Q4 2023 Rogers Communications Inc Earnings Call

Thank you for standing by this is the conference operator, welcome to the Rogers Communications, Inc. Fourth quarter 2023 results conference call.

As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded.

Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session to join the question queue. You May Press Star then one on your telephone keypad should you need assistance during the conference call you May signal, an operator by pressing Star then zero.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to Paul Carpino, Vice President of Investor Relations with Rogers Communications. Please go ahead Mr. Carpino.

Paul Carpino: Thank you Ariel and good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today I'm here with our President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Staffieri, and our Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Brent Today's discussion will include estimates and other forward looking information from which our actual results could differ. Please review the cautionary language in today's earnings report and in our <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: 2022 annual report regarding the various factors assumptions and risks that could cause our actual results to differ with that let me turn it over to Tony to begin.

Tony Staffieri: Thank you Paul and good morning, everyone.

I'm very pleased to report that Rogers delivered another record quarter. This reflects the eighth consecutive quarter of growth and momentum for our company.

Tony Staffieri: As I reflect on the year, we delivered industry, leading results completed an industry, leading merger and drove industry, leading innovation and we returned to number one in virtually all key growth metrics.

Tony Staffieri: Let me start with our full year results.

Tony Staffieri: In 2023, we delivered on our commitments, we met our increased financial guidance and grew service revenue by 27% and adjusted EBITDA by 34%.

And a very competitive and growing market more Canadians chose Rogers over any other competitor for the second year in a row.

Tony Staffieri: In 2023, we attracted 674000 postpaid mobile phone net additions up an impressive 24%.

Tony Staffieri: This was driven by disciplined execution, leading distribution and attracting new Canadians.

Tony Staffieri: Simply put we've out executed our competition for two straight years over the past two years, we've attracted an impressive $1 4 million Canadians across our mobile and Internet services. This is the best performance in our industry and in our company's history.

Tony Staffieri: We achieved this customer growth, while maintaining disciplined execution to deliver healthy financial results and we delivered positive total shareholder returns for the second straight year in a row.

Tony Staffieri: In cable, we continue to accelerate market share in the east and West This quarter, we attracted 20000 new.

Tony Staffieri: New internet customers more than doubled over last year, and we achieved industry leading margins of 56%.

Tony Staffieri: There is more work to do but we're heading in the right direction.

Tony Staffieri: Were all the team is firing on all cylinders and executing with discipline.

Tony Staffieri: Yes.

Tony Staffieri: Second we completed our historic merger with Shaw in April we closed the largest financial transaction in Canadian Telecom history, and we continue to deliver healthy organic growth and nine short months, we have largely integrated the two companies and delivered impressive results.

Tony Staffieri: We upgraded 450000 shall mobile customers from the freedom network to Canada's largest and best <unk> network.

Tony Staffieri: Across the combined organization operations service revenue or customer service network and <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: Are now integrated and our ERP system transition is proceeding as planned from.

Tony Staffieri: From a customer perspective, we introduced Rogers Internet and TV services and shelf footprint and we launched new bundled offers we rebranded our corporate retail stores and started selling wireless and residential services in our retail channels.

Tony Staffieri: We also grew Rogers brand presence in a meaningful way.

Alberta, and BC, our fastest growing markets and we're gaining healthy market share.

Tony Staffieri: We said, we would increased competition in the west and we have we.

Tony Staffieri: We've doubled the size of our cable business and cable footprint overnight. This.

Tony Staffieri: This is a scale business and the power of scale is starting to show.

Tony Staffieri: Giving customers more choice and they are responding favorably to the Rogers brand.

Tony Staffieri: This disciplined execution translated into strong financial performance in 2023, we realized synergies of $375 million and exited the year with a $750 million annual run rate. This is six months ahead of schedule.

Operator: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Rogers Communications, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad.

Tony Staffieri: We also reduced our debt leverage ratio to four seven times at year end.

Tony Staffieri: This is down over half a turn in just nine months driven by synergy cost reductions earnings growth and the payback of acquisition related debt.

Operator: Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Carpino, Vice President of Investor Relations with Rogers Communications. Please go ahead, Mr. Carpino.

Tony Staffieri: We're well on our way to deleveraging our balance sheet back to pre shop acquisition levels and doing it ahead of plan.

Tony Staffieri: Third we invested and delivered a number of important innovations, we signed exclusive agreements with Spacex and linked global to bring satellite to mobile coverage to Canada. We made the country's first satellite to mobile phone call and we're on track to introduce our satellite services to Canadians this year.

Paul Carpino: Thank you, Ariel, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'm here with our President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Staffieri, and our Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Brandt. Today's discussion will include estimates and other forward-looking information from which our actual results could differ. Please review the cautionary language in today's earnings report and in our 2022 annual report regarding the various factors, assumptions, and risks that could cause our actual results to differ. With that, let me turn it over to Tony. Thank you, Paul. And good morning, everyone.

Tony Staffieri: This technology is critical to connect rural and remote parts of the country.

Tony Staffieri: We invested to bring satellite sensors, and AI cameras to better predict and detect wildfires in remote areas.

Tony Staffieri: And we're leveraging this technology across the nation to assist with other natural disasters that are on the rise.

Tony Staffieri: I'm very pleased to report that Rogers delivered another record quarter. This reflects the eighth consecutive quarter of growth and momentum for our company. As I reflect on the year, we delivered industry-leading results, completed an industry-leading merger, and drove industry-leading innovation. And we returned to number one in virtually all key growth metrics. Let me start with our full year results.

Tony Staffieri: We acquired VII, Canada, and introduce <unk> service to all subway riders on the TTC.

We invested in digital innovation to drive efficiencies and margin expansion for example in Roger's business. We eliminated 70000 hours of manual work through automation, which accounted for 78% of wireless volume last year.

Tony Staffieri: And we were awarded Canada's best Wireless network for the fifth year in a row.

Tony Staffieri: In 2023, we delivered on our commitment. We met our increased financial guidance and grew service revenue by 27% and adjusted EBITDA by 34%. In a very competitive and growing market, more Canadians chose Rogers over any other competitor for the second year in a row. In 2023, we attracted 674,000 postpaid mobile phone net additions, up an impressive 24%. This was driven by disciplined execution, leading distribution, and attracting new Canadians. Simply put, we've outperformed our competition for two straight years.

Tony Staffieri: In 2023, we invested a record $4 billion in network and innovation and we will continue this record level of investment in 2024.

Tony Staffieri: This morning, we also announced the first network slicing trial in Canada, we tested this new technology with Ericsson across Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, using our Standalone <unk> core network.

Tony Staffieri: This innovation will materially change how our network operates offering multiple lanes for wireless traffic.

Tony Staffieri: We will offer a dedicated lane for first responders. So they will always have priority on the network.

Tony Staffieri: And we can separate fixed wireless access traffic so as we expand our SWA offering across the entire nation, we will not have to worry about congestion congestion for our smartphone customers. This is truly a game changer for Canadians and we're proud to bring this to Canada first.

Tony Staffieri: Over the past two years, we've attracted an impressive 1.4 million Canadians across our mobile and internet services. This is the best performance in our industry and in our company's history. We achieved this customer growth while maintaining disciplined execution to deliver healthy financial results. And we delivered positive total shareholder returns for the second straight year in a row.

Tony Staffieri: Looking ahead, we will launch our <unk> and DOCSIS four internet roadmap to deliver the next generation of Internet and entertainment services to Canadians more.

Tony Staffieri: In cable, we continue to accelerate market share in the east and west. This quarter, we attracted 20,000 new internet customers, more than double over last year, and we achieved industry-leading margins of 56%. There's more work to do, but we're heading in the right direction. Overall, the team is firing on all cylinders and executing with discipline. Thank you.

Tony Staffieri: More investment and more innovation this.

Tony Staffieri: It is our commitment to Canada and to Canadians.

Tony Staffieri: Finally, before I turn it over to Glenn Let me touch on guidance. This morning, we announced industry leading guidance for 2024. This outlook reflects our clear focus disciplined execution and unrelenting ambition to lead the market and be number one it reflects a third year strong service revenue and EBITDA.

Tony Staffieri: Second, we completed our historic merger with Shaw. In April, we closed the largest financial transaction in Canadian telecom history, and we continue to deliver healthy, organic growth. In nine short months, we have largely integrated the two companies and delivered impressive results. We upgraded 450,000 Xiaomobile customers from the Freedom Network to Canada's largest and best 5G network. Teams across the combined organization, operations, customer service, network, and IT are now integrated, and our ERP system transition is proceeding as planned.

Tony Staffieri: <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: It reflects record levels of investment.

Tony Staffieri: It reflects strong free cash flow growth at the same time, we expect to continue de leveraging at the same rapid pace.

Glenn Brent: A record breaking year and I'm very pleased with our progress I would like to thank our entire team for their relentless commitment to driving growth and innovation.

Glenn Brent: Let me now turn the call over to Glenn.

Glenn Brent: Sure.

Glenn Brent: Thanks, Tony and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning.

Glenn Brent: Rogers fourth quarter results reflect our eighth consecutive quarter of strong execution.

Tony Staffieri: From a customer perspective, we introduced Rogers Internet and TV Services and Shaw Footprint, and we launched new bundled offers. We rebranded our corporate retail stores and started selling wireless and residential services in our retail channels. We also grew Rogers' brand presence in a meaningful way. Today, Alberta and B.C.

Glenn Brent: These results highlight our continued success integrating shop, which remains six months ahead of plan from a synergy and deleveraging standpoint.

Glenn Brent: Our Q4 results also reflect strong momentum and another quarter of industry, leading operating and financial metrics to cap off a very strong year.

Tony Staffieri: are our fastest growing markets, and we're gaining healthy market share. We said we would increase competition in the West, and we have. We've doubled the size of our cable business and cable footprint overnight. This is a scale business, and the power of scale is starting to show, giving customers more choice, and they're responding favorably to the Rogers brand. This disciplined execution translated into strong financial performance. In 2023, we realized synergies of $375 million and exited the year with a $750 million annual run rate. This is six months ahead of schedule. We also reduced our debt leverage ratio to 4.7 times at year end.

Glenn Brent: We have delivered on our 2023 guidance and we are optimistic with our growth opportunities for 2024 as reflected in our 2024 guidance released this morning.

Speaker Change: Let me start with the highlights from our fourth quarter results.

In wireless we once again delivered what we anticipate will be industry, leading market share in results.

Speaker Change: Service revenue increased a strong 9%, reflecting healthy and disciplined growth in our mobile customer base.

Speaker Change: Consistently for eight consecutive quarters now Rogers has delivered industry, leading wireless net adds combined with strong disciplined financial performance simply put more Canadians choose rogers than any other carrier and that trend continued through the fourth quarter.

Tony Staffieri: This is down over half a turn in just nine months, driven by synergy cost reductions, earnings growth, and the payback of acquisition-related debt. We're well on our way to deleveraging our balance sheet back to pre-shop acquisition levels and doing it ahead of schedule. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Postpaid mobile phone customer net additions were a very robust 184000 in.

Speaker Change: In the quarter once again heavily concentrated in our premium Rogers brand.

Speaker Change: Rogers lead in market share in a very active and competitive wireless market.

Tony Staffieri: Third, we invested in and delivered a number of important innovations. We signed exclusive agreements with SpaceX and Lync Global to bring satellite-to-mobile coverage to Canada. We made the country's first satellite-to-mobile phone call, and we're on track to introduce our satellite services to Canadians this year. This technology is critical to connect rural and remote parts of the country.

Speaker Change: On a full year basis, 2023, postpaid mobile phone net additions.

Speaker Change: Reached record levels at 674000 customers up 24% year over year, well ahead of our two national peers.

Speaker Change: Consistently for two years now our strategy has been to drive loading on the Rogers brand with its robust five premium service offerings and value for customers.

