During the third quarter of 2024, we invested approximately $7 million in new market expansion projects and $3 million in integration activities. Sequentially, our capital investment increased by $5.4 million, primarily due to our ongoing investment in leading intelligent Wi-Fi technology. Adjusted EBITDA left capital expenditures to $136.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, a $15.6 million or .2% decrease from the prior year. Here today, our adjusted EBITDA left CapEx was $428.6 million, a .4% decrease from the comparable prior year period. We remain committed to a disciplined and balanced capital allocation strategy focused on four key areas, enhancing network and platform infrastructure as Julie detailed earlier, capitalizing on organic growth opportunities within our existing markets, pursuing strategic inorganic growth opportunities, both investments and through acquisitions, and a return of capital commitment that has been and will continue to be focused on debt repayment. As you may have seen recently, two of our investments, Metronet and Ziply, have announced that they have entered into definitive agreements to sell their businesses. These transactions, which are slated to close in 2025, will yield attractive returns well in excess of our targeted annual parameters and provide pre-tax proceeds in excess of $100 million. In Q3, we distributed $17 million in dividends to shareholders and repaid $54.6 million of debt, including a $50 million voluntary repayment of our revolving credit facility. Our approach to capitalization and balance sheet management is guided by a conservative mindset, emphasizing disciplined debt repayment and a demonstrated ability to reduce leverage. Since early 2023, we have repaid nearly $400 million of debt, including $350 million of the initial $488 million drawn under our revolving credit facility. As of the end of the third quarter, we had approximately $227 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand, and our debt balance was approximately $3.5 billion, consisting of approximately $1.8 billion in term loans, $920 million in convertible notes, $650 million in unsecured notes, $188 million of revolver borrowings, and $5 million of finance lease liabilities. Our weighted average cost of debt for Q3 of 2024 was 4.16%, with over 75% of our borrowings either fixed issuance or synthetically fixed at underlying base rates that are approximately half of the prevailing floating rates. Our net leverage ratio on a last quarter annualized basis was at 3.85 times, while our secured net leverage ratio was approximately two times. After the end of Q3, with the support of many of our long-term loyal lenders in the banking community, we were able to successfully upside our revolving credit facility by $250 million, bringing the total committed capacity to $1.25 billion. We also voluntarily repaid an additional $50 million under this facility after the end of the third quarter, bringing total available liquidity to over $1.1 billion. As previously disclosed, the MBI quick exercise window will occur in Q3 of next year. Based on the MBI's past performance and current forecasts and certain estimates and assumptions, we estimate the price to acquire the remaining 55% of MBI that we do not already own if the put were exercised is between approximately $760 million and $900 million, and MBI's total net indebtedness at the time of acquisition pursuant to the put is estimated to be between $775 million and $825 million. Please note these figures represent our current estimates, and actual amounts may differ. MBI's total revenues for the 12 months ended September 30, 2024, for approximately $320 million, with approximately 225,000 residential and business data customers across a network footprint of approximately 675,000 passings. As we've said before, if the put option is exercised, we believe that our existing cash balances, the anticipated available capacity under our revolver at the time of the transaction, and our operating cash flows will be sufficient to fund the purchase price without needing to raise additional incremental capital. Before we open it up for questions, I'd like to reiterate our commitment to executing a phased approach for sustainable long-term growth. Our strong network and dedicated team are key to this strategy, as we stay focused on maximizing our unique assets to provide seamless connectivity to an expanding customer base across our service areas. We are always working for you. We are making significant progress, and we're just getting started. Our commitment to all stakeholders remains unwavering. With that, we are now ready for questions.

All right, thank you. And just as a reminder to ask a question today, simply press star followed by the number one. Our first question comes from the line of Sabastino Petty from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking the question. A couple of quick housekeeping questions and maybe a broader strategic question. But, Julie, can you just clarify the billing system comment that you made with the, you know, was you unable to change pricing packaging for 20% of your base? Did that have any financial or subscriber impacts in the quarter? And then secondarily, on the pay as you go pilot, I understand that it's still a pilot, but it seems, you know, it might be dilutive to our proof. I mean, just try to take us through the puts and takes, you know, that you're considering on that as you kind of test that. And then lastly, thinking about the broader ecosystem, we are seeing fiber consolidation, targeted convergence M&A from some of the wireless players. As you look across the industry and Cabo's current strategic positioning, do you still believe it makes sense for Cabo to be a consolidator of rural cable, as has kind of been the thought over the last several years? Does it make sense to perhaps, you know, be part of a larger enterprise? Thank you.

