Consolidated Communications Holdings (CNSL) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Consolidated Communications Holdings (CNSL -0.23%)
Q2 2022 Earnings Call
Aug 04, 2022, 8:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. My name is Abby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Consolidated Communications second quarter earnings conference call.

[Operator instructions] And I will now turn the call over to Jennifer Spaude, senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. Jennifer, you may begin your conference.

Jennifer Spaude -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Good morning, and thank you for joining the Consolidated Communications second quarter 2022 earnings call. We announced a material event yesterday afternoon with the sale of our wireless investments, and therefore we're moving our earnings call up to speak to you all sooner. Our earnings release, financial statements, and presentation are all posted on the investor relations section of our website at consolidated.com. Please review the safe harbor provisions on Slide 2 of the presentation.

Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements about expected future events and financial results that involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed today. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in Consolidated's filing with the SEC. In addition, during this call, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are defined and reconciled in our earnings presentation and press release. With me today on the call are Bob Udell, our president and chief executive officer; and Steve Childers, our chief financial officer.

Following their prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for questions. I'd now like to turn the call over to Bob Udell.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Jennifer. And good morning, everyone. I'm excited to share second quarter results, which include a few very important milestones associated with our company's transformation to a fiber broadband company. First, in the second quarter, we delivered a record number of consumer fiber and turned net positive for broadband connections, offsetting DSL declines.

This is an important milestone. Our build machine continues to execute well and produce a record 142,000 additional fiber passings constructed in the recent quarter. In the first six months of the year, we built fiber to 226,000 locations, and we're on track to achieve roughly 1 million total fiber locations this year as we upgrade over 400,000 passings by the end of 2022. Each of these operating milestones reflect a key inflection point and positioned us for a return to revenue growth with our fiber build execution.

Additionally, we took an important step subsequent to the end of the quarter and announced the sale of our wireless partnership investments for 490 million. The proceeds of which will be invested in our fiber expansion and growth plan. This transaction enables Consolidated to further advance its transition to a fiber-first broadband company and is consistent with our strategic priorities focused on creating long-term value by simplifying our business and fully executing on our fiber expansion plan. Steve will provide some more details on the sale in his remarks.

In the recent quarter, we added 9,600 fiber Fidium subscribers, a three times increase from a year ago and 25% increase from our record first quarter. And we also achieved total consumer positive broadband ads for the year. Most importantly, this fiber customer gain outpaced DSL losses for the first time in seven years. The vast majority, 80% of our net adds, are new fiber subscribers, with over 65% of those subscribers choosing our 1-gig service.

For the full year 2022, we're on track to add three times the fiber net ads from 2021. Fidium is now available in 150 communities, and we launched 2-gig symmetrical speeds at the end of June. While it is still early, we are pleased with the customer interest and reaction of our 2-gig promotions. And importantly, Fidium 2-gig further solidifies our position as a technology leader in the markets we serve.

We continue to see significant growth in data consumption. Our fiber customers consume two to three times more data per month than DSL customers, and upstream bandwidth usage and demand is continuing to increase. An OpenVault study noted upstream bandwidth has tripled over the past three-year period. Fiber is clearly the superior product and critical to satisfying future market demand.

And our fiber product is designed to make broadband easy. This means simple plans, transparent pricing, and a digital customer experience, which makes it easy for customers to do business with us. Our symmetrical speeds, premium whole home mesh Wi-Fi, no data caps, and no-contract service is game-changing for the markets we serve. We offer convenient installation appointments and have a dedicated premium customer support channel.

All of this to create the best experience possible for our customers. We expect customer satisfaction closely, and Fidium has been very well-received as measured by out industry-leading net promoter score of over 50. This high score reflects all the elements we have been working so hard on to ensure Fidium delivers the best customer experience possible. Fidium fiber broadband is really a game-changer.

Turning to cohort penetrations, our cumulative 2021 new fiber build cohort continues to exceed our penetration target of 14% at the 12-month mark. In addition, our pre-built base cohort penetration has increased 80 basis points to 21% year over year. This increase in our pre-built fiber base reflects the positive receptivity for the experience in our communities. As a reminder, our cohort penetration target for year two is 24% and year three is 33%.