Tony Staffieri: We invested in satellite sensors and AI cameras to better predict and detect wildfires in remote areas, and we're leveraging this technology across the nation to assist with other natural disasters that are on the rise. We acquired BAI Canada and introduced 5G service to all subway riders on the TTC. We invested in digital innovation to drive efficiencies and margin expansion, for example, in Rogers Business. We eliminated 70,000 hours of manual work through automation, which accounted for 78% of wireless volume last year, and we were awarded Canada's Best Wireless Network for the fifth year in a row.

As a result Rogers not only lead in market share, but also delivered positive underlying <unk> in a highly competitive environment.

Speaker Change: On a pro forma basis adjusted to remove the impact of integrating a half million Shah mobile subscribers.

Speaker Change: <unk> increased a very healthy 1% year over year.

Speaker Change: This sustained positive <unk> growth combined with a very strong overall service revenue growth EBITDA growth and market share.

Speaker Change: Highlights once more the effectiveness of our premium brand strategy.

Speaker Change: As reported wireless <unk> was $57 96.

Which was down 1% when including the impact of integration of roughly a half million Shah mobile subscribers on discounted bundled offerings.

Tony Staffieri: In 2023, we invested a record $4 billion in network and innovation, and we'll continue this record level of investment in 2024. This morning, we also announced the first network slicing trial in Canada. We tested this new technology with Ericsson across Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver using our stand-alone 5G core network. This innovation will materially change how our network operates, offering multiple lanes for wireless traffic. We will offer a dedicated lane for first responders so they will always have priority on the network.

Speaker Change: Postpaid mobile churn in the quarter was 167%.

Speaker Change: That's up 43 basis points year over year, reflecting an increase in the seasonally heightened promotional activity occurring in the black Friday through boxing week period.

Speaker Change: However, once more I emphasize that with our sector, leading postpaid net adds continued emphasis on our premium Rogers brand and growth in service revenue EBITDA and underlying <unk>, we very effectively balanced our priorities and I'm pleased with the outcome.

Speaker Change: And so through all of that wireless adjusted EBITDA was up 10% year over year.

Speaker Change: And our adjusted EBITA margin grew by 70 basis points to 64%.

Tony Staffieri: And we can separate fixed wireless access traffic, so as we expand our FWA offering across the entire nation, we will not have to worry about congestion for our smartphone customers.

Speaker Change: Moving to our cable business, we continue to execute very well against our efficiency targets and we are delivering on our cost synergies roughly six months ahead of plan in what remains a highly competitive market.

Tony Staffieri: This is truly a game changer for Canadians, and we're proud to bring this to Canada first. Looking ahead, we will launch our 10G and DOCSIS IV internet roadmap to deliver the next generation of internet and entertainment services to Canadians. More investment and more innovation. This is our commitment to Canada and to Canadians. Finally, before I turn it over to Glenn, let me touch on guidance.

Speaker Change: Cable revenue was up 95% year over year as a result of the <unk> acquisition and an increase in our retail Internet base.

Speaker Change: While we continue to see a high level of promotional competition from our major peers.

Speaker Change: We had reasonably strong retail internet net additions of 20000 in the fourth quarter.

Speaker Change: Up 13000 year over year and in particular, we continue to see positive momentum and growth in the west.

Speaker Change: Offsetting the competitive pressure on revenue growth, our cost synergy and efficiency efforts are producing very strong results.

Tony Staffieri: This morning, we announced industry-leading guidance for 2024. This outlook reflects our clear focus, disciplined execution, and unrelenting ambition to lead the market and be number one. It reflects third-year strong service revenue and EBITDA growth. It reflects record levels of investment. And it reflects strong free cash flow growth. At the same time, we expect to continue deleveraging at the same rapid pace.

Speaker Change: <unk> adjusted EBITDA was up 113%.

Speaker Change: And we reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 56%.

Speaker Change: Up 490 basis points year over year.

For the full year cable adjusted EBITDA margins improved 330 basis points.

Speaker Change: Cost synergies realized in year totaled $375 million and we exited 2023 at an annualized run rate on cost synergies achieved of $750 million.

Speaker Change: On a target of $1 billion, when we first launched shop.

Glenn Brandt: It was a record-breaking year, and I'm very pleased with our progress. I would like to thank our entire team for their relentless commitment to driving growth and innovation. Now, Tony. And good morning, everyone.

Speaker Change: We recognize there is more work ahead on bringing our cable business back to positive and healthy organic revenue growth.

But we believe we have the right priority focusing on premium services and profitable growth.

Speaker Change: And we are targeting further improvements in 2024.

Speaker Change: Finally in our sports and media business media revenue was down 8%.

Glenn Brandt: Thank you for joining us this morning. Roger's fourth quarter results reflect our eighth consecutive quarter of strong execution. These results highlight our continued success integrating Shaw, which remains six months ahead of plan from a synergy and deleveraging standpoint. Our Q4 results also reflect strong momentum and another quarter of industry-leading operating and financial metrics to cap off a very strong year. We have delivered on our 2023 guidance, and we are optimistic about our growth opportunities for 2024, as reflected in our 2024 guidance released this morning. Let me start with the highlights from our fourth quarter results.

Speaker Change: And adjusted EBITDA was a positive $4 million.

Speaker Change: Versus $57 million in the fourth quarter of last year.

Speaker Change: The decrease in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA year over year was primarily the result of lower sports related revenue, most notably reflecting an extraordinary distribution received from MLB.

The fourth quarter of 2022, which did not repeat in 2023.

Speaker Change: While the advertising market remains challenged we believe our high quality media assets and our focus on sports will remain a critical contributor for our sports and media business going forward.

Speaker Change: AD revenue remains a positive contributor to media revenue growth in large measure as a result of our live sports content.

Speaker Change: At a consolidated level Q4 service revenue increased 30% and.

Glenn Brandt: In wireless, we once again delivered what we anticipate will be industry-leading market share and results. Service revenue increased a strong 9%, reflecting healthy and disciplined growth in our mobile customer base. Consistently, for eight consecutive quarters now, Rogers has delivered industry-leading wireless net ads combined with strong, disciplined financial performance. Simply put, more Canadians choose Rogers than any other carrier, and that trend continued through the fourth quarter. Post-paid mobile phone customer net additions were a very robust 184,000 in the quarter.

Speaker Change: And adjusted EBITDA was up 30 up by 39%.

Speaker Change: This resulted in strong margin expansion with adjusted EBITDA margin, increasing by 300 points 340 points to 44%.

Speaker Change: Q4, adjusted net income increased 14% to $630 million.

Speaker Change: Reflecting the flow through of higher adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker Change: Capital expenditures in the quarter were up 19% year over year to approximately $946 million.

Speaker Change: With almost half directed towards our cable operations.

Speaker Change: The 22% increase in capital expenditures predominantly reflects the acquisition of Shaw.

Speaker Change: Network and customer investment remains our priority as we deliver on our network expansion efforts launched new transformative technology products and services and capitalize on growth opportunities in the west.

Glenn Brandt: Once again, heavily concentrated in our premium Rogers brand, Rogers led in market share in a very active and competitive wireless market on a full-year basis. 2023 Postpaid Mobile Phone Net Editions reached record levels at 674,000 customers, up 24% year-over-year, well ahead of our two national peers. Consistently for two years now, our strategy has been to drive load on the Rogers brand with its robust 5G premium service offerings and value for customers. As a result, Rogers not only led in market share but also delivered positive underlying ARPU in a highly competitive environment. On a pro forma basis, adjusted to remove the impact of integrating half a million Shaw Mobile subscribers. Our poo increased by a very healthy 1% year over year. This sustained positive ARPU growth, combined with very strong overall service revenue growth, EBITDA growth, and market share, highlights once more the effectiveness of our premium brand strategy. As reported, wireless ARPU was $57.96, which was down 1% when including the impact of integration of roughly half a million Shaw Mobile subscribers on discounted, bundled offers. Post-paid mobile churn in the quarter was 1.67%.

Speaker Change: Even with the increase in capital expenditures, we saw our capital intensity decline approximately 100 basis points in the quarter.

Speaker Change: Approximately 18%.

Speaker Change: And after tax free cash flow grew 30% year over year to $823 million.

Speaker Change: These achievements have enabled us to already start paying down our acquisition debt in part with funds from operations.

Speaker Change: During the fourth quarter, we also committed $475 million for 40 megahertz of 3800 megahertz spectrum.

Speaker Change: Buying up to our 100 megahertz of spectrum cap across 172 regions available under this spectrum auction.

Speaker Change: The acquired 3800 megahertz spectrum complements our industry, leading 3500 megahertz <unk> spectrum over Canada's largest <unk> network, covering urban centers cities and towns and rural and indigenous communities from coast to coast and Rogers continues to hold the largest.

Speaker Change: Dual portfolio of wireless spectrum, among Canadian telecom operators.

Speaker Change: Payment for this 3800 megahertz spectrum will be made in two installments.

$95 million was paid in January.

Speaker Change: And a final payment of $380 million will be paid in May 2024.

Speaker Change: Turning to the balance sheet.

Speaker Change: Our financial position remains very strong.

Glenn Brandt: That's up 43 basis points year over year, reflecting an increase in the seasonally heightened promotional activity occurring in the Black Friday through Boxing Week period. However, once more, I emphasize that with our sector-leading post-paid net ads, continued emphasis on our premium Rogers brand, and growth in service revenue, EBITDA, and underlying ARPU, we very effectively balanced our priorities, and I'm pleased with the outcome. And so through all of that, wireless-adjusted EBITDA was up 10% year over year, and our adjusted EBITDA margin grew by 70 basis points to 64%. Moving to our cable business, We continue to execute very well against our efficiency targets, and we are delivering on our cost synergies roughly six months ahead of plan in what remains a highly competitive market. Cable revenue was up 95% year over year as a result of the Shaw acquisition and an increase in our retail internet base.

Speaker Change: At year end, we had $5 9 billion of available liquidity.

Speaker Change: <unk> $800 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Speaker Change: And a combined $5 $1 billion available liquidity under our bank credit facilities.

Speaker Change: Our weighted average interest rate on all borrowings is under four 9%.

Speaker Change: And our weighted average term to maturity is 10 years.

Speaker Change: We remain very comfortable with the strength of our balance sheet funding and overall liquidity.

Speaker Change: Our leverage ratio at year end improved to four seven times.

Down from five three times announced at the Shah close.

Speaker Change: Pes roughly six months ahead of schedule.

Speaker Change: De levering remains a critical focus and we anticipate leverage will continue to improve by roughly a half turn through 2024 from a continuation of earnings growth proceeds from asset sales and from using free cash flow to pay down debt as we work to restore leverage and credit ratings.

Speaker Change: Back to pre acquisition levels.

Speaker Change: Succinctly prudent capital management focused execution on cost synergy generation and EBITA growth combined with targeted selling of noncore assets is working and we are delivering ahead of schedule.

Speaker Change: Once again I'm very comfortable with our progress on this initiative.

Glenn Brandt: While we continue to see a high level of promotional competition from our major peers, we had reasonably strong retail internet net additions of $20,000 in the fourth quarter. Up 13,000 year over year, and in particular, we continue to see positive momentum and growth in the West. Offsetting the competitive pressure on revenue growth, our cost synergy and efficiency efforts are producing very strong results. Cable adjusted EBITDA was up 113%, and we reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 56%, up 490 basis points year over year. For the full year, cable-adjusted EBITDA margins improved 330 basis points.

Speaker Change: In December we took advantage of an opportune rise in <unk> share price and sold our entire holdings and cogeco for $827 million with the proceeds directly and immediately applied to debt reduction.

Speaker Change: Additionally, and as previously mentioned we are in the process of divesting noncore assets with targeted proceeds of $1 billion.

Speaker Change: Predominantly real estate assets and targeted to close in 2024.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: In the fourth quarter, we returned $265 million in dividends to shareholders.