You bet. So billing system, great question, Swastiano. It is, it did not have an effect on customers or the company, with the exception that when you're getting ready to convert customers from one system to another, you aren't allowed to make changes in the existing system. So that means when you want to market, you don't have the ability to change rates for long periods of time. In this case, everything was frozen as it was in those billing systems, because it's multiples as we bring those family of brands into Sparklight from really mid-summer to right now. So if we wanted to react or change or do anything differently, we could not. We were literally locked into those rates. And that's something you live with when you do a billing conversion. And ideally, you plan way in advance so that that is not an issue. But quite honestly, in this case, that's not what happened. Okay, what's next? Pay as you go. Well, that too, again, brand new program, really pretty innovative, I think. I don't see anything exactly like it in the marketplace. And we're going to learn a lot. And we really imagine that this is the place, this is the place for value conscious customers. And that would specifically point to cell phone internet competitors as well. This gives customers the ultimate freedom. They can sign up for a day, they can sign up for a month, whatever they have the funds or the needs for, they can change their speeds and have a gig one day and 300 megs another. And this is not targeted at just one size of product. That is to say, we have 100 meg, 300 meg, 500 meg and a gig that you can get. Because even if I'm a value conscious customer, I might decide to spend my fund because of what my family needs and does for one gig service. And so time will tell about your ARPU question. But what I can tell you so far is it is not dilutive. And I know that because the ARPU, the average ARPU from the group of customers that have already signed up is higher than our entry level price. So we're going to learn more and we're going to evolve as we go. But we're excited about this product. Let's see your last question. Do I see Cabo as a consolidator going forward versus being part of something larger? In part, that's incredibly speculative. I think that we are the place for markets like ours. We deeply understand what it's like to do business in markets that average about 20,000 customers where we are neighbors with our customers. We know how to operate in disparate regions where we're not all consolidated, how to bring focus and get almost scale like efficiencies through the way that we operate. I think that we can be good and do good for our communities, our customers and our associates. So for those reasons, I think we are a natural aggregator. What will we be going forward? Boy, I used to be able to predict exactly what we would five years in advance. That's been shrinking down as the environment is changing incredibly rapidly. So let's wait and see.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Craig Moffett from Moffett Nathanson. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you.

Julie, as I think through your broadband ARPU, I'll come back to a question I have asked a lot in the past. How do you think about the prospect of wireless, particularly adding Tony with real wireless expertise? You're increasingly competing against wireless players who are offering a converged bundle. Do you think that's hurting you in the marketplace or is that still not really a part of the competitive set that you're facing?

That's a good question that we think about quite a bit as well, Craig. We examine mobile specifically on at least a biannual basis, at least. And when we look at it, we're taking into account what our customers express needs and wants in our market specifically and the financial impacts of doing a product launch like that. And I see us embarking on a whole range of projects and products that bring value to our customers and ultimately our shareholders. I also can think back to the past where we didn't jump in right away on some things. We took time to study them pretty thoroughly and that mentality has served us well. Two quick examples are Video on Demand

and Home Security where we did not do those two products. We didn't do them.

It doesn't mean that we're not going to do mobile. We are looking at it even more intensely, not just Tony, but studying what our peers have done. But we have to be able to articulate the wisdom within it for me, for the customer, for the company, for the shareholder before we jump into that. And I would just say I think we're very open to bundling of all sorts. Putting together items that bring value to our customers is something that we are going to continue to explore, whether that is products that are easily attached to the HSD product, to wireless, to mobile, or possibly even, don't fall off your chair, Craig, but video. So we're open.

If I could just ask a quick follow-up, do you think that whether it's directly or through the ACA or something that you that attracts wholesale rates for wireless are available to you? Or is it simply that there aren't attractive enough rates out there to make it particularly compelling, wholesale rates, I mean, to make it particularly compelling for you to offer at this point?

I think it's holistic. It's about what it can do in terms of, you know, generating revenue at what capital and operating cost, as well as are there benefits related to the whole picture.