Terminal penetration will be closer to the 40% range over a five-year horizon where we have a duopoly parity. I thought it might be useful to give you some additional context on our fiber markets. We'll break it out into three tiers: 65% have a population of 10,000 or less; roughly 25% have a population between 10,000 and 50,000; and our largest markets are over 50,000 and make up 10%. As a reminder, 90% of our markets have just one cable competitor and no other fiber provider.

And by introducing fiber, we are providing an alternative, superior technology that didn't exist previously in these communities. That said, we're not seeing anything notably different from last quarter as far as the competitive environment. There's no new entrants or significant responses where we have upgraded to the Fidium fiber product. And we are building the best fiber network and have the best product with the best customer experience.

We continue to generate very strong pre-sign up activity where we are launching Fidium. We're using a targeted digital and local media strategy to introduce Fidium and provide easy options to pre-sign up via our self-service enhanced website. June was our best month for net adds since we started the build, and July looks to be well exceeding it. Turning to our fiber build plan, which is outlined on Slide 5, we are on track to upgrade over 400,000 locations this year.

By the end of 2022, we have roughly 1 million fiber passings. And we'll have 2 million fiber locations when we complete our planned Fidium fiber upgrade. Our fiber expansion plan represents a significant transformation and growth opportunities for our consumer, commercial, and carrier channels that provides us the opportunity to leverage these assets from multiple revenue streams. Our network architecture and core upgrades enabled 10-gig capabilities and will enable 100-gig services to the edge in the future, really future-proofing our product portfolio.

We see additional opportunity in 2023 for up to 100 million in broadband partnership and grant-funding projects across just a few of our states. We're actively pursuing all opportunities that align with our build plan and help offset rural, high-cost castings, allowing a return and consistent with our model. As demonstrated by our very successful track record in securing and executing public private partnerships, we are well-positioned to capitalize on incremental government programs. There continues to be strong demand for faster speeds and fiber services, which we believe is a superior product.

Our plan is clear and we are executing well on it. We have several meaningful fiber deployment advantages, including our incumbent position. We know these markets very well and have a fiber-rich carrier class network that we can cost effectively extend. We have existing conduit capacity for buried facilities and pole access where we have aerial fiber.

Approximately 80% of our fiber is aerial in northern New England and in close proximity to our existing fiber backbone facilities. And we have very experienced teams and access to contract workforce which allows us to flex, ensuring we complete our build on time. Turning to our commercial and career channels, we continue our long track record of growing data transport revenue across both channels in the second quarter. Our commercial go-to-market strategy leverages our extensive fiber network and our solutions-based skills approach, allowing us to become a trusted advisor to our customers while providing simple solutions to complex problems.

One success I'd like to highlight in the second quarter was with the Champagne, Illinois-based educational network. We designed and delivered a 10-gig switched Ethernet network across 23 locations. This is a great example of solving a customer's bandwidth pain point and delivering a diverse, scalable network solution. Carrier revenue benefit from timing related to contract negotiations, and a one-time fiber IRU sale booked in the second quarter.

As we previously discussed, the fiber-to-the-tower business is under some great rerate pressure. But as a result of these negotiations, we are seeing an opportunity to bid and win on new towers. New fiber passings within our unique routes provides opportunities for us to leverage the same fiber to grow commercial revenues. We increased our lit buildings to 10% in the second quarter and had 90% of our new sales activity on our network which correlates to higher margin, increased opportunity to upsell, and a greater flexibility to ensure the best customer experience.

Now, let me address something on everyone's mind, and that's economic conditions. We are beginning to see some slower decision-making on the part of enterprise customers. However, our sales funnel remains solid. It's just from close to signing is taking a little longer.

In addition, fuel and energy costs are increasing, and we're taking steps to mitigate these increases. We're fortunate that we built up our inventory and worked ahead on our fiber build, where possible, allowing us to accelerate some of this year's build while keeping our unit costs down and overall build cost lower than they otherwise might be. I will now turn the call over to Steve who will provide more insight on our second quarter financial results. Steve.