Speaker Change: Of which $190 million was paid in cash and $75 million was paid in class B nonvoting shares under our dividend reinvestment program.

Speaker Change: Participation rate of approximately 28% generating roughly $300 million in annualized cash preservation.

Glenn Brandt: Cost synergies realized in the year totaled $375 million, and we exited 2023 at an annualized run rate on cost synergies achieved of $750 million, on a target of a billion dollars when we first launched Shaw. We recognize there is more work ahead on bringing our cable business back to positive and healthy organic revenue growth. But we believe we have the right priority focusing on premium services and profitable growth, and we are targeting further improvements in 2024. Finally, in our sports and media business, media revenue was down 8%, and adjusted EBITDA was a positive $4 million, versus $57 million in the fourth quarter of last year. The decrease in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA year over year was primarily the result of lower sports-related revenue, most notably reflecting an extraordinary distribution received from MLB in the fourth quarter of 2022, which did not repeat in 2023.

Speaker Change: On a consolidated basis for the full year total service revenue grew 27%.

Speaker Change: And adjusted EBITDA grew a healthy 34%.

Speaker Change: Capital expenditures came in at $3 9 billion and free cash flow for the year was over $2 4 billion.

Speaker Change: Each well in line with our upgraded 2023 guidance.

Speaker Change: Overall, we are very pleased with our results for 2023.

Speaker Change: This year was about driving growth and efficiency, while executing on our plans to integrate Shaw and de lever our balance sheet.

Speaker Change: The day, we first closed onshore we have prioritized and we have delivered on guidance on cost synergy generation on de levering and on market leadership.

Speaker Change: In terms of our outlook for 2024, we.

Speaker Change: We are forecasting another year of strong top and bottom line growth and strong underlying free cash flow growth.

Speaker Change: We anticipate total service revenue growth in the range of 8% to 10%.

Speaker Change: And adjusted EBITDA growth in the range of 12% to 15%.

Speaker Change: Targeting another year of industry, leading performance and growth.

Glenn Brandt: While the advertising market remains challenged, we believe our high-quality media assets and our focus on sports will remain a critical contributor to our sports and media business going forward. Ad revenue remains a positive contributor to media revenue growth, in large measure as a result of our live sports content. At a consolidated level, Q4 service revenue increased 30%, and adjusted EBITDA was up by 39%. This resulted in strong margin expansion, with adjusted EBITDA margin increasing by 300 points, 340 points to 44 percent. Q4 adjusted net income increased 14% to $630 million, reflecting the flow through of higher adjusted EBITDA. Capital expenditures in the quarter were up 19% year over year to approximately $946 million, with almost half directed towards our cable operation.

Speaker Change: We anticipate capital expenditures to be in the $3 8 billion to 4.0 or $1 billion range and free cash flow is expected to be in the range of $2 9 billion to $3 1 billion.

Speaker Change: A very healthy increase from our 2023 free cash flow levels.

Speaker Change: And providing substantial and growing heft to our de lever.

Our performance over the past two years combined with our 2024 outlook reflects a focused company.

Speaker Change: We will continue to grow to generate strong free cash flow and to de lever our balance sheet. As we said, we would when we announced the <unk> deal almost three years ago.

Speaker Change: 2023 has been transformative for Rogers, but we are just starting.

Speaker Change: We delivered strong results and executed very well on the largest telecom acquisition in this country's history.

Speaker Change: The work effort has been substantial and I want to thank all of the members of our incredible team of professionals, who show up each day dedicated to our customers and committed to each other.

Speaker Change: Together, we continue to lead and to strive for more and I'm honored to work alongside each one of them we.

Glenn Brandt: The 22% increase in capital expenditures predominantly reflects the acquisition of shocks. Network and customer investment remains our priority as we deliver on our network expansion effort, launch new transformative technology products and services, and capitalize on growth opportunities in the West. Even with the increase in capital expenditures, we saw our capital intensity decline approximately 100 basis points in the quarter, to approximately 18%.

Speaker Change: We accomplished a lot in 2023 and the look ahead for 2024 as bright and full with opportunity.

Speaker Change: Thank you for your time this morning with that area could you. Please commence the question and answer. Thank you for your attention and time this morning.

Speaker Change: Thank you we will now begin the question and answer session to join the question queue. You May Press Star then one on your telephone keypad Youll hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone. Please pick up your handset before pressing any keys to withdraw your question. Please press Star then two.

Glenn Brandt: And after tax-free cash flow grew 30% year-over-year to $823 million. These achievements have enabled us to already start paying down our acquisition debt in part with funds from operations. During the fourth quarter, we also committed $475 million for 40 MHz of 3800 MHz spectrum, buying up to our 100 megahertz spectrum cap across 172 regions available under the spectrum auction. The acquired 3800 MHz spectrum complements our industry-leading 3,500 megahertz 5G spectrum over Canada's largest 5G network, covering urban centers, cities, and towns, and rural and indigenous communities from coast to coast.

Speaker Change: Our first question comes from Jeremy <unk> of RBC.

Speaker Change: Please.

Speaker Change: Pardon me our first question comes from Tim Casey of BMO.

Tim Casey: Pardon me. Our first question comes from Jeremy <unk> of RBC. Please go ahead.

Tim Casey: Good morning can you can you hear me okay.

Tim Casey: Yes, we're good drove good morning. Thank you good morning, so nice to see the steady progress here too.

Speaker Change: With me.

Speaker Change:

Speaker Change: As points of kind of a clarification I guess.

Speaker Change: On the timing of the remaining synergies.

Speaker Change: You'll get to see the higher exit run rate.

Speaker Change: On Q4, the remaining $250 million can you just speak.

Speaker Change: What's left to go and what you're expecting in terms of timing there.

Speaker Change: And related to that EBITDA growth range of 12% to 15%.

Speaker Change: What kind of puts and takes kind of gets you to the bottom end versus the top end.

Glenn Brandt: And Rogers continues to hold the largest individual portfolio of wireless spectrum among Canadian telecom operators. Payment for this 3800 megahertz spectrum will be made in two installments. $95 million was paid in January, and a final payment of $380 million will be paid in May 2024.

Speaker Change: And then the second question just on the cable side I think you did kind of 3%.

Speaker Change: Underlying cable revenue growth last quarter, just wondering what it would have been.

Speaker Change: This quarter, and particularly just given kind of the uptick in our path that we saw.

Speaker Change: Thanks.

Speaker Change: Sure. Thank you drew.

On.

Speaker Change: On the remaining synergies the emphasis.

Speaker Change: <unk> continues to be.

Glenn Brandt: Turning to the balance sheet, our financial position remains very strong. At year-end, we had $5.9 billion of available liquidity, including $800 million in cash and cash equivalents and a combined $5.1 billion of available liquidity under our bank credit facility. Our weighted average interest rate on all borrowings is under 4.9%, and our weighted average term to maturity is 10 years. We remain very comfortable with the strength of our balance sheet funding and overall liquidity.

Speaker Change: As we've done for three quarters now hold the gains that we've identified and achieved through the last nine months carry them throughout the year in 'twenty four and build on them we are largely through the.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: The people part of the integration exercise, we've we've got our team in place.

Speaker Change: There will be ongoing.

Speaker Change: <unk> and tweaking here and there in terms of moving people, but.

Speaker Change: That part of the exercise is largely complete we got that done.

Speaker Change: Within the first half year frankly.

Speaker Change: The acquisition, we had anticipated a longer run rate on that so very very pleased with getting that done in the first year. It settles the organization down we will now be focused on.

Glenn Brandt: Our leverage ratio at year-end improved to 4.7 times, down from 5.3 times announced at the Shaw Closing, a pace roughly six months ahead of schedule. De-levering remains a critical focus, and we anticipate leverage will continue to improve by roughly a half-turn through 2024 from a continuation of earnings growth, proceeds from asset sales, and from using free cash flow to pay down debt as we work to restore leverage and credit ratings back to pre-acquisition levels. Succinctly, prudent capital management, focused execution on cost-synergy generation, and EBITDA growth, combined with targeted selling of non-core assets, is working, and we are de-levering ahead of schedule. Once again, I'm very comfortable with our progress on this initiative. In December, we took advantage of an opportune rise in Kojiko's share price and sold our entire holdings in Kojiko for $827 million, with the proceeds directly and immediately applied to debt reduction.

Speaker Change: Primarily the vendor.

Speaker Change: Negotiation part of the exercise our cable business is now twice the size and scale that it was pre acquisition.

Speaker Change: And so now we set to work on.

Speaker Change: On negotiating with vendors, reflecting that scale and so that's that's really the.

Speaker Change: The largest part of the lift going into 2024.

Speaker Change: Remaining we will.

Speaker Change: Look to fill in the $1 billion targeted synergies.

Speaker Change: Early as possible in year I anticipate as we exit 2024, we will have achieved the run rate on the $4 billion.

Speaker Change: But I'm not going to provide any additional clarity on timing around that in terms of what what impacts.

Speaker Change: Good.

Speaker Change: Affect us to come in at the higher or lower end of that 12% to 15% EBITDA growth range.

Speaker Change: I'm not going to provide any additional speculation on.

Speaker Change: The positives are the negatives that could come through the year I think we've shown through 2023 that we've taken a very balanced approach to.

Speaker Change: To our operations.

Speaker Change: And our execution that will continue in 'twenty four.

Glenn Brandt: Additionally, and as previously mentioned, we are in the process of divesting non-core assets with targeted proceeds of a billion dollars, predominantly real estate assets, targeted to close in 2024. In the fourth quarter, we returned $265 million in dividends to shareholders, of which $190 million was paid in cash and $75 million was paid in Class B non-voting shares under our Dividend Reinvestment Program, a participation rate of approximately 28%, generating roughly $300 million in annualized cash preservation. On a consolidated basis for the full year, total service revenue grew 27%, and adjusted EBITDA grew a healthy 34%. Capital expenditures came in at $3.9 billion, and free cash flow for the year was over $2.4 billion, both well in line with our Upgraded 2023 Guide.

Speaker Change: We will remain competitive and going after market share and going after cost improvements and efficiencies.

Speaker Change: As well as continuing to drive revenue growth.

Speaker Change: On your question on cable revenue growth.

Speaker Change: We continue to see the decline.

Speaker Change: Through the fourth quarter in the range of 3% on a on a.

Speaker Change: On a pro forma basis, when you take out the effect of the acquisition and so that that will be a primary focus for us in in 2024.

Speaker Change: Not only going after.

Speaker Change: Larger execution on our net additions and customer growth, but also in terms of.

Speaker Change: Trying to just.

Speaker Change: Ill turn that.

Speaker Change: That revenue.

Speaker Change: Decline around as early in the year as we can but that's going to take some time to.

To balance.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: That's great thanks for that.

Speaker Change: Great. Thanks, Andrew next question area. Our next question comes from Tim Casey of BMO. Please go ahead.

Tim Casey: Thanks too for me Tony.

Tim Casey: Tony There has been a lot of discussion in the media about.

Tim Casey: Reducing the number of foreign student visas and things like that and obviously that's a category.

Glenn Brandt: Overall, we are very pleased with our results for 2023. This year was about driving growth and efficiency while executing on our plans to integrate Shaw and D. Lever, our balance sheets. From the day we first closed on Shaw, we have prioritized and delivered on guidance, on cost synergy generation, on de-levering, and on market leadership in terms of our outlook for 2024. We are forecasting another year of strong top and bottom line growth and strong underlying free cash flow growth. We anticipate total service revenue growth in the range of 8 to 10 percent and adjusted EBITDA growth in the range of 12 to 15 percent, targeting another year of industry-leading performance and growth. We anticipate capital expenditures to be in the $3.8 billion to $4.0 billion range, and free cash flow is expected to be in the range of $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion.

Tim Casey: Laurie.

