T-Mobile US Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Maybe first on the -- Mike, on the guidance, the 5% service revenue growth. And Peter, I think you sort of teased it out a little bit, but are you assuming faster postpaid service growth or sort of less of a slowdown on the wholesale side? Because wholesale obviously sequentially, which surprised us this quarter. But maybe a little color on what's going on in terms of the piece parts there. And then on the postpaid sub guide, the -- I'd say the guidance sort of goes against the narrative that we're seeing slowing growth in subscribers. Can you talk about your confidence against that dynamic to put up these type of numbers? And is it driven more by sort of changes in gross adds or potentially better churn as we look out into '25?

Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : You kind of just touched on it, but I wanted to ask you a bit more about sort of the mix between kind of ARPU growth and account growth. You called out in the deck this morning sort of fewer stand-alone; I think fixed wireless net adds and maybe more selling into the base, a more bundled customer growth, which is driving such strong ARPU growth. Is that a function of sort of your sales and marketing strategy or just sort of how the markets kind of evolving at this point in fixed wireless? And then I'm just wondering if -- I know it's not a huge check for T-Mobile, but I hope the Vistar acquisition was an interesting one. And you talked about key ads back at your Capital Markets Day. Why is this business interesting? What does it tell us about your ambition's kind of in advertising

Question: James Schneider - Goldman Sachs & Company, Inc. - Analyst : As you open the aperture of your broadband business to include fiber this year and going forward, how are you thinking about the overall broadband environment we're set into this year from a net add perspective. And also sort of your ability to kind of either take price on your high-speed wireless product or to potentially segment the market with different price tiers across fiber and high-speed Internet, especially relative to cable competitors. And then maybe secondly, on the capital allocation front, how are you thinking about the potential pace of buybacks you're going to execute in 2025? In light of some of the cash needs you have to close the acquisitions you mentioned in the first half, are you going to keep that sort of ratable or be potentially a little bit more opportunistic throughout the year?

Question: Peter Supino - Wolfe Research - Analyst : A question on your wholesale philosophy. I wondered, as you look at wholesale opportunities over the next couple of years, MVNO opportunities, what's the philosophy you bring to the opportunity to bid for and you're thinking about how to price those bids as new opportunities come up. And then in fixed wireless, I wondered if you could talk about your strategy in cells that have become more highly utilized and where you continue to see high fixed wireless consumer demand.

Question: David Barden - BofA Global Research - Analyst : I can't believe it got to me before we had to mention that the Satellite Live ad was kind of incredible. So, I thought that was a win. So, I guess, one question for Peter. Peter, this is an amazing guide. Thank you for all the updated information, but there's a lot that's happening, right, the Vistar, the Lumos, the Metronet, the US Cellular deal. Can you kind of just sum it up and say, obviously, it's revenue positive, but is -- what is it going to do to EBITDA in aggregate maybe either through the year or on a run rate basis and to free cash flow in terms of the investments that need to be made in these fiber projects so that we can kind of get a more holistic picture. And then, Mike, if I could, obviously, the subscriber growth guidance, very strong, strongest ever at the beginning of the year. Obviously, there's still a lot of questions about T-Mobile's exposure to the immigration question. And what does your exposure to the prepaid market, the wholesale market even your retail base, how do we think about and get comfortable with that piece of it? That would be helpful.

Question: Craig Moffett - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : So AT&T has talked a lot about the attach rate of wireless in its fiber footprint with the latest disclosure showing 40% attach rate for wireless. I wonder if you could just talk a bit about what kind of dynamics you see in converged footprints for your competitors? And whether the very high attach rates that at least AT&T is presenting and Verizon talks about, whether that influences your view of how much of a converged footprint you actually need as you think about are MetroNet and Lumos enough? Or do you need something bigger? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Michael Rollins - CITI - Analyst : Mike, given some of your introductory comments, can you give us a teaser on some of the other strategic questions that you'd like to see T-Mobile answer over the next 12 months? And then second, just back on the topic of SWA, can you share with us how much of the SWA success is coming from the business or SMB segment an incremental opportunity from what you're experiencing today?

Question: Michael Rollins - CITI - Analyst : Yes.

Question: Jonathan Chaplin - New Street Research LLP - Analyst : Mike, I'm wondering if we could tap into two of those Horizon 3 opportunities in a little bit more detail. First, given the focus that you faced on AI at the Capital Markets Day. I'd love to get a sense for the impact that you're seeing on network basic from AI at the moment, how you think that evolves? And what that does for sort of future spectrum demand for you and the industry? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Jonathan Chaplin - New Street Research LLP - Analyst : I've got more (technical difficulty).

Question: Jonathan Chaplin - New Street Research LLP - Analyst : Are you seeing an acceleration in traffic?

Question: Kannan Venkateshwar - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : (technical difficulty) with the (technical difficulty) Obviously, the numbers are pretty strong. But I just wanted to understand (technical difficulty) during maybe it may have been a headwind for a pace. And then more broadly, as we think about this partnership opportunity with given that they're also launching bigger satellites with more capacity and so on, potentially. Is there an opportunity here to expand the project on the direct to device market, especially in rural areas, you have your fixed wireless offering -- but is there a bundling opportunity potentially (technical difficulty)