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Bob, and good morning to everyone. Today, I'll begin with an update on the sale of our interest in our Verizon Wireless and limited partnerships. Yesterday, after market closed, we announced to sell these investments to Verizon Wireless for gross proceeds of 490 million. As a reminder, consolidated net interest and five limited partnerships with Verizon with our ownership ranging from 2.3% to almost 24%.

Three of these partnerships are located in Pennsylvania. Two are in our Texas markets. We have no employees, operating expense, or capital supporting these assets, which generate approximately 39 million to 41 million in annual cash distributions. Related to the tax impact of the sale, we estimate the federal taxable gain is fully shielded by our NOL and we estimate potential incremental state income cash taxes of between 10 million and 15 million.

The closing time line on one of the partnerships is promptly following the agreement being signed and the remaining partnerships are expected to close by year-end 2022. Net proceeds, which we estimate to be approximately 470 million will be used and invested to investment in our fiber expansion and growth plan. Cash distributions from these investments are paid one quarter in arrears. We received 11.3 million in the second quarter and expect normal distributions in Q3.

We currently estimate that our Q4 distributions will be reduced by 3 million to 5 million based on the actual time to close each transaction. I'll now provide an overview of our second quarter results, and I'll update our 2022 full year guidance. Total operating revenue for the second quarter was 298.4 million and adjusted EBITDA was 107.5 million, representing a 36% adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter. As previously disclosed, effective January 1st of this year, the annual 48 million in capital funding we had received transitioned to 6 million under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

The subsidy reduction impacts revenue and EBITDA by approximately 10.5 million on a quarterly basis in 2022. Capex for the quarter was 179.1 million. I'll update our full year capex guidance in just a bit. But first, I want to call out a few things.

The second quarter is typically a peak construction period, and we took advantage of the favorable weather conditions to deliver a record quarter with more than 142,000 upgrades. This would be approximately 40,000 or 40% more than our original Q2 target, and our average cost to passing would account for roughly 24 million of Q2 capex. Additionally, we continue to do substantial pre-work on locations that will be completed and released to marketing in the last half of the year, with an added estimated cost of $40 million to our construction work in process. Our construction and engineering teams are actually working in about two quarters ahead.

This work-ahead focus is critical to making inventory available to sales on a ratable basis each month. Also, with consideration of supply chain challenges and the current inflationary economic environment, we continue to build inventory and selectively accelerate the bill. Now, I'll review revenue by customer channel. Turning to our consumer channel, total revenue was 118.6 million, down 5.1% compared to a year ago, normalizing for the impact of the sale of our Ohio assets, revenue declined 3.9% year over year.

Overall consumer broadband revenue in the second quarter was 67.6 million, up approximately 4.4%, got it right in the second, after normalizing for our high-end sale. Consumer fiber net ads were up three times from a year ago as our customer acquisition engine ramps. Consumer fiber revenue was 19.2 million, up 4.2 million or 28% year over year. And we have added almost 26,000 consumer fiber connections in the last 12 months.

So, in just six quarters of the build plan and for the first time in years, we have achieved total company consumer net positive broadband. Consumer fiber revenue was $64.95 in the second quarter, up sequentially by almost a dollar, driven by speed mix as customers are taking higher speeds and promotional pricing is rolling off after the first year of service. Consumer voice revenue was down 3.5 million or almost 9%, primarily due to the continued erosion of access lines and associated services. Video revenue declined 2.4 million or 14.5% year over year.

Our transition to over-the-top video services has enabled us to cap linear video deployments. Video programing costs are down 4.8 million, improving margins and free cash flow. Commercial revenue was 104.2 million, down 852,000 for the quarter. Data services revenue was 57.1 million in the second quarter, up 0.4% year over year, primarily driven by growth in dedicated internet services.

