TDS 2026年第3四半期決算説明会：光ファイバー網構築が過去最高、通信事業ガイダンスを下方修正

TDSの2026年第3四半期決算は、光回線の敷設工事および顧客純増数が過去最高を記録したものの、レガシー事業の減収と営業費用の増加が引き続きTDSテレコムの収益性を圧迫しました。同社は2026年通期のテレコム事業の売上高および調整後EBITDAガイダンスを引き下げる一方、設備投資ガイダンスを約7億5,000万ドルに引き上げました。

主なポイント

• TDSテレコムは販売可能な光回線サービス対象アドレスを約7万6,000件追加しました。前年同期比82%増となり、第3四半期としては同社史上最高の実績を記録しました。
• 住宅向け光回線の純増数は過去最高の1万7,000件に達し、前年同期比で約50%増加しました。光回線の売上高は14%増（1,200万ドル増）となりました。
• TDSテレコムは2026年通期の売上高ガイダンスを9億9,000万〜10億1,000万ドルに、調整後EBITDAガイダンスを2億9,000万〜3億1,000万ドルにそれぞれ下方修正しました。
• テレコム事業の設備投資ガイダンスは、従来の予想中央値から1億ドル引き上げられて約7億5,000万ドルとなりました。これは一部、2027年の工事に向けた投資の前倒しを反映したものです。
• アレイ・デジタル・インフラストラクチャーは、売上高2億500万〜2億1,500万ドル、調整後EBITDA 2億2,000万〜2億3,500万ドルを含む2026年の業績見通しを据え置きました。
• TDSは従来の5億2,000万ドルの自社株買い枠を実質的に使い切りました。同社取締役会は新たに期限を設けない2億5,000万ドルの自社株買い枠を承認しました。

主要財務データ

事業動向および営業実績

TDSテレコムの四半期末時点のサービス対象アドレス数は200万件を超え、そのうち63%が光回線対応となりました。同軸ケーブルを含めると、サービス展開地域の82%でギガビットの通信速度へのアクセスが可能となっています。同社が保有する光回線サービス対象アドレスは現在、120万件を超えています。

当四半期の光回線敷設実績は約7万6,000件に達し、2026年最初の9か月間では約18万1,000件となりました。TDSテレコムは、通期で25万〜30万件の新規光回線サービス対象アドレスの提供を見込んでいます。

顧客転換も改善しました。住宅向け光回線の純増数は約1万7,000件に達し、光回線の解約率は前年同期比で20ベーシスポイント改善しました。経営陣によると、新規展開市場での普及率はサービス開始12か月時点で平均約25%となっており、長期目標の40%に向けて推移しています。A-CAM市場における目標普及率は65%〜75%で据え置かれています。

TDSテレコムは、さらに3万件の同軸ケーブル対象アドレスを光回線へと転換する作業に着手しました。また、戸別訪問営業の体制拡充、集合住宅（MDU）のカバレッジ拡大、および低コストなオンラインチャネルを通じた顧客獲得の拡大を進めています。

アレイの現金ベースのサイト賃貸収入は、DISHの影響を調整し、Tモバイル向けの暫定サイト収入を除外した場合、前年同期比で20%増加しました。さらにTモバイルのマスターリース契約の影響も除外すると、現金ベースのサイト賃貸収入は7%の増加となりました。

アレイは、Tモバイルのネットワーク統合に伴いテナントが不在となる可能性のあるタワーの想定数を1,200〜1,600基に精緻化しました。同社は借地コストの削減、借地権買い取りの加速、将来的な撤去・閉鎖候補となる不採算サイトの特定を進めています。

アレイはまた、一部の600MHz帯および700MHz帯の周波数ライセンスの売却について規制当局の承認を取得しました。米連邦通信委員会（FCC）の最終決定および慣例的な取引完了条件を満たすことを前提に、経営陣は年内に取引が完了すると見込んでいます。同社は、主にCバンド資産を中心とする残りの保有周波数の現金化を引き続き推進しています。

経営陣のガイダンス

経営陣は、2026年下半期には光回線の増収がレガシー事業の減収を相殺すると見込んでいたものの、同社は依然としてその転換点の達成に向けて取り組んでいる途上にあると述べました。売上高予想の引き下げやカスタマーサポート費用の増加が、調整後EBITDA見通しの下方修正の要因となりました。