Craig, we have the access. It's, as Julie said, it's got to be evaluated through that lens of all of the other assumptions as well. But the access is there. I wouldn't say the cost is extremely compelling, but over time that also potentially could change. All right. Thank you. That's helpful.

Our next question comes from the line of Sam Akil from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Good evening, guys. Thanks for the questions. First one just on ARPU. I know ConsenSys next year has ARPU staying pretty stable relative to Q3 and then what's implied for Q4, but also has a big tick up in kind of residential net additions. Do you feel like you're getting in the right place now where you can get back to nice subscriber growth at the same time as delivering stable to maybe growing ARPU? That's the first question. And then secondly, just on fiber overlap. I know you've given us some numbers last quarter. I don't know if there's any update on how much fiber overlap you have in your footprint now. Thank you.

Okay, Sam, it's Julie. So yes, ARPU is stabilized and we believe it'll stay that way through Q4. If I was going to say, we had several things that affected it, our Autoplay Plus program, promotional roll offs, and high selling as we articulated. Your question is a good one, one that I've been thinking a lot about. Can you move both levers at the same time? And certainly in the past, that was quite honestly a walk down a beautiful path. Recently, if you look at peers, you noticed them doing one or the other. I will note that year to date, absent ACP losses, we have grown broadband and we're now stabilizing ARPU. Recall, we talked several quarters ago about what we were all about in Q24, which was shifting from our high LTV strategy to a growth strategy. And in the midst of that, we knew that we would be attacking some very specific competitors and markets and re-rating and that that would have a problem or a pull down, excuse me, in ARPU, which we've now stabilized. We fully expect to be growing broadband revenue. That is our imperative. And then- Fiber overlap, sorry. Yes, Sam, it's

Todd. On the fiber overlap, we reported last quarter below 40% of the overall network and that remains very consistent.

Our next question comes from the line of Gregory Williams from TD Cowan. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for taking my question. The first one is, Julie, you mentioned competition is stabilizing. Is that in the fiber of the home world and fixed wireless? Because in fixed wireless, we saw some of the carriers increasing their sub-targets. One of your peers said they're seeing expansion of fixed wireless, but charters are saying it's peakish. I'm curious. The competition is on both technologies. The second question is on the OPEX investments that you are doing. I think last time we talked, you expect them to mitigate in mid-2025 and I'm just wondering if that's still the case. Thanks. I'll

take

the

first one. So bizarre. Fiber and cell phone internet, what are we seeing? Well, Todd talked about the fiber overlap and specifically we've been watching and trialing and learning in the whole competitive realm. It's starting to feel pretty normal to us now. I think we're seeing some cumulative effects of the adjustments that we've taken over the past quarters and what I mean by that is we're seeing that some of the markets with the highest levels of competition actually have positive growth, positive growth in the quarter, outperforming even less competitive markets. We've been watching markets that we have done different tactics to, one of them being re-rating, to see how quickly they normalize, how quickly do they go through their peak and fall back down into normal levels. It's actually pretty fascinating. Some as fast as six months. That means we get through them going after some segment of the marketplace, getting some level of penetration and then dropping back down into normal levels within six months. Some as long as 18 months. But we definitely feel like we've seen the spike that can come along with new entrants being blunted with some of our recent re-rates. We've also seen competitive disconnects go down 14% to 3.23 to 24. We are watching to see what the competitors do when we make moves. We're heartened to see many of them increasing their rates, which we think goes to their need for returns. That's dynamic and so we track that. We're not endeavoring to follow suit. We're just focused on being better. When we talk about cell phone internet customers or competitors, excuse me, my phone's ringing. I even really thought I put it on do not disturb. We really think our pay as you go product and some of our newer marketing tactics in development can assist us versus this competitor. When you think about data usage being at an average of 730 gigs in the quarter and 25% of our customers using a terabyte or more, that really speaks to a wireline reliable provider. I mean we had our largest, I think it was our largest traffic incident in two years when the most recent call of duty got released. Actually, eight out of the ten months have had spikes in traffic and they're related to gaming and sports. That's only going to grow. That points to the stability of our network. I also look at our churn, which is lower than pre-pandemic levels. I do not think that our existing customers are going to cell phone internet providers with the exception of potentially those ACP losses that we've had. Clearly, they fish in the same pond that we do and have an effect on Kinect. That is our puzzle to solve. And we are trying all sorts of tactics and pay as you go is one of those.

