Cogeco Communications Inc.

Good morning everybody and welcome to this third quarter conference call which Philip and I will present so before we begin this call as usual

I'd like to remind listeners that the call is subject to forward-looking statements, which can be found in the press releases issued yesterday. And I'll turn the call over to Philippe Jeté.

Thank you, Patrice, and good morning. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Our third quarter consolidated results were in line with our expectations. We demonstrated once again our focus on balancing subscriber growth with financial performance, while remaining disciplined on our cost structure. While BreezeLine continued to face headwinds from the macroeconomic and nationwide competitive environments, Cogico Connection performed well in the quarter, marked by continued organic growth in its internet customer base and further supplemented by our Oxio acquisition in March. In both Canada and the United States, we generated higher revenue per customer driven by a better product mix and supported by our fiber powered wireline networks. We continue to execute successfully on our fiber to the home network expansion programs, which continue to drive new internet subscribers in both markets. Overall, we've added 101,000 homes passed since the beginning of this fiscal year. If we include those added in fiscal 22, this brings us to more than 171,000 additional homes passed, representing a 6% growth of our network. These expansions are made in attractive areas from demographic or competitive standpoints, and where we are targeting very healthy penetration rates. Like the government subsidized fiber expansions that we are undertaking in Canada, we are pursuing regional programs in the United States, such as the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative, where we recently were awarded $15 million in funding to expand to 7,500 unserved homes and businesses. We also look forward to the launch of the broadband equity access and deployment funding program in the United States called BEAD. Each state will run its own process of allocating funds by region. Within our traditional markets, our reliable high-speed network innovative digital product offering, and local customer service, all positioned as well for future organic growth. In terms of mobile development in Canada, the CRTC released the final terms and conditions of the MVNO regulatory framework in May. And while the final decision did not introduce any material changes to the regime, we were pleased to see the CRTC establish a deadline for rate negotiations by August 7th and stated that it would consider using all the tools at its disposal should this timeframe not be met. We have initiated MVNO access negotiations But as you will understand, for competitive reasons, we cannot provide further details on these negotiations. And securing satisfactory wholesale rates for access to incumbent wireless networks will be critical to the viability and long-term success of our mobile entry. During the quarter, we also purchased spectrum licenses in the 25 and 3,500 megahertz bands in Quebec. With this acquisition, we have a spectrum that now covers 95% of our Canadian footprint. With regards to wholesale high-speed access services, the CRTC recently launched a review of its existing regulatory framework, and in our submissions to the CRTC, We are urging the regulator to ensure that any new wholesale access mandate resulting from this review does not undermine investment and innovation and that regulated wholesale rates reflect the true cost of building networks. To that end, we have proposed that access to the wholesale regime be limited to small carriers. and that nascent fiber to the home deployments be exempt from the mandate. Finally, on ESG, COGICO was named on this for the sixth consecutive year, one of the best 50 corporate citizens in Canada by corporate nights. This highly respected ranking recognized Canadian companies that are setting the standards for leadership in sustainable growth. I will now review our operational results. Let's start with our Canadian operations. As mentioned earlier, we continue to connect more homes in unserved and underserved communities in both provinces, where we added 15,000 homes passed during the quarter and a total of more than 88,000 homes passed, including those added in fiscal 22. These fiber-to-the-home expansion projects are mostly in partnership with governments and are already paying off with customer loadings. Our Canadian team continued on its path to excellence by executing effective sales and marketing strategies and by providing a distinctive customer experience, which led our internet customer base to grow this quarter by 11,100 across our traditional markets, newly served areas, and in regions where OXIO is present. The Canadian business has also improved its ARPU with an improved customer product mix. Now moving on to the U.S. operations. During the quarter, we continued our fiber network expansion with 15,500 new homes pass this quarter or 83,000 homes pass, including those added in fiscal 22, which resulted in new internet subscribers. But the market remained challenging due to the macroeconomic environment and competitive intensity. Within our traditional markets, we reported 2,600 internet customer losses which were not expected and mainly driven by aggressive offers by competitors in response to fixed wireless access competition, they are facing in other areas. However, the product mix has improved with a greater proportion of new connections taking faster internet speeds and therefore driving a higher average revenue per unit. In Ohio, Internet net losses stood at 4,000, which is a small improvement over previous quarters, but below our expectations. During the quarter, we continued to densify and interconnect the network to BreezeLine's core. There is still more work on our plate to return to growth in our Internet customer base in Ohio, and it will take more time to gain greater brand awareness in that market. For Cogico Media, we continue to face headwinds from an industry-wide challenging radio advertising market, while our stations, once again, remain at the top of the ratings. In the meantime, we continue to expand multi-platform audio content options with more digital ad tech solutions. Now, let me turn the call over to Patrice, who will provide more details on our financial performance for the quarter.