Tim Casey: Rogers has been quite strong in <unk>.

Tim Casey: Could you give us some perspective from your seat as to what do you think the impact will be on the loading environment going forward as these changes flow through.

Tim Casey: And then second you mentioned very briefly about some network slicing, what's the narrative on an <unk> full deployment.

Speaker Change: So youre not going to be putting the 3800 in use.

Speaker Change: This year, but how.

Speaker Change: Are you seeing anything on the enterprise side or anything that's going to change the narrative on slide <unk> and we'll start to see some.

Speaker Change: Incremental revenues here. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Thanks for the questions Tim.

Speaker Change: The first question on foreign students.

Speaker Change: And the government statements on that.

Speaker Change: If you look at 2023 in terms of wireless growth. Our estimate is that total market grew.

Speaker Change: Over 5% and.

So.

Speaker Change: And that growth was driven roughly half by penetration increases and the other is new to Canada category for the other half and so both individually are growing at pretty robust rates.

Glenn Brandt: A very healthy increase from our 2023 free cash flow levels and providing substantial and growing heft to our delivery. Our performance over the past two years combined with our 2024 outlook reflects a focused company. We will continue to grow, to generate strong free cash flow, and to de-lever our balance sheet as we said we would when we announced the Shaw deal almost three years ago. 2023 has been transformative for Rogers, but we are just starting.

Speaker Change: With the announcement of the government, we still expect based on what we continue to see.

Speaker Change: Market growth rates in total debt.

Speaker Change: Exceed 4% probably closer to four 5% so.

Speaker Change: Still a very healthy market growth.

Speaker Change: And.

Speaker Change: And so we expect to continue to lead in market share.

Speaker Change: So we see the impact.

Speaker Change: I wouldn't describe it as.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: It is not there we will certainly be an impact.

Speaker Change: But we see it as small in the context of the overall market growth.

Glenn Brandt: We delivered strong results and executed very well on the largest telecom acquisition in this country's history. The work effort has been substantial, and I want to thank all of the members of our incredible team of professionals, who show up each day dedicated to our customers and committed to each other. Together, we continue to lead and to strive for more, and I'm honored to work alongside each one of them. We accomplished a lot in 2023, and the look ahead for 2024 is bright and full of opportunity. Thank you for your time this morning.

Speaker Change: Yeah.

Speaker Change: And the second question relating to.

Speaker Change: Our announcement today on slicing.

Speaker Change: Network slicing on a standalone <unk> core network and the two of them sort of go hand in hand.

Speaker Change: And the applications are really going to.

Speaker Change: Revolve around a number of different use cases, including enterprise as you said.

The one we're really excited about.

Speaker Change: Certainly as.

Speaker Change: Improving.

Speaker Change: The.

Speaker Change: Network clarity for first responders and making sure they have priority, but the second is what it does for our fixed wireless access deployment strategy and creating.

Operator: With that, Ariel, could you please commence the question and answer session? Thank you for your attention and time this morning. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys.

Speaker Change: That capacity.

Speaker Change: For that initiative.

Speaker Change: We do continue to see.

Speaker Change: Applications on the enterprise side, but I would say that secondary and some of those have.

Speaker Change: What youll start to see is probably by mid year.

Speaker Change: Some of those applications come on board and we will share some of that stuff in future calls.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Speaker Change: Thanks, Tim next question area.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Sebastiano Petti of Jpmorgan. Please go ahead.

Operator: To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Our first question comes from Drew McReynolds of RBC. Please. Pardon me, our first question comes from Tim Casey of BMO. Pardon me, our first question comes from Drew McReynolds of RBC. Please go ahead. Good morning. Can you hear me okay?

Sebastiano Petti: Hi, Thank you for taking the question just perhaps a quick follow up to both the trailing Tim's going to question line of questions here, but just thinking about in terms.

Sebastiano Petti: The team's view on.

Sebastiano Petti: Relative.

Sebastiano Petti: Share performance expectations as we move into 2024, I think I'm pretty confident on leading on share once again, but.

Sebastiano Petti: Against the backdrop of the industry how are you thinking about.

Operator: Yeah, we're good, Drew. Good morning. Thank you. Yes, good morning. So nice to see all the study progress here, points of clarification. On the timing of the remaining synergies, good to see the higher exit run rates in Q4. The remaining $250 million, can you just speak to what's left to go and what you're expecting in terms of timing there? And related just to that, the EBITDA growth range of 12 to 15%, what kind of puts and takes kind of get you to the bottom end versus the top end? And then the second question, just on the cable side, I think you did kind of 3% down on underlying cable revenue growth last quarter. Just wondering what it would have been this quarter, and particularly just given kind of the uptick in ARPA that we saw. Thanks.

Sebastiano Petti: The balance between perhaps rate versus volume and therefore service revenue growth.

Sebastiano Petti: For Rogers in 'twenty four.

Sebastiano Petti: And beyond and.

Sebastiano Petti: A follow up as well on cable I think great to hear about Alberta and BC.

Sebastiano Petti: Glenn I think you said.

Sebastiano Petti: Kind of intimating that are.

Sebastiano Petti: Just trying to get back to that revenue growth.

Sebastiano Petti: What are the drivers to get there, obviously headlines about price increases or rate increases earlier in the year.

Sebastiano Petti: Is it more of a function of volume what are the other again kind of pieces to the growth algorithm as we kind of get back to cable revenue in.

Sebastiano Petti: Yes over the course of 'twenty one thank you.

Speaker Change: Thanks for the question Sebastian.

Speaker Change: I'll start with the first one in terms of our share performance and.

Speaker Change: I take it you're referring specifically to wireless.

Speaker Change: Yes. The drivers are for success have really been.

Speaker Change: A number of factors.

Glenn Brandt: Sure. Thank you, Drew. On the remaining synergies, the emphasis continues to be, you know, as we've done for three quarters now, hold the gains that we've identified and achieved through the last nine months, carry them throughout the year in 24 and build on them. We are largely through.

Speaker Change: That have helped the execution, but.

Speaker Change: Again, it's against the backdrop of a very strong growing market.

Speaker Change: That we've really leaned in on our distribution channels.

Speaker Change: The simplicity of the customer experience a number of other value offerings, we surround it.

Speaker Change: The customer with including we launched in Q4, the ability for customers to amortize their smartphone purchase on our Rogers credit card over four years effectively cutting payments in half.

Glenn Brandt: The people part of the integration exercise, we've got our team in place. There will be ongoing tinkering and tweaking here and there in terms of moving people, but that part of the exercise is largely complete. We got that done within the first half year, frankly, of the acquisition. We had anticipated a longer run rate on that, so we were very, very pleased with getting that done in the first year. It settles the organization down. We will now be focused primarily on the vendor negotiation part of the exercise.

Speaker Change: So there's all those things around.

Speaker Change: As I said the best in class distribution channel the second piece of it relates to how we do in various.

Market segments and there is two comments there that are worth highlighting certainly in the new to Canada category. We continue to dominate in market share and it's something we've been paying attention to over several years and you are seeing what I would describe it is that selling infrastructure continuing to outperform certain.

Glenn Brandt: Our cable business is now twice the size and scale that it was pre-acquisition, and so now we have set to work on negotiating with vendors reflecting that scale. And so that's really the..., the largest part of the lift going into 2024, the remaining. We will look to fill in the billion dollar targeted synergies as early as possible in the year. I anticipate as we exit 2024, we will have achieved the run rate on the full billion dollars, but I'm not going to provide any additional clarity on timing around that in terms of you know what impact it could have on us to come in at the higher or lower end of that 12-15% EBITDA growth range. I'm not going to provide any additional speculation on the positives or the negatives that could come during the year.

Speaker Change: We expect.

Speaker Change: Continued competition.

Speaker Change: In that space, but we feel fairly confident about our performance there.

Speaker Change: And then the last piece I would make is.

Underlying all of that is.

Speaker Change: Our execution of our move to the Rogers premium brand.

Speaker Change: We stated we were moving towards that several years ago and so what you see happening is.

Speaker Change: As this is our strongest quarter of performance on the Rogers brand when you look at relative share and so our strategy of focusing on the premium brand.

Speaker Change: In both wireless as well as in cable.

Speaker Change: As.

Speaker Change: Is paying out well for us.

Speaker Change: And then <unk> on your second question around.

Speaker Change: Our focus and emphasis on.

Speaker Change: On reversing the revenue trend within our wireline business.

Speaker Change: Cable is a scale business.

Glenn Brandt: I think we've shown through 2023 that we've taken a very balanced approach to our operations and our execution that will continue in 2024. We will remain competitive in going after market share, pursuing cost improvements and efficiencies, as well as continuing to drive revenue growth. On your question about cable revenue growth, we continue to see a decline through the fourth quarter in the range of 3% on a pro forma basis when you take out the effect of the acquisition. And so that will be a primary focus for us in 2024, not only going after larger execution on our net additions and customer growth but also in terms of trying to just turn that revenue decline around as early in the year as we can. But that's going to take some time to balance. That's great. Thanks for that. Thank you, Drew.

Speaker Change: Similar to wireless if you look at wireless.

Speaker Change: And that scale is.

Speaker Change: Is tremendously powerful when you execute correctly and focus on on real growth. You've mentioned is it going to turn on price increases really the emphasis here is on <unk>.

Speaker Change: Better execution around growing the subscriber net adds in the subscriber base leaning in on better execution around customer service growing our network footprint continuing to make gains, particularly in the west around.

Growing our <unk>.

Speaker Change: Competitive offerings within the west and growing the net ads and so the emphasis here really is in particular on on growing the underlying business volume.

Speaker Change: Rather than.

Speaker Change: And then anything else it comes down to execution and taking advantage of the scale that really was.

Glenn Brandt: Next question, Ariel. Our next question comes from Tim Casey of BMO. Please go ahead. Thanks, too, for me.

Speaker Change: The original promise in the.

Speaker Change: The acquisition initiative and so that's what we're focused on.

Speaker Change: If I can quickly follow up Tony just on the wireless side, but.

Tony Staffieri: As Rogers, obviously, you've done a great job migrating to the premium brands you talked about the underlying growth X the migration of shop mobile subs, but.

Tony Staffieri: Tony, there's been a lot of discussion in the media about reducing the number of foreign student visas and things like that. And obviously, that's a category that Rogers has been quite strong in. Could you give us some perspective from your seat as to what you think the impact will be on the loading environment going forward as these changes flow through? And then second, you mentioned very briefly about some network slicing. You know, what's the narrative on 5G and full deployment? I know you're not going to be putting the 3800 in use this year, but how are you?

Tony Staffieri: As we think just thinking again just on the service revenue.

Tony Staffieri: Is it going to be similar kind of P times Q equation as we think about 'twenty four or do you think that we could perhaps see <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: And <unk> improvement <unk> acceleration as you get.

Tony Staffieri: Business could take advantage of the goodness of the premium brand migration in 'twenty three.

Tony Staffieri: Hello.

Tony Staffieri: The way we.

Tony Staffieri: Think about is Sebastian <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: To use your term.

Tony Staffieri: P times Q, we continue to see.

Tony Staffieri: Are you seeing anything on the enterprise side or anything that's going to change the narrative on 5G? And you know, we'll start to see some incremental revenues there. Thank you. Thanks for the questions, Tim. In terms of the first question on foreign students and government statements on that,

Tony Staffieri: Very healthy growth on on the Q4 number of subscribers in terms of <unk>.

What we see is opportunity for <unk> growth, but it's marginal.

Tony Staffieri: B and a solid 1% this year end.

Tony Staffieri: We'll need to continue to see the market dynamics, but.

Speaker Change: I don't want to.

Speaker Change: Over lead on on the <unk> side of it.