テレコム事業の設備投資ガイダンス引き上げ分の半数近くは、将来期間からの投資の前倒しによるものであり、2027年のアドレス提供を支援する見込みです。残りの大半は、A-CAM関連の工事費増加や、新規展開市場においてよりコストの高い地中埋設工事へのシフトが進んだことを反映しています。

TDSテレコムは、2028年末までに年換算で1億ドルの事業変革効果を達成することを引き続き目指しています。経営陣は、光回線売上高の拡大加速とコスト削減の取り組みが、将来的なEBITDAの回復を支えると見込んでいます。

リスク要因と重点領域

• 銅線およびケーブル事業の減収は、引き続きTDSテレコム全体の売上高と収益性の足かせとなっています。
• 現金支出費用は、新規展開市場のサポート費用、燃料費や人件費のインフレ、ならびに主に人員削減に関連する戦略的選択肢の検討費用420万ドルにより増加しました。
• 許認可取得の遅延、地中埋設工事比率の上昇、および光回線の総延長の拡大により、所要資本が増加しています。
• アレイは、ネットワーク統合に関連するサイトの契約終了に伴い、Tモバイル向けの暫定サイト収入が減少すると見込んでいます。
• 短期的にはアレイのタワーのかなりの数がテナント不在のままとなる可能性があり、借地コストの削減や不採算サイトの閉鎖を迫られる要因となっています。
• TDSは、企業価値評価および対価の形態について両社間で合意に至らなかったため、全株式取得によるアレイの少数株主持ち分買収の提案を取り下げました。

アナリスト質疑応答の主な内容

経営陣は、銅線市場での光回線敷設加速と過去最高の施工能力に支えられ、TDSテレコムの売上高の転換点は数年先ではなく「間近に迫っている」と述べました。EBITDAの回復は、売上高の改善と同社の変革によるコスト削減効果の達成の双方に左右される見通しです。

競争環境について、経営陣はTDSが光回線を敷設した地域において、衛星ブロードバンドが重大な影響を及ぼしてはいないと述べました。同社は、世帯あたりのデータ通信量増加やマルチギガビット対応能力が、時間とともに光回線需要やユーザーあたり売上高を下支えすると見込んでいます。

アレイは、過去に保有していた約330カ所のDISH向けサイトからの支払いがすでに停止していると説明しました。経営陣は、地上無線ネットワークへの新規参入者の登場はタワー賃貸需要にとって潜在的な追い風になるとの見方を示す一方、端末直接通信型の衛星サービスについては地上モバイルネットワークを補完するものと位置づけています。

Cバンド周波数帯について、アレイは幅広い潜在的買い手にとって依然として魅力的な資産であると見ていると述べたものの、現金化の時期や枠組みについての新たな情報提供はありませんでした。

決算説明会トランスクリプト全文

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. And welcome to the TDS and Array Third Quarter 2026 Operating Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to John Toomey. Treasurer, Vice President and Head of Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

John Toomey

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. The presentation we prepared to accompany our comments this morning can be found on the Investor Relations sections of the TDS and Array websites. With me today and offering prepared comments are: on behalf of TDS, Walter Carlson, President and CEO; Vicki Villacrez, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On behalf of TDS Telecom, Ken Dixon, President and CEO of TDS Telecom; Kris Bothfeld, Vice President of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning of TDS. On behalf of Array Digital Infrastructure, Anthony Carlson, President and CEO of Array.

This call is being simultaneously webcast on the TDS and Array Investor Relations website. Please see the websites for the slides referenced on this call, including non-GAAP reconciliations. TDS and Array filed their SEC Forms 8-K, including the press releases earlier this morning.

As shown on Slide 2, the information set forth in the presentation and discussed during this call contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Please review the safe harbor paragraphs in our press releases and the full description of risk factors included in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to TDS President and CEO, Walter Carlson. Walter?

Walter C.D. Carlson

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. TDS made progress during the third quarter on our mission to transform the organization. Over the past several years, we have taken many strategic actions that position us well both for today and the future. Those include exiting the wireless business, monetizing spectrum at attractive values, retaining tower assets that can benefit from future demand, investing in fiber without the burden of high leverage in a period of rising interest rates, and repurchasing shares at prices we believe are attractive.

Today, I am pleased to share TDS and arrayed Digital Infrastructure's third quarter results, which reflect the progress we are making. TDS Telecom delivered record construction activity and strong fiber customer growth but has more work to do to offset pressures on profitability.

