Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the TDS and U.S. Cellular Fourth Quarter 2022 Operating Results Conference Call. 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, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Colleen Thompson, Vice President, Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. We want to make you all aware of the presentation we have prepared to accompany our comments this morning, which you can find on the Investor Relations sections of the TDS and U.S. cellular websites. With me today and offering prepared comments are from TDS, Vicki Villacrez, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. From U.S. Cellular, L.T. Thurable, President and Chief Executive Officer. Doug Chambers, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. And from TDS Telecom, Michelle Brokwicki, Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. This call is being simultaneously webcast on the TDS and U.S. Cellular Investor Relations websites. Please see the websites for slides referred to on this call, including non-GAAP reconciliations. We provide guidance for both adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or OIBDA, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, to highlight the contributions of U.S. Cellular's wireless partnerships. PDS and U.S. Cellular filed their SEC Forms 8-K, including the press releases and our 10-Ks yesterday. As shown on slide two, the information set forth in the presentation and discussed during this call contain statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Please review the Safe Harbor paragraphs in our press releases and the extended version included in our SEC filings. In terms of our upcoming IR schedule on slide three, in early March, we will be attending the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando and the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference in San Francisco, And then we will also be attending the New Street's second annual Fiber to the Future Conference on March 28th. And as always, we have an open door or video call policy, so please reach out if you're interested in speaking with us. I will now turn the call over to Vicki Villacruz. Vicki?

Okay. Thank you, Colleen, and good morning, everyone. This year-end call is important as it gives us the opportunity to reflect upon our accomplishments over the past year. recognizing all the actions that both business units have taken to strengthen their competitive positions and plans to support our long-term strategic objective of higher returns. I'll remind you that our mission at TDS is to provide outstanding communication services to all our customers and to meet the needs of our shareholders, our people, and our communities. We continue to make substantial investments in our businesses in 2022, pressuring free cash flow. However, we made substantial progress towards our network goals, as both business units will talk to. And while investing still remains a high priority, we will moderate our CapEx spend in 2023 across the enterprise. Turning to slide four, our balance sheet remains healthy at year end with approximately $1.5 billion in available sources of liquidity, including cash, term loans, revolvers, and asset securitization facilities. And we have long-dated maturities and preferred equity, extending any sizable maturities to very far in the future. We believe that we have the right mix of both long-term maturities and shorter-term financings to help fund our investments. while appropriately managing through the current interest rate environment. Both business units are continuing their rigorous multi-year cost discipline programs taking place throughout their organizations, focusing on both OpEx and CapEx, which should contribute favorably to cash flow going forward. I also want to highlight that during the quarter, slide five, we once again repurchased a modest amount of stock at both companies and for the full year 2022. We repurchased 40 million of stock at TDS and 14 million at U.S. Cellular. Importantly, we remain committed to our dividend and we raised it once again for the 49th consecutive year. This stretch of 49 years puts us with an elite group of companies that have this many consecutive years of dividend increases for their shareholders. And now I'll turn the call over to LT.