Tony Staffieri: If you look at 2023 in terms of wireless growth, our estimate is that the total market grew over five percent, and that growth was driven roughly half by penetration increases, and the other half is the new to Canada category for the other half. And so both individually are growing at pretty robust rates. With the government's announcement, we still expect, based on what we continue to see, market growth rates in total that exceed 4% and probably closer to 4.5%. So, still very healthy market growth. And so we expect to continue to lead in market share. And so we can see the impact. I wouldn't describe it as...

Speaker Change: Thanks again.

Speaker Change: Okay. Thanks for that Shadow next question Arrow.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Vince Valentini of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Vince Valentini: Thanks, very much hoping I can get two clarifications and then and then a question.

Vince Valentini: Will you deliberate and your commentary on the $1 billion of asset sales, saying it will happen sometime in 2024 as opposed to you had been signaling by the middle of the year before.

Vince Valentini: Some some we will close in the first half of the year.

Vince Valentini: Some might fall into the second half we will.

Vince Valentini: We will execute at at the earliest possible opportunity remains on pace with what we had tried to signal then so I'm not I'm not looking to try and change any of the messaging.

Tony Staffieri: It's not there. It will certainly have an impact, but we see it as small in the context of the overall market. On the second question relating to our announcement today on slicing, network slicing on our standalone 5G core network, and the two of them sort of go hand in hand, and the applications are really going to revolve around a number of different use cases, including enterprises. As you said, the one we're really excited about certainly is improving the network clarity for first responders and making sure they have priority, but the second is what it does for our fixed We do continue to see applications on the enterprise side, but I would say that's secondary, and some of those have, what you'll start to see is probably by mid-year, some of those applications come on board, and we'll share some of that stuff in future calls. Thank you. Thanks, Tim.

Vince Valentini: I'll be happy if we continue with pace with where we are today.

Vince Valentini: And we will continue to work that file.

Vince Valentini: Ongoing through this year and beyond.

Speaker Change: Fair enough the clarification for Tony you mentioned, the 5% or greater.

Speaker Change: Wireless industry growth in 2023, Rogers, obviously, you did better than that in the range of 6%. So when you say market four to four 5% going forward I assume youre still talking about the industry in your view or hope would be Roger does better than the industry.

Speaker Change: That's right.

The four to four 5% I would say is as conservative in terms of our estimate and so.

Speaker Change: So thats one to note and two we expect to continue to lead with strong market share and so that underlies.

Tony Staffieri: Next question area. Our next question comes from Sebastiano Petty of J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker Change: How we think about.

Speaker Change: Topline growth for our wireless for this year, which ladders up to our consolidated guidance.

Tony Staffieri: Hi, thank you for taking the question. Just perhaps a quick follow-up to both Drew and Tim's line of questions here, but just thinking about it in terms of the team's view on relative, share performance expectations as we move into 2024. I think, you know, I'm pretty confident I'm leading on share once again, but, against the backdrop of the industry, how are you thinking about the balance between perhaps rate versus volume and, therefore, service revenue growth for Rogers in 24 and beyond? Follow-up as well on cable, I think, you know, great to hear about Alberta and B.C. Glenn, I think you were still kind of intimating that ARPA is just trying to get back to that revenue growth. You know, what are the drivers to get there? Obviously, headlines about price increases or rate increases earlier in the year. But is it more of a function of volume?

Speaker Change: Wonderful.

Speaker Change: The bigger question I have I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet I mean churn.

Speaker Change: The highest churn we've seen a long time.

Speaker Change: You seem to have managed around it with gross adds <unk> and EBITDA.

Speaker Change: Good shape, but.

Speaker Change: Does this level of 167% concern you is there something going on with competition in the industry that will keep churn. This high or is there a way you can you can work to try to get it back down and I'm wondering if you can help us link the cost of churn it doesn't show up in an EBITA seemingly but you're you're.

Speaker Change: Receivables were up quite significantly.

Speaker Change: <unk> hundred 33 versus 300 jumping in the fourth quarter of last year is that where you see the pain of having to do subsidize more gross adds a bit what the receivables. Thanks.

Speaker Change: Thanks for that.

Speaker Change: As my follow up Vince.

Speaker Change: It is important to unpack the churn I'll jump to.

Speaker Change: The punch line, which is we're not concerned about what we're seeing on churn and it's for a few different reasons.

Speaker Change: It's helpful to sort of unpack what you are seeing what we saw in the fourth quarter was <unk>.

Speaker Change: Eitan level of what I would call promotional activity in the bottom end of the market largely around flanker.

Tony Staffieri: You know, what are the other, again, kind of pieces to the growth algorithm as we kind of get back to cable revenue and, you know, over the course of 24? Thank you. Thanks for the question, Sebastiano. I'll start with the first one in terms of our share performance, and I take it you're referring specifically to wireless. Yes, the drivers of success have really been a number of factors that have helped the execution.

Speaker Change: We chose to focus.

Speaker Change: And not that we neglected that segment, but our focus was on the premium. So when you look at gross adds for us they are up significantly year on year.

Speaker Change: The vast vast majority of those came in on the Rogers brand.

Speaker Change: And if you look at churn Theres really two things there one is.

Speaker Change: Most of it for US came on the Fido brand, but equally the other part youre seeing because we do extremely well in new to Canada in particular foreign students and temporary workers, what youre seeing is a phenomenon as they come in and out of the country.

Tony Staffieri: But again, it's against the backdrop of a very strong growing market that we've really leaned in on our distribution channels, the simplicity of the customer experience, a number of other value offerings we've surrounded the customer with, including we launched in Q4 the ability for customers to amortize their smartphone purchase on our Rogers credit card over four years, effectively cutting payments in half. And so there are all those things around, as I said, the best-in-class distribution channel. The second piece of it relates to how we do in various market segments. And there are two comments there that are worth highlighting.

Speaker Change: That's driving excuse me a healthier gross add but youre seeing those churn numbers come through as well.

Speaker Change: And so that's equally an impact and so net net we sort of look at it and say.

Speaker Change: As long as we continue to lead on net we've got the right balance.

Across our various brands to ensure we've got robust <unk> as well.

Speaker Change: Yes.

Speaker Change: Excuse me.

Speaker Change: The second piece of it Vince that you've highlighted the cost of switching.

Tony Staffieri: Certainly, in the new to Canada category, we continue to dominate in market share, and it's something we've been paying attention to over several years. And you're seeing what I would describe as that selling infrastructure continuing to outperform. Certainly, we expect continued competition in that space, but we feel fairly confident about our performance there. And then the last piece I'd make is that, underlying all that, is our execution of a move to the Rogers Premium brand. We stated we were moving towards that several years ago, and so what you see happening is this is our strongest quarter of performance on the Rogers brand when you look at relative share. And so our strategy of focusing on the premium brand in both wireless as well as in cable is paying out well for us. And then, Sebastiano, on your second question around our focus and emphasis on reversing the revenue trend within our wireline business. Cable is a scale business, and similar to wireless, if you look at wireless, that scale is tremendously powerful when you execute correctly and focus on real growth.

Speaker Change: Has come way down for us cost of acquisition has become much more efficient. If you were to look at margin on equipment for example.

Speaker Change: In the fourth quarter. It was slightly positive in terms of margin compared to $12 million cost to us in Q4 of 2022, so handset subsidy and cost ends up being neutral to slightly more positive and as I said the cost of transaction on.

Speaker Change: <unk> continued to come down continues to come down.

Speaker Change: And you see that notwithstanding the substantially higher volumes year on year.

Speaker Change: A nice margin improvement in our wireless business of 70 basis points.

Questioner: That's excellent and Tony just to make sure I'm clear you. The one seven is not a level that you think.

Questioner: Undisciplined behavior by freedom or any other flanker brand something you'd need to retaliate against youre comfortable with that decision.

Questioner: Manageable figure that Jed.

Tony Staffieri: You can work around.

Speaker Change: We're not concerned about it.

Tony Staffieri: I'll add is the final point as we look to Q1.

Tony Staffieri: And we're a month into it I would say, we do see continue to see heightened.

Tony Staffieri: Heightened churn on a year on year basis, but much less in terms of year on year.

Tony Staffieri: You've mentioned, you know, is it going to turn on price increases? Really, the emphasis here is on better execution around growing the subscriber net ads and the subscriber base, leaning in on better execution around customer service, growing our network footprint, continuing to make gains, particularly in the West, around growing our competitive offerings within the West and growing the net ads. And so the emphasis here really is on growing the underlying business volume rather than anything else. It comes down to execution and taking advantage of scale.

Tony Staffieri: As you would expect and so.

Tony Staffieri: Again not concerning for us thank.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Speaker Change: Great. Thanks, Vince next question area.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Maher Yaghi with Scotia Bank. Please go ahead.

Maher Yaghi: Great. Thank you for taking my question and then if you can permit me with two clarification like Vince had.

Maher Yaghi: <unk>.

Maher Yaghi: Real question. So just on the clarification question on can you provide Glenn you can pro forma growth rates on EBITDA for cable and wireless excluding the.

Maher Yaghi: Acquisition of Shaw, I know, it's going to start to become less and less relevant going forward, but towards co transfixed on that I guess the street.

Maher Yaghi: Also if you can maybe clarify the reporting dynamics over the 182000.

Tony Staffieri: That really was the, you know, original promise of the acquisition initiative. And so that's what we're focused on. If I can quickly follow up, Tony, just on the wireless side, but as Rogers, you know, obviously did a great job migrating to the premium brand and talked about the underlying, you know, growth x, the migration of strong mobile subs, but, As we think, just thinking again, just on the service revenue, is it going to be a similar kind of P times Q equation as we think about 24?

Maher Yaghi: That subscribers that you took out from your reporting.

Maher Yaghi: Related to the fiber internet subscribers, how do these changes affect ARPA and the net adds are they showing up somewhere else now or.

Speaker Change: They are just not being reported then I'll wait and ask my real question out there. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Okay, maybe I'll start with the second question relating to Fido.

Speaker Change: Because it aligns with the strategy, we've talked about of consolidating to the Rogers brand.

So in Internet and our base roughly 4% of our total base. So we're talking to a real small number of fido customers.

Tony Staffieri: Or do you think that we could perhaps see ARPU, you know, an ARPU improvement, or an ARPU acceleration as you get, you know, take, you know, the business takes advantage of the goodness of the premium brand migration in 23? So that's just how I'm trying to think. The way we think about it, Sebastiano, is, to use your term, the P times Q, we continue to see very healthy growth in the Q, or number of subscribers. In terms of ARPU, what we see is an opportunity for ARPU growth, but it's marginal. You know, it'll be in a solid 1% this year, and we'll need to continue to see the market dynamics, but I don't want to over-lead on the ARPU side of it. Thanks for y'all.

Speaker Change: What we've done because we discontinued that brand.

Speaker Change: So the accounting is to take it out of the base. It doesn't mean, we are writing off those customers are ignoring those customers.

We'll actively look to migrate those customers to the Rogers premium brand and we will account for those as base adjustments.

Speaker Change: So it has an immaterial impact on ARPA and it has.

Speaker Change: And I had an immaterial impact on our Internet net adds what you saw in the Internet net adds was.

Speaker Change: It was not.

Speaker Change: Impacted by what.

Speaker Change: What I would call that disclosure change.

Speaker Change: And then there on your on your question around what are our adjusted or pro forma organic growth rates would've been across wireless and cable within wireless.

Tony Staffieri: Great. Thanks, Sebastiano. Next question, Ariel. Our next question comes from Vince Valentini of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Sure.

Speaker Change: <unk> mobile customers really had had limited impact.

Vince Valentini: Thanks very much. Hoping I can get two clarifications in and then ask a question. Glenn, were you deliberate in your commentary on the billion dollars of asset sales saying it'll happen sometime in 2024 as opposed to what you had been signaling by the middle of the year before? Some some we will close in the first half of the year; some might fall into the second half; we will. You know, we will execute at the earliest possible opportunity and remain on pace with what we had tried to signal Vince. So I'm not I'm not looking to try and change any of the messaging. I'll be happy if we continue on pace with where we are today, and we will continue to work that file, you know, ongoing through this Nope.