Business systems, equipment, and custom job installation revenue was up 2.3 million in Q2 compared to last year, building along what our sales teams realized throughout 2022. Offsetting this growth is continued voice erosion, which is occurring at a slightly higher rate in Q2. Access line erosion, combined with lower slick and long distance usage charges drove the decline. Consumer data and transport revenue was 36.3 million, up 2.3% or 6 -- 2.3 million or 6.8%.

Our carrier revenue included 3.1 million of one-time fiber IRU sale. Carrier revenue also benefited by the delayed impact of recognizing new pricing on fiber-to-the-tower contract renewals that had been expected to be a revenue reduction in the range of 10 million to 12 million for 2022 is now estimated to be in the range of 7 million to 9 million, primarily in the last six months of this year. Our carrier team is actively trying to minimize the impact in 2022, as well as for the run rate going into 2023. As Bob mentioned, as a result of the ongoing negotiations, we have the opportunity to add new towers and other business opportunities with the major carriers.

Network access revenues totaled 24.8 million, down 6.3 million year over year. Over 60% of the decline was driven by lower universal service fund revenue, with the balance primarily coming from special access. As a reminder, the [Inaudible] charge is a pass through, so it is EBITDA neutral. Operating expenses were 211.4 million, an improvement of 2.9 million, or 1.4% from a year ago.

The primary drivers were 4.8 million decline in video programing spend, a 3 million decline in the universal service fees, which was offset by 2.1 million in fuel and utilities and travel expenses combined with one-time expense-related to carrier IRU sale. Net interest expense was 13.2 million, a decrease of 15.3 compared to a year ago, primarily as a result of noncash interest of 10.9 million on the Searchlight note, which has now converted to perpetual preferred stock in late December. The remaining reduction in interest expense was primarily the result of the maturity of an interest swap agreement in July 2021. Given the current rate environment.

We want to remind you that approximately 77% of our debt is fixed. We have a 500 million interest rate hedge against our $1 million term loan -- or $1 billion term loan. And when combined with our 1.1 billion senior notes with fixed coupons, our overall cost of debt is 5.82%. Additionally, you can see our capital structure on Slide 9 -- or Slide 8, along with the pro forma view of our liquidity giving effect to the net proceeds of the sale of our limited partnership wireless interest.

Our net debt leverage was 4.46 times at June 30th. And on a pro forma basis, our liquidity improves from 293 million to over 850 million. Additionally, we have no debt maturities until 2027. The additional capital infusion puts us in a very strong position to support our fiber expansion plan.

As a reminder, we announce an agreement to sell our Kansas City assets in March, which we estimate to generate net proceeds of approximately $90 million and is expected to close by year-end following routine regulatory approvals is currently under review at the FCC Team Telecom. Additionally, we continue to review all markets and our portfolio for investment or monetization. We believe we have the ability to raise additional capital through potential asset divestitures. Our criteria criteria in this review include evaluating the fiber, build opportunities, market level competition, and potential valuations.

Today, we are updating our 2022 guidance. Our outlook is outlined on Slide 9. First, adjusted EBITDA for the year is now expected to be in the range of 400 million to 410 million. Our updated outlook for adjusted EBITDA reflects primarily the following three factors.

First, our Q4 cash distributions will be impacted due to the sale of Verizon Wireless investments. We currently estimate the wireless cash distributions could be $3 million to $5 million less in the fourth quarter based on the time to close each transaction. We are seeing inflationary pressures on primarily utility and fuel costs and expect our operating expenses to increase between $4 million and $5 million in the last half of the year. We are taking all steps necessary to minimize the impact of these increased cost.

Third, additionally, we are experiencing slightly higher erosion of our voice access revenues. We expect this to impact earnings by approximately $3 million to $5 million. Capital expenditures are now expected to be in the range of 565 million to 585 million. The higher capex level primarily reflects additional investment of reconstruction work and securing inventory for fiber upgrades to be released in 2023 and also for some inflationary cost pressures.

There is no change to our planned upgrade over 400,000 locations this year. And we are on track to achieve this target. Cash interest expense is now expected to be in the range 125 million to 129 million. And cash income taxes are now expected to be in the range of 12 million to 17 million.