Array delivered strong revenue growth as it continues to optimize the portfolio. Across both businesses, we remain confident in our strategy and the investments we are making to create long-term value. Turning to Slide 3 and our 2026 enterprise priorities. Our objectives remain clear: grow and strengthen our fiber business, maximize the value of our tower portfolio. maintain disciplined capital allocation and continue transforming our business for the future.

As Ken Dixon and Chris Barfield will explain TDS Telecom continues to expand its fiber footprint while increasing its focus on converting those addresses to customers. As Anthony Carlson will describe Array is advancing its strategic priorities through increased tower colocations and continued efforts to monetize its C-band spectrum.

I do want to briefly comment on TDS' withdrawal of the previously announced offer to acquire the minority interest of Array in an all-stock transaction. As we noted in our September 1 press release, we continue to believe there could be strategic benefits to such a combination.

However, after extensive review on both sides, the 2 parties were unable to reach agreement on value and form of consideration. With that process behind us, TDS continues to be laser-focused on supporting both array and TDS Telecom as they advance their respective strategic objectives and build shareholder value.

I continue to be encouraged by the progress being made in both business units and by the work underway to strengthen our culture during this period of transformation. I would like to personally thank every associate across the enterprise for their continued commitment and contributions. I will now turn the call over to Vicki.

Vicki Villacrez

Thank you, Walter, and good morning, everyone. As Walter highlighted, our enterprise priorities are centered on creating long-term value, and our capital allocation is aligned to support them. First is fiber. TDS Telecom continues to advance its long-term goal of reaching 2.1 million marketable fiber service addresses, adding approximately 76,000 in the third quarter. .

TDS Telecom now has a footprint of over 2 million addresses, an increase of 8% over the prior year and 63% of those addresses are served with fiber today. Delivering on this level of continued expansion requires intentional oversubscription, which drives pull-forward capital but is necessary to fill our pipeline to mitigate for temporary construction delays such as permitting or other factors.

As we've noted previously, being first to market with fiber is a critical part of our investment thesis. It supports expected returns in the low to mid-teens and our fiber investments. We continue to see attractive opportunities to be first to fiber, and our strong capital position provides us the flexibility to pursue these investments.

We remain confident in our long-term growth and value they can create. Second, I am pleased to share that following the termination of TDS' offer to acquire Array we were in the market and have now virtually exhausted all of our prior share repurchase authorization or $520 million.

Given recent share prices and our view of the company's intrinsic value, we view this investment as an excellent use of available capital. Further, in an effort to afford us future flexibility the TDS Board has approved an additional $250 million share repurchase authorization. This is an open authorization that is not time bound and allows us to remain opportunistic as market and business conditions evolve.

Finally, in the quarter, we completed the acquisition of Granite State Communications a tuck-in market in New Hampshire that brings nearly 13,000 fully fibered service addresses to the portfolio, strengthening our Northeast fiber cluster. Thank you. And now I will turn the call over to Ken Dickson to discuss TDS fiber business.

Kenneth Dixon

Thank you, Vicki, and good morning, everyone. At TDS Telecom, we are transforming our business to be fiber-centric. Slide 6 shows our progress at the end of the third quarter. We now have over 2 million service addresses and 63% of those are served by fiber. Another 19% are served by coax, meaning that 82% of our addresses can get gig speeds today. Our incumbent markets are now 56% fiber. And with the support of ACAM and our fiber deeper investments, we continue to drive copper out of our network. .

As shown on Slide 7, we delivered approximately 76,000 marketable fiber service addresses in the third quarter bringing us to approximately [ 181,000 ] for the first 9 months of the year. This represents the best third quarter fiber address delivery in company history and demonstrates our continued momentum.

Being first to fiber and seizing the current opportunity are critical which is why our fiber build plan is supported by historic levels of construction crews and our ACAM activity reached its highest level since the program began. In the third quarter, we delivered 27,000 new ILEC fiber addresses and expect that number to increase in the fourth quarter. That momentum is driving our CapEx guidance for the year.

Looking ahead, we plan to deliver another 25% of our ACM addresses next year with less construction competition in rural areas today, we are seizing the opportunity to retain crews and accelerate our investments. As a result, we have a large pipeline of addresses in various stages of construction and investment across many markets. This pipeline positions us well to meet our goals, both this year and long term.