Speaker Change: On the year over year growth rates when you roll it through the entire business than just the scale of customers that was really limited and so you've seen consistently through the year.

Speaker Change: Similar in the fourth quarter to the fourth quarter, we had 9% revenue growth, 10% EBITDA growth that was.

Speaker Change: I would peg around those numbers that was largely unaffected by the mobile.

Speaker Change: Ads that happened throughout the nine months from closing on.

Speaker Change: On shop, most notably in the second half of the year.

Speaker Change: On on cable what you see on an adjusted basis for the transaction.

Speaker Change: As.

Speaker Change: 3% revenue decline.

Speaker Change: And roughly at 12% pro forma growth in EBITDA, largely driven by the cost synergy achievements that we've we've realized to date.

Glenn Brandt: Fair enough, the clarification for Tony. You mentioned the over 5% of greater wireless industry growth in 2023. Rogers obviously did better than that, in the range of 6%, so when you say market four to four and a half percent going forward, I assume you're still talking about the industry, and your hope would be Rogers does better than the industry. That's right, Vince. You know, the four to four and a half percent is, I would say, is conservative in terms of our estimate. And so, that's one to note.

Speaker Change: Does that help.

Speaker Change: Yes, thank you very much and just.

Just my question the more broad question I wanted to ask you Tony.

Speaker Change: Rogers has been I think.

Speaker Change: Currently betting getting getting more than their fair market share.

Speaker Change: On new.

Speaker Change: Immigration.

Speaker Change: New Canadians coming into Canada.

But.

Speaker Change: I need to ask you I mean those.

Tony Staffieri: And two, we expect to continue to lead with strong market share. And so that underlies how we think about top-line growth for wireless for this year, which ladders up to our consolidated guidance.

Speaker Change: Stores that you are in the west shore stores I'm sure you're using them a lot more to sell wireless now combining cable and wireless selling into those stores how much that's retail position that you grab.

Speaker Change: Grabbed by the acquisition of Shire is helping you increase your market share loading in Western Canada and wireless specifically.

Tony Staffieri: The bigger question I have, and I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet, is, I mean, churn. This is the highest churn we've seen in a long time. You seem to have managed around it with gross ads and ARPU and EBITDA all in good shape, but does this level of 1.67% concern you? Is there something going on with competition in the industry that will keep churn this high, or is there a way you can work to try to get it back down?

Speaker Change: And around also that strategy of deemphasizing high though moving.

Speaker Change: A lot of your customer base to Rogers can you explain the cost.

Cost savings that you are.

Speaker Change: Give us some some views on on the cost savings that you are.

Speaker Change: We're going to get through that change and how you sell your product. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: Thanks Amir.

Tony Staffieri: And I'm wondering if you can help us link the cost of churn. It doesn't show up in EBITDA, seemingly, but your equipment receivables were up quite significantly, 433 versus 300 and something in the fourth quarter of last year. Is that where you see the pain of having to subsidize more gross ads a bit with the receivables? Thanks.

Speaker Change: Let me, let me clarify at the outset, you made the comment we're getting more than our fair share I.

Speaker Change: I would characterize it as we're getting the share we deserve and we earn everyday Canadians have choice.

Speaker Change: And.

Speaker Change: They're making their choice.

Speaker Change: So so that's one.

Speaker Change: In terms of.

Speaker Change: How that's playing out in our stores in the west.

Tony Staffieri: Thanks for that follow-up, Vince. It's important to unpack the churn. I'll jump to the punchline, which is we're not concerned about what we're seeing on churn, and there are a few different reasons. It's helpful to sort of unpack what you're seeing.

Speaker Change: I would say more broadly and we've talked about this on previous calls we.

Speaker Change: We're expanding.

Speaker Change: Our.

Speaker Change: Our retail locations to more and more cross sell on the bundle and make it easier for the customer to purchase their home Internet and entertainment services at our retail locations and so certainly with the closing of Shaw.

Tony Staffieri: You know, what we saw in the fourth quarter was a heightened level of what I would call promotional activity in the bottom end of the market, largely around Flanker. We chose to focus, and not that we neglected that segment, but our focus was on the premium. So when you look at gross ads for us, they're up significantly year on year. And the vast, vast majority of those came in on the Rogers brand. And if we were to look at churn, there are really two things there. One is that most of it for us came from the Fido brand. But equally, the other part you're seeing, because we do extremely well in new to Canada, in particular, foreign students and temporary workers, what you're seeing is a phenomenon as they come in and out of the country. That's driving, excuse me, a healthier gross ad, but you're seeing those churn numbers come through as well.

Speaker Change: That was a big advantage to us to rebrand the shelf stores to Rogers and increase.

Speaker Change: The penetration.

Speaker Change: Of the bundled sale I would say it continues to be early days on that and we're underpenetrated in terms of bundle and so we looked at looked at to be a good growth opportunity for us.

Speaker Change: In promoting strong sales certainly in wireless, but importantly on the internet side, which is.

I would say, it's just at the beginning of acceleration.

Speaker Change: And then the final point in our brand consolidation strategy and what it means for our cost structure to.

Tony Staffieri: And so net net, we sort of look at it and say, as long as we continue to lead on net, we've got the right balance across our various brands to ensure we've got robust ARPU as well. Excuse me, The second piece of it, Vince, that you've highlighted, the cost of switching has come way down for us, and the cost of acquisition has become much more efficient. If you were to look at margin on equipment, for example, in the fourth quarter, it was slightly positive in terms of margin compared to the $12 million cost to us in the Q4 of 2022. So handset subsidy and cost ends up being neutral to slightly more positive, and as I said, the cost of transaction on acquisitions continues to come down, and you see that, not withstanding the substantially higher volumes year-on-year, a nice margin improvement in our That's excellent, Tony. So just to make sure I'm clear, you, the 1.67 is not a level that you think was undisciplined behavior by Freedom or any other Flanker brand, something you'd need to retaliate against. Are you comfortable that this is a manageable figure that you can work around? We're not concerned about it.

Speaker Change: It's a bit too premature to start sharing that type of stuff Youre certainly seeing some of it come through in our wireless margin expansion and leading industry margins already.

Speaker Change: But I'm not prepared to start quantifying the different pieces of it in there okay.

Speaker Change: Thank you. Thank you, yes, thanks, Matt next question area.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Stephanie price of CIBC. Please go ahead.

Stephanie Price: Good morning.

Stephanie Price: Wanted to focus in on the Capex guidance and I was hoping you could talk a little bit of a bucket of capex investments CR, whether it's five G docks.

Stephanie Price: And whether we can see any capex synergies with Shah.

Stephanie Price: The guidance and maybe more broadly how you think about network investments internally and what percentage of the Capex envelope, we think of that growth.

Stephanie Price: Alright.

Speaker Change: Thanks Clay.

Clay: Thank you Stephanie and good morning, I think I think if I could.

Speaker Change: Maybe I'll give you quite the specifics that youre looking for but just in general.

Speaker Change: We remain committed on on investing more and more of our annual capital spend.

Speaker Change: In network infrastructure and hard infrastructure as opposed to.

Speaker Change: Other projects and so that that continues.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

The impact of the Shaw acquisition.

Speaker Change: Allows better efficiencies.

Tony Staffieri: I'll add as the final point, as we look to Q1, and we're a month into it, I would say we do continue to see heightened churn on a year-on-year basis, but much less in terms of year-on-year, as you would expect. And so again, not concerning for us. Thanks. Thanks, Vince. Next question, Ariel. Our next question comes from Maher Yaghi of Scotiabank.

Speaker Change: Certainly in terms of.

Speaker Change: Of how far those dollars go I'm not going to give any any particular clarity to that.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: Of targeted synergy savings those are just on the cost side.

Speaker Change: But we do see.

Speaker Change: Benefits that also accrue on our capital spend as a result of the scale. We've now got twice the.

Speaker Change: Route kilometers of network roughly from the acquisition on the wireline side and so our service contracts are our gear.

Maher Yaghi: Great, thank you for taking my question, and if you can permit me to ask two clarifications, like Vince had, and a real question. So just on the clarification question: can you please provide Glenn, if you can, the pro forma growth rates on EBITDA for cable and wireless, excluding the acquisition of SHA? I know it's going to start to become less and less relevant going forward, but we're still transfixed on that, I guess, the street.

Speaker Change: Purchases those all we lean in on negotiating the rates those all reflect now a.

Speaker Change: Roughly two wax volume and we drive the.

Speaker Change: The savings that you would anticipate in those negotiations that will continue in 2024.

Glenn Brandt: Also, if you can maybe clarify the reporting dynamics of the 182,000 internet subscribers that you took out from your reporting related to the FIDO internet subscribers. How do these changes affect ARPA and the net ads? Are they showing up somewhere else now, or are they just not being reported?

Speaker Change: So.

Speaker Change: I anticipate gains that come from that you can see from R. R.

Speaker Change: <unk>, we still intend to invest significantly this year.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: And the range similar to what we had in 2023 and that is predominantly on expanding our coverage in our footprint.

Glenn Brandt: And I'll wait and ask my real question afterward. Thank you. Okay, Mayor, I'll start with the second question relating to FIDO because it aligns with the strategy we've talked about of consolidating to the Rogers brand. So in terms of the internet in our base, roughly 4% of our total base, so we're talking about a really small number of FIDO customers. What we've done, because we discontinued that brand, is accounting is to take it out of the base.

Speaker Change: Okay.

Speaker Change: Thanks, and then just my second question Tony Your prepared remarks, you mentioned expanding fixed wireless nationally just curious how you think about fixed wireless <unk> is it just for remote regions or could we see Rogers rolling it out more broadly as we've seen in the U S.

Tony Staffieri: And what youre going to see us do.

Tony Staffieri: We launched it I would say on a soft launch a little while ago in the fourth quarter.

Tony Staffieri: That doesn't mean we are writing off those customers or ignoring those customers. We will actively look to migrate those customers to the Rogers premium brand, and we'll account for those as base adjustments. So it had an immaterial impact on ARPA, and it had an immaterial impact on our internet net ads. The impact that we saw on the internet net ads was not impacted by what I would call that disclosure change.

And now we're expanding that to a more robust offering it is national.

Tony Staffieri: And.

Tony Staffieri: It may include urban but it is focused on.

Tony Staffieri: For the most part, but also where we don't have a wireline footprint. So we cover two thirds.

Tony Staffieri: The country with our wireline cable footprint.

Tony Staffieri: And there is one third.

Tony Staffieri: We don't cover with wireline and so what you'll see us focus on is fixed wireless access in those markets as well as Tpa, we purchased <unk> in the fourth quarter and that allowed us a platform to be able to sell.

Glenn Brandt: And then, Maher, on your question around what our adjusted or pro forma or organic growth rates would have been across wireless and cable, within wireless, the Shaw Mobile customers really had a limited impact on the year-over-year growth rates. When you roll it through the entire business, then just the scale of customers, that was really limited. So, you've seen consistently through the year, similar in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, we had 9% revenue growth, and 10% EBITDA growth. That was, you know, I would peg around those numbers, that was largely unaffected by the Shaw Mobile ads that happened throughout the nine months from closing on Shaw, most notably in the second half of the year. On cable, what you see on an adjusted basis for the transaction is a 3% revenue decline and roughly a 12% pro forma growth in EBITDA, largely driven by the cost synergy achievements that we've realized to date. Does that help?

Tony Staffieri: Home Internet and products that we could bundle with what is already our national coverage on <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: On wireless.

Tony Staffieri: So that's how you should think about.

Tony Staffieri: That strategy and that's why this network slicing is an important component of that.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Speaker Change: Yes, Thanks, Stephanie next question Ariel.

