TDS Telecom confirms full-year-guidance on Q2 broadband boost

When telecom companies make news for not doing something, it is usually not good news, but TDS did just that. The operator said on its second quarter 2022 earnings call this week that it would not change its full-year earnings guidance, bucking the trend of companies lowering their guidance as they deal with historically bad inflation and supply constraints.

That applies to both the company’s TDS Telecom and U.S. Cellular units, as TDS officials said on the earnings call that robust broadband performance, strategic price increases, early placement of supply orders, and aggressive cost management all played a role in helping the company meet its second quarter and first-half goals, and confirm its full-year guidance.

For TDS Telecom, that means the company still aims to deliver between $1.01 billion and $1.04 billion in revenue for 2022, with capital expenses landing between $500 million and $550 million as the company continues to build out fiber coverage.

Residential fiber-based broadband was a major growth engine for the company during the second quarter, as TDS Telecom reported 11% revenue growth from that segment, offsetting legacy business declines and helping the company hit a total sales mark of $256 million, 2% above the same quarter last year.

TDS added 22,000 broadband customers, and deployed 17,000 marketable fiber addresses during the quarter, achieving 34% footprint coverage. About 63% of the company’s customers now have 1 Gbps services available to them, and 68% of customers are subscribing to services of at least 100 Mbps, which is the download threshold that the Federal Communications Commission has proposed as a new required minimum download speed.

TDS Telecom’s broadband revenue per connection was up from $57.66 per month during the second quarter of 2021 to $59.67 for the same period this year.

 

This story has been updated with the correct guidance range of $1.01 billion to $1.04 billion.