In summary, our build teams are delivering at a record pace, giving us confidence in the construction plan and the opportunity ahead. Turning to sales. We ended the third quarter with approximately 17,000 fiber net adds, our highest quarterly result in company history, up approximately 50% year-over-year.

We also saw improvement in our fiber churn when compared to last year's third quarter, which is typically the industry's highest quarter for churn. We are seeing the benefits of our new sales leadership and expanded capabilities. We have additional door-to-door vendors to attack the record open-for-sale opportunities to complement our existing teams.

We have also increased capacity in our multi-dwelling space to accelerate sales for those units. In terms of customer acquisition, we have shifted a significant portion of volume toward the dot-com channel, which is our lowest cost of acquisition.

We are excited by the sales opportunities we see as we close out 2026 and move into 2027. In our cable markets, subscriber trends continue to stabilize during the third quarter. As you know, 22% of our cable addresses today are served with fiber.

As we continue to become a more fiber-centric company, I'm pleased to share that we are beginning activities to convert another 30,000 coax addresses to fiber. Our operational transformation is centered on efficiency, improving the customer experience and simplification.

As I've noted before, we continue to make progress modernizing our systems and remain on track with our transformation road map, making it easier for customers to do business with us. Turning to Slide 8. Our long-term goals reflect the scale and long-term value we expect to create through our fiber growth strategy.

We believe fiber is the superior broadband technology, not only for today, but well into the future. With the delivery of approximately 76,000 fiber addresses in the quarter, we now serve over 1.2 million fiber service addresses, representing 63% of our total footprint and with 82% of addresses capable of gig speeds.

We are building at a record pace, improving our execution and steadily shifting the business toward fiber. We know there is more work ahead but the progress we're making reinforces our confidence in our strategy and long-term value of the fiber-centric business we are creating.

Before I turn it over to Chris, I want to comment briefly on our third quarter financial results. We are very bullish on our fiber growth future, but continue to see pressure on our legacy business. This is a driver for our updated guidance. which Chris will cover in more detail. Thank you. And I will now turn the call over to Chris.

Kristina Bothfeld

Thanks, Ken. Turning to Slide 9. The chart on the left shows our quarterly fiber service address delivery over the past 7 quarters and reflects the build momentum we are experiencing. As Ken highlighted, we had company record address delivery in the third quarter, representing an 82% increase year-over-year, and the momentum continues as we head into the fourth quarter.

For the full year, we remain on track to deliver between 250,000 and 300,000 new fiber service addresses. The chart on the right illustrates the continued expansion of our fiber footprint. Over the past 3 years, we have increased the number of fiber service addresses across our markets by approximately 77%, demonstrating steady and meaningful progress toward our long-term fiber goals.

On Slide 10, residential fiber net adds were approximately 17,000 in the third quarter, a 50% increase compared to prior year, driven by continued footprint expansion and ongoing copper to fiber conversions. Residential fiber connections have grown 81% over the past 3 years, outpacing our fiber footprint growth. We expect continued fiber connection growth as we expand our footprint.

Turning to Slide 11. The chart on the left depicts our residential revenue per connection, which increased 2% year-over-year. This growth reflects annual price increases, partially offset by promotional activity. The chart on the right highlights total residential revenue between copper, cable and fiber. You'll see that fiber revenue is up 14% or $12 million versus prior year which largely offsets the legacy revenue stream pressures we are experiencing.

In cable, revenues are down 7% versus the third quarter of 2025, reflecting continued market pressures partially offset by a onetime benefit in the quarter. Adjusting for this benefit, cable revenues would have been down 10%. As Ken highlighted, we are increasing investment in sales capacity in our cable markets and are starting to see progress.

Overall, total residential revenue declined $3 million compared to prior year. Excluding the impact of divestitures, residential revenues were relatively flat. As Ken noted, we are deploying fiber across our footprint at a record pace to help mitigate legacy headwinds. Slide 12 summarizes our financial performance. Total operating revenues declined 3% in the quarter or 1% excluding the impact of divestitures.

The remaining decline reflects continued legacy revenue stream pressures, partially offset by fiber revenue growth. Cash expenses increased 4% as cost to support our growing expansion markets, along with inflationary cost increases, including fuel and people-related costs, were not fully offset by our transformation and ongoing cost containment initiatives.

Also note that the third quarter cash expenses include $4.2 million of strategic alternatives costs primarily related to workforce reductions. This compares to $3.5 million incurred in the prior year. We continue to drive efficiencies in the organization to help offset inflationary increases and costs associated with expanding service and growing our footprint.