Ariel: Our next question comes from Jerome debacle of Darden. Please go ahead.

Jerome Debacle: Hey, good morning, Thanks for taking my questions.

Jerome Debacle: The first one is a follow up to Stephanie's question on network slicing and what it allows you to do in terms of expanding fixed wireless.

Jerome Debacle: Clarification on your comment on Europe.

Jerome Debacle: I would I would imagine that that's more when you don't have cable rights and then secondly on the second one on this.

Glenn Brandt: Yes, thank you very much. And just my question, the more broad question I wanted to ask you, Tony, I mean, Rogers has been, I think, definitely betting, you know, getting more than fair, their fair market share on new, you know, immigration, new, new, new Canadians coming into Canada. But I need to ask you, those stores in the West, the Shaw stores, I'm sure you're using them a lot more to sell wireless. Now combining cable and wireless selling into those stores, how much that retail position that you grabbed by the acquisition of Shaw is helping you increase your market share loading in Western Canada, specifically in wireless? And around that strategy, you're de-emphasizing FIDO, moving a lot of your customer base to Rogers. Can you explain the cost savings or give us some views on the cost savings that you're going to get through that change in how you sell your product? Thank you. Thanks, Mayor.

Jerome Debacle: As one does that mean in terms of Europe potential investments.

Wireless capacity.

Speaker Change: Thanks for the question Jerome So in terms of slicing think about it is.

Speaker Change: The offer is out there for customers and.

Speaker Change: Bill.

Speaker Change: Always get.

Speaker Change: Better.

Speaker Change: Network performance.

Speaker Change: With our cable network, depending on where they're located but for some they're looking for ease of and it might be for example, the use cases that we're seeing more and more of.

Speaker Change: Where they're foreign students that are here temporarily and so the off and on of the Internet Wi Fi experience within their dorm or apartment et cetera is a lot easier with <unk> and.

Speaker Change: And so it's a much easier process in a much more inexpensive.

Speaker Change: <unk> to come on and off and so that's we're thinking very smartly about how we deploy it in.

Speaker Change: In urban but as I said rural is one but.

Speaker Change: The areas like southwest, Ontario, and Quebec that we don't serve today are key markets for us.

Speaker Change: As we look to that in terms of what it means for wireless capex.

Tony Staffieri: Let me clarify at the outset. You made the comment we're getting more than our fair share. I would characterize it as we're getting the share we deserve, and we earn every day. Canadians have choice, and they're making their choice.

Speaker Change: It's within within our envelope.

Speaker Change: And but frankly, the biggest enabler of fixed wireless access performance is going to be more.

Speaker Change: More spectrum.

Speaker Change: So we look forward to.

Tony Staffieri: And so that's one. In terms of how that's playing out in our stores in the West, I would say more broadly, and we've talked about this on previous calls, we are expanding our retail locations to more and more cross-sell on the bundle and make it easier for the customer to purchase their home internet and entertainment services at our retail locations. And so certainly, with the closing of Shaw, that was a big advantage to us to rebrand the Shaw stores to Rogers and increase the penetration of the bundled sale. I would say it continues to be early days on that, and we're under-penetrated in terms of bundle, and so we look that to be a good growth opportunity for us in promoting strong sales, certainly in wireless, but importantly on the Internet side, which is, I would say, just at the beginning of acceleration.

Speaker Change: The government's plans on making more spectrum available. That's one of the biggest differences between the Canadian and U S markets. The U S.

Speaker Change: Telecom industry, just has more capacity of spectrum available to it.

Speaker Change: And as we catch up I think that it'll be a terrific.

Speaker Change: Growth product for us.

That's good color a second question I have.

Speaker Change: Is weather.

Speaker Change: Investments in DOCSIS four <unk> are included in this capex guidance, what what possibly what will be done in terms of not just <unk>.

Speaker Change: Within that guidance Capex envelope this year.

Speaker Change: I'll start with the first part from a technology strategy standpoint.

We have said and continue to.

Speaker Change: Beyond the path too.

Work hand in hand, with our U S cable partners.

Speaker Change: The evolution of <unk> and DOCSIS, four <unk> and so we've.

Speaker Change: In anticipation of that.

Tony Staffieri: And then the final point about our brand consolidation strategy and what it means for our cost structure, it's a bit too premature to start sharing that type of stuff. You're certainly seeing some of it come through in our wireless margin expansion and leading industry margins already, but I'm not prepared to start quantifying the different pieces of it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Mayor. Our next question comes from Stephanie Price of CIBC. Please go ahead. Good morning. I wanted to focus in on the CapEx guidance, and I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the buckets of CapEx investment here, whether it's 5G, DOCSIS, and whether we can see any CapEx synergies with Shaw in the guide, and maybe more broadly how you think about network investments internally and what percentage of the CapEx envelopes. Thank you, Stephanie. Good morning.

Speaker Change: Have been working aggressively on mid to high split into our network. The west is largely done and we're now focused on the east.

Speaker Change: Which will make significant headway this year on that and Thats, a precursor to DOCSIS four which some of the U S. Players are already in trial mode. You will have seen that and you would expect us to move to trial mode by mid year roughly.

Speaker Change: Depending on CPE availability, that's the biggest.

Speaker Change: Capacity constraint for us and.

Speaker Change: So that's on the strategic side and I'll, let Glenn talk to where it fits in the capital envelope for cable yeah.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Glenn Brent: Succinctly, it's it is part of.

Glenn Brent: Part of our priorities and initiatives in that three $8 billion to $4 billion Capex guidance, we've given.

Glenn Brent: And so that's one of the key initiatives in the modernization of our network plant, that's just always ongoing.

Glenn Brent: Great. Thank you Pedro Thank you next.

Glenn Brent: Question area.

Stephanie Price: I think if I could.., maybe not give you quite the specifics that you're looking for but just in general we we remain committed on on investing more and more of our annual capital spend in network infrastructure and and hard infrastructure as opposed to other projects and so that that continues the the impact of the Shaw acquisition allows better efficiencies certainly in terms of of how far those dollars go I'm not going to give any any particular clarity to that the billion dollars of targeted synergy savings those are just on the cost side but we do see benefits that also accrue on our capital spend as a result of the scale we've now got twice the root kilometers of network roughly from the acquisition on the wireline side and so our service contracts are our gear purchases those all we lean in on negotiating the rates those all reflect now a roughly 2x volume and we drive the the savings that you would anticipate in those negotiations that will continue in 2024 and so you know I anticipate gains that come from that you can see from our our guidance we still intend to invest significantly this year in the in the range similar to what we had in 2023, and that is predominantly on expanding our coverage and our footprint. Thanks, and then just my second question.

Glenn Brent: Our next question comes from Arvind <unk> of Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Arvind: Good morning, Thanks for taking my questions a quick clarification I think it was Glenn you mentioned.

Arvind: Close to 1% ARPA growth.

Arvind: Adjusted for the <unk>.

Speaker Change: <unk> wireless.

Speaker Change: Hubs.

Speaker Change: Can you just talk to the impact of international roaming had on it was it positive negative is immaterial and then secondly, just going back to the cable topic.

Speaker Change: In terms of sort of sequential improvement I know that you said that stabilization maybe not right. At this point you've made to kind of talk about timelines, but intend to sequential improvement any mark because you can give and I'm trying to understand the extent to which the competitive intensity even in Ontario is affecting that.

Speaker Change: Negative three number and are you seeing any.

Speaker Change: Any sort of easing there that can kind of help the cause.

Speaker Change: Yes.

Speaker Change: Thank you Arvind.

Speaker Change: On the 1% ARPA growth.

Speaker Change: Roaming.

Speaker Change: It's seasonal.

Speaker Change: And.

Speaker Change: We still see.

Speaker Change: Ongoing impact from roaming, but really that's in terms of year over year changes.

Speaker Change: Largely washed through at this point.

Speaker Change: The 1% growth really is largely focused on base management.

Stephanie Price: Tony, your prepared remarks mentioned expanding fixed wireless nationwide. I'd be curious how you think about fixed wireless here. Is it just for remote regions, or could we see Rogers rolling it out more broadly as we've seen in the U.S.? And what you're going to see us do, we launched it, I would say, on a soft launch a little while ago in the fourth quarter, and now we're expanding that to a more robust offering. It is national, and it may include urban areas, but it is focused on rural areas for the most part, but also where we don't have a wireline footprint.

Speaker Change: Emphasis on our premium brand that type of execution, rather than any exogenous shock from from international roving roaming.

Speaker Change: Either adds or otherwise.

Speaker Change: And then on the competitive intensity.

Speaker Change: I'll leave that for Tony to jump in on cable Arvind.

Speaker Change: Urban done the cable that.

Tony Staffieri: If I understand your question, you're really asking what's going to be the catalyst for topline growth and the decline you see is really.

Tony Staffieri: Market share declines in previous years that are flowing through and so the primary catalysts you should look to us as.

Tony Staffieri: So we cover two-thirds of the country with our wireline cable footprint, and there's one-third that we don't cover with wireline, and so what you'll see us focus on is fixed wireless access in those markets, as well as TPIA. We purchased CommWave in the fourth quarter, and that allowed us a platform to be able to sell home internet and products that we could bundle with what is already our national coverage on So that's how you should think about that strategy, and that's why this network slice is an important component of that. Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Stephanie. Next question, Ariel. Our next question comes from Jerome De Bruel of Desjardins. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning.

Tony Staffieri: <unk> penetration and market share gains and as I said as we continue to.

Tony Staffieri: Work on a number of things certainly the distribution channels, we've talked about but continue to have leading product best Internet.

Tony Staffieri: They're going to be the catalyst that are going to be the big drivers of return to revenue growth and you'll see a number of things coming from us in terms of product certainly the tenge DOCSIS four but in term, but also the entertainment experience and as we continue to work closely with <unk>.

Tony Staffieri: Comcast and the Xfinity platform.

Tony Staffieri: There are next generation.

Tony Staffieri: Launches that youll start to see and we're quite confident.

Tony Staffieri: The prospects of that.

Tony Staffieri: Okay.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Sure.

Speaker Change: Arrow will do three more quick questions. Please.

Jerome De Bruel: Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is a follow-up to Stephanie's questions on network slicing and what it allows you to do in terms of expanding fixed wireless. Clarification on your comment on urban, I would imagine that that's more when you don't have cable, right?

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from Betsy <unk> of UBS. Please go ahead.

Betsy: Great. Thank you just a couple of quick follow ups, one on the wireless churn side it'd be helpful to just get a sense on how churn looks or the largest brand only on how that compares to the year ago period.

Betsy: On the competitive intensity you mentioned it was pretty heightened and we see a return to more normal levels in January and how do you expect can be some price increases to impact churn. Thank you.

Tony Staffieri: And then the second question, the second one on this, is what does that mean in terms of your potential investments in wireless capacity? Thanks for the question, Jerome. So in terms of slicing, think about it as the offer is out there for customers, and they'll always get better network performance with our cable network, depending on where they're located. But for some, they're looking for ease of use, and it might be, for example, the use cases that we're seeing more and more of where they're foreign students that are here temporarily. And so the on and off of the internet Wi-Fi experience within their dorm or apartment, et cetera, is a lot easier with FWA.

Speaker Change: Ill start with the second part of your question.

Speaker Change: In terms of what I would describe as competitive intensity in the fourth quarter certainly saw that's their traditional period as we all know for promotional activity.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: And what you typically see just because the market quiets down in January.

Speaker Change: You see some of that promotional activity.

Speaker Change: Dissipate and that's what you've seen have seen.

Speaker Change: <unk> seen happening.

Speaker Change: This January as is typically the case.