The adjustment considers potential 10 million to 15 million state income taxes associated with the wireless investments. And we still do not expect to be a full cash taxpayer until 2026. With that, I'll now turn it back over to Bob.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Steve. We're executing well on our consumer fiber expansion plan, having achieved record fiber subscribers and net positive total broadband connections this quarter. Quite frankly, the first time in over seven years. We've continued our long track record of growing commercial and carrier data transport revenue.

We're enhancing the customer experience across all channels, as shown by our industry leading NPS scores. And we're disciplined and focused on ensuring we have a capital structure to support our growth plan. We significantly improved our liquidity and added flexibility with over 600 million aggregate divestitures of noncore assets announced in the past year. As we look to the future, we are focused on growth and creating long-term value for our shareholders.

Operator, we will now take questions at this time.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

[Operator instructions] And we will take our first question from Greg Williams with Cowan. Your line is open.

Greg Williams -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Just one on the fiber builds, you mentioned and you reiterated the 400,000 build for the year. I'm just curious, does this Verizon sale maybe help accelerate that? You know, other carriers have noted when they've got more capital, they've accelerated their build.

I'm just wondering if that's the case. And you mentioned your second quarter build was better than expected. My second question is just on further divestitures. It sounds like you're still looking.

I figured you maybe would have taken a breather after Kansas City, Ohio, and now Verizon. So, you are still exploring other asset sales. And what does that environment look like given rising rates? Thanks.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thanks, Greg. I'll take the the build question first and then get to the focus on divestitures. You know, we're looking always at the flexibility as we execute on our fiber expansion plan, which is absolutely key to our growth. Right now, our plan is to build the 400 for this year, solidify it -- we, you know, continue to solidify our our view of where we go first to accomplish the full 1.6 million buildout.

And so, what what I think this does is, you know certainly ensures that build out plan. And we'll remain opportunistic as we pursue public private partnership or the, you know, the infrastructure funds being made available from a federal government perspective and allocated by the NTAA. That's a key focus on ours. So, we're going to remain flexible.

And for now, we're committed to the 1.6 million, looking opportunistically at ways to grow it. Regarding the divestitures, you know, it's all about focus. This is a total transformation of our business. And so as we've said, you know, we're doing exactly what we said we were going to do.

We're going to continue to evaluate our portfolio and opportunistically sell or divest of assets that allow us to, you know, advance a deeper penetration of our fiber build and to expand our fiber footprint. So, that's our focus. And the 70%, you know, coverage, I think, we'll exceed as we continue to to focus our capital structure and our execution on the fiber transition.

Greg Williams -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst

Great. Thanks.

Operator

And we will take our next question from Michael Rollins with Citi. Your line is open.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Mike.

Unknown speaker

Oh, thanks. This is Anthony on for Mike. Thanks for your questions. Just following up, as you consider future asset monetizations that impacts EBITDA, do you have a leverage-neutral target in mind on a pro forma basis? And then also, on the macro, you talked about, you know, elongated decision-making for enterprises.

On the consumer side, are you seeing any impacts on, you know, collections activity with inflationary pressures in consumer wallets? Thank you.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

You take the first part.

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Hey, Anthony. This is Steve. Good morning.

Thanks for the question. Yeah, with respect to the leverage-neutral target, as we look at the divestitures, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, I mean, we're really evaluating. Number one, we're in 22 states today, where we've identified seven to eight that are key fiber investment markets today. We have good properties across the footprint.

All of them are producing cash, not a distraction to management. And we're just looking at taking the opportunity like where are we going to build next. And if we're not going to build, is our monetization opportunity to fund maybe an accelerated build? So, when we look at those, we evaluate based on, you know, number one is are we going to build, what's the competitive dynamic, what's the cash flow characteristic of that individual sub competitive environment, etc., etc., where we can't -- but most importantly, if we're considering monetizing, it really is about valuation and about the impact to leverage. I mean, with, obviously, this Verizon transaction really helps us out from a cash and leverage perspective.

I would say our, you know, our long-term targets are still to every dollar that we're raising from these, you know, from Verizon. And these are incremental asset sales. Every dollar is going to be invested back into the fiber business. But over time, as we really execute on the fiber build plan, we would ultimately expect to be -- even as a growth company, be kind of in the three range over time.