Greg, it's Todd. I would just add on the churn. We made the comment last quarter, and I'd reiterate it again this quarter, even with the ACP losses, we're at five year lows for churn or customer retention. So when you think about the increasing competitive environment, which is increasing both on the wired and the cell phone internet, we believe that that's a very strong testimonial of our customer satisfaction and the long-term relationships we have with them. Less ACP, that number blew everything away relative to where that churn level is. If you extract out the ACP churn, you asked about the OPEX investments and the timetable. So just to address that, that is still consistently in that timeframe of what has been late 24 and into the mid-2025 timeframe.

Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Cahal from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I guess first of all, the stabilization of our food that you saw on the quarter and the focus on driving towards broadband revenue growth over the long term and some positive trends around gig sell-in and data consumption. How do you think about your ability to get back into maybe a cadence of pricing power or price increases on the majority of the base? Is that something that you think could be on the horizon or is it something you think is going to take some time due to other issues? And I wonder how you've competitively benchmarked yourself. One of your targets is 3 to 4 percent ARPU growth annually. I'm just wondering what you think is different about. Maybe their customer footprint than yours that's contributed to some of this ARPU differential. And then the competitive stabilization seems constructive. I think you said that what you've seen is some more rational pricing. Any sense of what's happening on the build front? I'm wondering if that's slowed down as well. Thank you. Okay, so related

to ARPU and pricing, I do think that there is price elasticity at the upper end. Maybe in just a quote unquote, you know, naked rate adjustment, but also if you can add value, added perks. There's absolutely room there. I think that if you segment out the customer base, there are absolutely segments that could bear a rate adjustment. We also did auto pay, but only the auto pay plus program, but only to a portion of our customers. And so for some of those people, that ended up being a rate adjustment, right? Because they did not choose to do ACH and sign up for billing to be paperless, et cetera, and automatic. So that was an effective rate adjustment for them. We have our family of brands and about 350,000 customers in Sparklight that have not had that yet. And so that's obviously, again, it can show up as a rate adjustment if the customer doesn't choose to neutralize it. When it comes to ARPU differential, I mean, that one's easy. We had a high LTV strategy. We went after a high end with a premium product. We had lower penetration, leading ARPUs. And so of course, when you go into an environment where you're no longer in what we used to term safe harbor, and you're going to go compete, you're going to likely give up some ARPU in those cases, whereas others are coming from a much lower base and have room to grow up. So we are very different by design, or we were very different by design.

And I think over time, where we continue to penetrate in that value segment, recall it's really only about a year that we've really been more targeted to customer acquisition in that segment. And we had to really monitor and measure it very closely relative to not only cost to install, the cost to serve, but also the retention of that customer to be able to evaluate the unit economics the way that we would want from an accretive contribution perspective. And as I've mentioned in the past, correlation of that retention is very, very high to our premium customer base, which is very encouraging. And then over time, that base also has an opportunity for whether it be organic upgrades or potential some price elasticity as well as Julie was alluding to.

But to be clear, we tried a lot of things in the past nine months, 12 months, and not all the things that we tried worked, and we learned from them.

And then on the build front, Eve, you were asking about the build front on the competitive stabilization. We've talked about the access to capital, the cost of capital. I think what you're seeing in the M&A environment right now is large scale consolidation with some of these super regional platforms. And obviously cost of capital and access to capital is going to be less of an issue for those large, any of them investment grade issuers. But at the same time, the needle moving impact for those large companies is going to be probably less focused on our small communities. For the TMOs and the Verizon and the ECEs to move to the build needle, it's either going to be upgrading larger markets or building into larger markets, in our opinion.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. And that is all the time we have for questions today. So I'd like to turn it back over to Julie and the Cable One team for closing remarks.

Thank you, Jeremy. Before we conclude, I want to extend my sincere gratitude to our associates for their relentless efforts throughout our recent billing conversion. Your dedication around the clock, and it literally has been around is making this milestone possible, unlocking significant opportunities for the company's future. None of this would be achievable without your unwavering commitment. Thank you. And we look forward to speaking with you all again next quarter.

That does conclude today's presentation. Have a pleasant evening.