Tony Staffieri: And so it's a much easier process and a much more inexpensive process to come on and off. And so that's why we're thinking very smartly about how we deploy it in cities. But as I said, rural is one, but areas like Southwest Ontario and Quebec that we don't serve today are key markets for us as we look to that. In terms of what it means for wireless CAPEX, it's within our envelope. But frankly, the biggest enabler of fixed wireless access performance is going to be more spectrum, and so we look forward to the government's plans for making more spectrum available. That's one of the biggest differences between the Canadian and U.S. markets.

Speaker Change: Your second part of the question or first part of the question related to churn and.

Speaker Change: I would say, we're really pleased with the churn dynamics, we see on on the Rogers brand.

Speaker Change: And.

Speaker Change: Rogers churn would be substantially lower than fido churn.

Speaker Change: For a number of different reasons, but it really speaks to.

Speaker Change: Our focus on the lifetime value of that customer segment.

Speaker Change: And.

Speaker Change: One of which you see in the <unk>.

Speaker Change: <unk> growth.

Speaker Change: Got it thank you.

You bet. Your next question. Our next question comes from Simon Flannery of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Simon Flannery: Alright, Thank you very much good morning.

Tony Staffieri: The U.S. telecom industry just has more capacity of spectrum available to it, and as we catch up, I think that'll be a terrific growth product for us. That's good, Collar.

Simon Flannery: You had mentioned having two thirds of the country covered by wireline I think in the past you've talked about an opportunity in enterprise with that added scale. If you've got any updates on that side and then interested in your satellite direct to device opportunities. How do you see the business model for that is that going to be a sort of a chart charged per tax store.

Tony Staffieri: The second question I have is whether investments in DOCSIS 4.0 are included in this CAPEX guidance. What will be done in terms of DOCSIS 4.0 within that guided CAPEX envelope this year? Let's start with the first part from a technology strategy standpoint. We've said and continue to be on the path to work hand-in-hand with our U.S. cable partners in the evolution of 10G and DOCSIS IV. And so we've, in anticipation of that, been working aggressively on mid-to-high split into our network. The West is largely done, and we're now focused on the East, which will make significant headway this year. And that's a precursor to DOCSIS IV, which some U.S. players are already in trial mode.

Simon Flannery: Some monthly subscription any thoughts there about.

Simon Flannery: Natural opportunities that presents.

Simon Flannery: Simon on the satellite to mobile phone second part of your question.

Simon Flannery: Not prepared to talk about the pricing strategy yet on that.

Speaker Change: So I would just part that the.

Speaker Change: The first part of it is on the enterprise.

Speaker Change: Synergy so two things you should separate in your mind.

Speaker Change: From a consumer standpoint, we cover two thirds.

Tony Staffieri: You will have seen that. And you'd expect us to move to trial mode by mid-year, roughly, depending on CPE availability. That's the biggest capacity constraint for us, and so that's on the strategic side, and I'll let Glenn talk about where it fits in the capital envelope for cable. Yeah, I think, just succinctly, it is part of our priorities and initiatives in that $3.8 to $4 billion CapEx guidance we've given. And so that's one of the key initiatives in the modernization of our network plant that's just always ongoing. Thank you. Thank you, Jerome. Thank you. The next question comes from Aravinda Galappatthige of Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Speaker Change: Of homes passed in Canada, with our cable footprint, but on the enterprise side, we have been.

Speaker Change: Over a long period of time investing in our national fiber network that connects where it needs to with our existing cable network and so we are national on enterprise and even more so with <unk>.

Speaker Change: Concluding.

Shot transaction and we're starting to see good healthy growth rates in the double digits on our enterprise side.

Speaker Change: That we're quite pleased with.

Speaker Change: So we're seeing those.

Speaker Change: I would call revenue synergies already starting to happen.

Speaker Change: Maybe if I just add to that the opportunity there is on the maybe on the cost synergy side as Tony said with the acquisition. We now have more fiber assets to bring in house rather than.

Tony Staffieri: Good morning, thanks for taking my questions. A quick clarification, I think it was Glenn, you mentioned close to 1% ARPU growth adjusted for the Shawl Wireless subs. Can you just talk to the impact that international roaming had on it? Was it positive, negative, or was it material?

Speaker Change: Then through third party, where we've needed to supplement and so that's part of the cost synergy opportunity that we.

Speaker Change: We can then lead in la.

Speaker Change: Okay makes sense. Thanks.

Speaker Change: Thank you Simon.

Aravinda Galappatthige: And then secondly, just going back to the cable topic, in terms of sort of sequential improvement, I know that you said that stabilization may be right at this point, but in terms of sequential improvement, any markers you can give, and I'm trying to understand the extent to which the competitive intensity, even in Ontario, is affecting that negative three number, and are you seeing any sort of easing there that can kind of help the cause? Thank you, Aravinda. On the 1% ARPU growth, roaming, it's seasonal, you know, and we still see, you know, an ongoing impact from roaming. But really, that's in terms of year over year changes, and that's largely washed through at this point. The 1% growth really is largely focused on base management, emphasis on our premium brand, that type of execution rather than any exogenous shock from international roaming, you know, either ads or otherwise. And then on the competitive intensity, I'll leave that for Tony to jump in on on cable.

Speaker Change: One more at a time for one more question. Please.

Speaker Change: Certainly our final question comes from David Mcfadden of core Mark. Please go ahead.

David McFadgen: Okay, great. Thanks for squeezing me in.

David McFadgen: Just two quick questions Tony when you talked about.

David McFadgen: Your growth, you said, Alberta, and BC and fast growing markets.

David McFadgen: Speaking, primarily about the wireless business or does that also extend to cable and then secondly, just a quick question for Glenn when I look at the working capital in 'twenty three had an outflow of 627 million tonnes.

Glenn Brent: Mary I was wondering can you recover some of that in 'twenty four or do you think that that just needed now to sustain the business as it is.

Speaker Change: David Real quick.

On Alberta, and BC growth, we're seeing it in both certainly in wireless, but we're also seeing.

Speaker Change: A very healthy return to growth on the home product site.

That we're quite pleased with it.

Speaker Change: And then David on your question on working capital working capital as always.

Speaker Change: Our target for capital efficiency for us.

Speaker Change: I would point out that year over year, we do have the impact of the.

Speaker Change: Sure acquisition Rolling through in 'twenty, three that you would not have seen in the prior year and 22 and so that's part of the part of the increase but we.

Glenn Brandt: Aravinda, on the cable, if I understand your question, you're really asking what's going to be the catalyst for top line growth. And the decline you see is really market share declines in previous years that are flowing through. And so the primary catalyst you should look to us for is penetration and market share gains. And as I said, as we continue to work on a number of things, certainly the distribution channels we've talked about, but continuing to have a leading product, and the best internet, those are going to be the catalysts that are going to be the big drivers of return to revenue growth. And you'll see a number of things coming from us in terms of product, certainly the 10G DOCSIS IV, but also the entertainment experience. And as we continue to work closely with Comcast and the Xfinity platform, they're our next generation of launches that you'll start to see, and we're quite confident about the prospects of that. Thank you. Yeah, thanks Aravinda.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: We focus on that.

Speaker Change: With with particular enthusiasm around managing our inventory levels, managing our delivery schedules.

Speaker Change: And the like that's ongoing.

Speaker Change: Happy with progress that we've made through the year.

Speaker Change: On the scale side of this that will be up year over year, just because of the Shaw acquisition.

Speaker Change: <unk>.

Speaker Change: I'm never satisfied with the with that level, that's always an ongoing priority file.

Speaker Change: Okay alright. Thanks.

Speaker Change: Thank you David Thank you David and thank you for joining us on our call and if Theres any follow up please feel free to reach out to the IR team. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker Change: This concludes today's conference call you may disconnect. Your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

Speaker Change: Yeah.

Speaker Change: [music].

Tony Staffieri: Aero, we'll do three more quick questions, please. Our next question comes from Bhatia Levy of UBS. Please go ahead. Great, thank you. There are just a couple of quick follow-ups. One on the wireless churn side. It'd be helpful to just get a sense of how churn looks for the Rogers brand only and how that compares to the year-ago period. And on the competitive intensity, you mentioned it was pretty heightened.

Speaker Change: Yeah.

Speaker Change: [music].

Bhatia Levy: Do we see a return to more normal levels in January, and how do you expect the recent price increases to impact churns? Thank you. I'll start with the second part of your question, in terms of what I would describe as competitive intensity in the fourth quarter certainly saw that's the traditional period, as we all know, for promotional activity, and what you typically see just because the market quiets down in January that you see some of that promotional activity dissipate, and that's what you've seen happening this January, as is typically the case.

Yes.

Speaker Change: [music].

Speaker Change: [music].

Speaker Change: Yes.

Speaker Change: Hum.

Tony Staffieri: Your second part of the question or first part of the question related to churn, and I would say we're really pleased with the churn dynamics we see on the Rogers brand, and Rogers churn would be substantially lower than Fido churn for a number of different reasons, but it really speaks to our focus on the lifetime value of that customer segment, one of which you see in the ARPU growth. Thank you. Thank you, Batia. Next question, Ariel? Our next question comes from Simon Flannery of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Great, thank you very much. Good morning.

Speaker Change: Yeah.

Speaker Change: Yes.

[music].

Speaker Change: Yeah.

Simon Flannery: You mentioned having two-thirds of the country covered by wireline. I think in the past, you've talked about an opportunity in enterprise with that added scale. If you've got any updates on that side, and then interested in your satellite direct-to-device opportunities, how do you see the business model for that? Is that going to be a sort of a charge per text or, you know, some monthly subscription?

Tony Staffieri: Any thoughts there about the financial opportunity that presents? Simon, on the satellite to mobile phone second part of your question, we're not prepared to talk about the pricing strategy yet on that, and so I would just park that. The first part of it is on enterprise synergy. So you should separate those two things in your mind.

Tony Staffieri: From a consumer standpoint, we cover two-thirds of homes passed in Canada with our cable footprint. But on the enterprise side, we have been investing in a national fiber network that connects where it needs to with our existing cable network. And so we are national in enterprise, and even more so with the conclusion of the Shaw transaction. And we're starting to see good, healthy growth rates in the double digits on our enterprise side that we're quite pleased with. So we're seeing those, what I would call revenue synergies, already starting to happen. I think maybe if I just add to that, the opportunity there is maybe on the cost synergy side. As Tony said, with the acquisition, we now have more fiber assets to bring in-house rather than through third parties where we've needed to supplement. And so that's part of the cost synergy opportunity that we can then lean into. It makes sense.

Simon Flannery: Thanks. Thank you, Simon. Ariel, time for one more question, please? Of course. Our final question comes from David McFadgen of Cormark. Please go ahead.

David McFadgen: Okay, great. Thanks for coming in. Just two quick questions.

Tony Staffieri: Tony, when you talked about your growth, you said Alberta and British Columbia were your fastest growing markets. Are you speaking primarily about the wireless business, or did that also extend to cable? And then secondly, just a quick question for Glenn, when I look at the work in capital, and 23 had an outflow of $627 million, obviously, a big number. I was wondering, can you recover some of that in 24?

David McFadgen: Or do you think that that was just needed now to sustain the business as it is? Thanks. David, real quick on Alberta and BC growth, we're seeing it in both, certainly in wireless, but we're also seeing a very healthy return to growth on the home product side that we're quite pleased with. And then, David, on your question on working capital, working capital is always a target for capital efficiency for us. I would point out that, year over year, we do have the impact of the Shaw acquisition rolling through in 23 that you would not have seen at the prior year end of 22, and so that's part of the increase.

Glenn Brandt: But we focus on that with particular enthusiasm around managing our inventory levels, managing our delivery schedules, and the like. That's ongoing. I'm happy with progress that we've made through the year on the scale side of this, that will be up year over year just because of the Shaw acquisition, but I'm never satisfied with that level; that's always an ongoing priority.

David McFadgen: Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you, David. Thank you, David. And if there's any follow-ups, please feel free to reach out to the IR team. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.