Operator

[Operator instructions] And we will take our next question from Ana Goshko with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Ana Goshko -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks very much. So, a few questions. So, first on the 9,600 fiber net adds in the quarter, I know you mentioned that, you know, 80% of those are new to the company.

Could you provide more color on where those are coming from? And then to -- I think we've heard quite a bit from some of the other players in your pace about the impact of, I guess, a gridlock within the housing market, you know, limiting moves and, you know, therefore, limiting the ability to capture new subs. You know, would like an update on what you think the housing market is like in your markets and if that's a headwind to subscriber adds.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thanks, Ana. Let me start with the the housing market first and then get back to your first question with regards to what we see in our markets. You know, as I describe the size of the markets, they're primarily suburban and rural markets.

And it seems to have been post-COVID and during COVID an attractive environment for people to migrate to. And so, you know, while the move activity has subsided some, and new move-ins certainly help. You catch customers making a change. We've really got a compelling product that we're bringing to communities that haven't had, you know, a 1-gig symmetrical, even a 1-gig, but in many cases, a symmetrical when you consider the size of these markets and the level of competition based on the facilities infrastructure of our competitor.

And remember, you know, it's 90% of duopoly environment. And some of our environments don't have any cable overlap at all, and very few have a third provider. And so, you know, I think we're in excellent position to remain somewhat insulated from, you know, I wouldn't call it a gridlock, but the slowdown that we've seen in housing sales and moves. And, you know, as it relates to recession, you know, we we joke privately among the, you know, the peer group for years that we've seen recessions actually on a comparable basis treat our industry pretty well.

So, that's probably enough on the housing. With regards to the 9,600 fiber net adds, you know, the new subs are coming from just, you know, consistent with what I just mentioned. This is an attractive product and and it's, you know, changing the way people work and live in these small communities and raising the economic prospects of them. And so, it's really something that I think sells itself.

And, you know, our focus on digital advertising and digital acquisition, I think, is helping us get to people and expand the service to those markets. And, you know, that's why we see 80% new subs.

Ana Goshko -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

OK. I think the main question is, is where you do compete with cable, you feel that you're crafting or winning any share from cable, or is it really sort of greenfield outside of that?

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

No, I think it's -- you know, I think it's us winning customers from whoever the competitor is in our market, largely. you know, different cable TV service providers.

Ana Goshko -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

OK, great. And then I apologize if I missed this, but I know in the past, you have cited an average cost per fiber passing, which I think has really been kind of an industry low in the past 550 to 600. Also, the average cost to connect at 700. Wondering how that's potentially changing, one, with regard to any inflationary impact.

Two, as you move further along in your build plan, are there just sort of longer passings then kind of a more difficult passing steps that are more costly to achieve?

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Hey, Ana. This is Steve. I will start, and I'm sure Bob will want to jump in here. But I think you're absolutely right.

The way we have talked about cost to pass in the past is like, you know, basically 550 to 600 on an aggregate basis average and across our entire footprint. As Bob mentioned in the FTTP or FTT pieces earlier, we have a significant cost advantage in northern New England based on the amount of aerial fiber that we have. So I think we've been averaging, you know, probably the upper end of the 600 as we've done more work in our legacy markets and are, you know, doing more buried or underground-type construction in those markets. And I think with the, you know, the inflationary question is, you know, we did increase our guidance modestly for what we think inflation will be for the last half of the year.

So, I would say, you know, there could be a potential, you know, we should say 5% to 8% increase in average cost to pass here for the duration. But I think over time, you know, the future cost of bill is really going to be dependent upon the market. How we fine-tune the build plan, the markets we're going, the cost, you know, the balance between areal and underground, the length of the drops, etc., etc. So I think we're -- I think we still have really unique assets that we, you know, I think will still be well under the peer group averages for the cost to pass.

But, you know, over time, it could go up based on where we're building. Bob, do you want to add anything on?

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think, you know, if you look, you know, opportunistically, we're building ahead and that's working to our advantage as we see headwinds from an inflationary perspective. I can't tell you that that was, you know, totally planned. You know, it started with the opportunistic -- it started with getting in front of the supply chain, but it's resulting in our ability on a unit cost basis to keep, you know, these costs of homes passed or new addresses well comparatively with those inflation headwinds. So, I think we're in a good spot.

Ana Goshko -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

OK. Thanks. And if I may just sneak in, are there any updated targets that you have on when you believe you can stabilize either revenue or EBITDA, you know, on a, let's say, sequential basis and, you know, which we expect to come first?

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Well, this is -- so, I guess, the way I would look at it, if you talk about -- if you look at the moving parts on our strategic growth revenues being fiber consumer broadband, you know, that is starting to outpace or it is outpacing the drag on DSL erosion, you know, we're really focused on driving strategic revenues and data on transport for commercial and carrier, but we are working through the carrier reset tower repricing that I mentioned.So, I think you'll start seeing sequential revenue growth. You know, I think revenue and EBITDA growth probably in early 2023. Again, we need to, you know, continue to work hard on mitigating the voice erosions, but really, you know, continue to invest as we are in the fiber to the prem and supporting the commercial and carrier opportunities where we can.

Ana Goshko -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

OK. Well, that's great. Thanks very much.

Operator

[Operator instructions] And we will take our next question from Joe Choi with FPA. Your line is open.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

Hey, congrats on the consumer broadband milestone there. Question for you on the wireless partnership sales and this questions coming from the dead side of the world. So, the proceeds will be used -- will be invested into the fiber expansion. Can you confirm whether or not that that reinvestment -- that investment will be occurring within the collateral package that's supporting the credit facility and the secured notes?

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I mean all the assets supporting the fiber build program are unrestricted subs where the operating assets are at. So, yes, every dollar, the upcoming capital raise from Verizon will go through to the benefit -- eventually go through the benefit for the restricted group and the underlying collateral package for that. But just to be clear, if you look at -- just make sure we're not talking past each other, I would refer you to the July 1st 8-K that we put out.

We've identified the Ukraine unrestricted sub, the transfer, the wireless partnership assets there. But all the cash is going to come back to -- over time come back to the restricted group for the benefit of the operating properties.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

Right. Right. I did read that release. And so, you created an unrestricted sub.

You pulled --you put the wireless partnership assets in there, you know, effectively out of the collateral package, then you sold it.

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Correct.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

And that cash, that cash, you're going to use that cash to invest into the fiber network. And that reinvestment, I guess, my -- just to be clear, the question was that money, that cash that's being invested in the fiber network, that's occurring within like existing subsidiaries that are guaranteeing and securing your -- the debt facilities. Is that --

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. That's correct.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

Am I understanding that correctly? OK.

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

That's correct.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

OK. So, it was removed from the collateral, and it's effectively going back in.

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Probably not at one time, but, yeah.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

Right. OK. OK. And was there -- so the unrestricted subsidiary designation, was there -- because from what I understand, there was an ability to do this through vis-a-vis the asset sales provision.

Is there a specific rationale behind going with the unrestricted subsidiary designation instead?

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

This is Bob. It was primarily to have maximum flexibility to get the best outcome for raising the capital. And so, you know, we thought the time was right, and we didn't know what vehicle we might use. And so, the board consider many options, and it was just a step to maximize our flexibility.

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

Got you. OK. All right. Well, thank you for taking the questions.

And again, congrats on the on a milestone year. Thank you.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

[Operator instructions] And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Bob Udell for any additional or closing remarks.

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. And thank you all for joining us today. We think this is a special time to be in this industry and very powerful opportunity to be implementing this fiber transformation plan at Consolidated. And we appreciate your support and your interest, and look forward to updating you on our next call.

Have a great day.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 0 minutes

Call participants:

Jennifer Spaude -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Bob Udell -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Steve Childers -- Chief Financial Officer

Greg Williams -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst

Unknown speaker

Ana Goshko -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Joe Choi -- First Pacific Advisers -- Analyst

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