The decline in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reflects these cost pressures as well as top line headwinds from divestitures and legacy revenue streams. Capital expenditures totaled $251 million in the quarter, reflecting higher address delivery, a higher mix of buried versus aerial builds, and a record level of addresses under construction across our fiber markets that will be delivered in future quarters.

We are seeing higher costs to complete our EA can build in certain areas as we need to use more costly construction techniques and more miles of fiber required. Despite these higher costs, we believe the economics of our EA CAM program remain attractive. Slide 13 reflects our guidance for 2026, which has been updated. We are projecting total telecom revenues of $990 million to $1.01 billion, down from our prior guidance.

We were anticipating fiber revenues to more than offset legacy declines during the second half of 2026, but continue to work toward that inflection point. We also moved our adjusted EBITDA guidance range downward to $290 million to $310 million as the lower revenue expectations fall to the bottom line and we are experiencing higher costs to support our extended hours to service customers in areas where we are building fiber.

From a capital perspective, we have increased our guidance by $100 million from our prior midpoint to approximately $750 million. As Vicki and Ken both highlighted, delivery of fiber addresses at a record pace requires that we have a large funnel of addresses and the flexibility to pivot when delays arise from permitting and other factors.

Nearly half of this increased CapEx is driven by a pull-forward of future spend, which we expect will contribute to address delivery in 2027. The remaining increase is largely due to higher A-CAM build costs and a pivot to construct more of the buried addresses in our expansion markets, as I mentioned earlier. Before turning over the call, I want to thank the entire TDS team for their continued execution and focus, their efforts across fiber delivery, customer growth and operational transformation are critical to the progress we're making toward achieving our long-term objectives. I'll now turn the call over to Anthony.

Anthony Carlson

Thanks, Chris, and good morning. The third quarter represented another meaningful step in executing our strategy to optimize tower operations. Our year-over-year results are now becoming increasingly comparable as Q3 2025 mark both the launch of Array as a stand-alone tower company and commencement of the T-Mobile MLA.

As highlighted on Slide 18, when adjusting for DISH and excluding T-Mobile Interim site revenue, cash site rental revenue increased 20% year-over-year. After also fully excluding the impact of the T-Mobile MLA Cash site rental revenue grew 7% year-over-year, demonstrating the strong organic growth of our tower portfolio.

As T-Mobile continues its network integration activities, we are continuing to see the expected reduction in interim site revenue as those sites are terminated. Importantly, our leasing pipeline and sustained application activity continue to support healthy revenue growth which is expected to partially offset the impact of declining interim site revenue over time.

Turning to Slide 19. We continue to gain greater visibility into the expected population of tenantless towers following T-Mobile's integration process. Based on the information available today, we refined our estimate that 1,200 to 1,600 tenantless towers. As a reminder, however, T-Mobile has until January 2028 to designate its committed sites under the new MLA.

Given the likelihood that a meaningful number of towers will remain without tenants in the near term, we remain intensely focused on our ground lease optimization initiatives. While this is a multiyear effort, we have made progress in reducing lease costs on towers that are likely to become tenantless and identifying the most uneconomic sites for decommissioning.

More broadly, we are accelerating our ground lease buyout program, which expands tower level margins while further reducing portfolio risk. Moving to Slide 20. There has been minimal change since last quarter with a notable exception that we received regulatory approval for the sale of certain 600 megahertz and 700 megahertz spectrum licenses.

Subject to FCC finality and customary closing conditions, we expect the transaction to close by year-end. We also continue to pursue opportunities to monetize our remaining spectrum holdings, primarily our C-band spectrum. This spectrum is deployment-ready today, and we remain confident in its value as a highly attractive 5G asset, and the absence of near-term build-out requirements allows us to remain disciplined and avoid being forced sellers.

Slide 21 summarizes the results of our partnership or noncontrolling investment interests. As a reminder, 2025 investment income and distributions were impacted by several onetime factors including the impact of the Iowa partnership, selling their wireless operations to T-Mobile and distributions received from Verizon related to their transactions with Vertical Bridge.

Equity income for the 9 months ending September 30 was $116 million. Turning to Slide 23. Array delivered a strong quarter with year-over-year revenue growth driven primarily by the T-Mobile MLA complemented by solid growth from the rest of our customer base. As discussed in prior quarters, the year-over-year increase in cost of operations reflects the reclassification of certain property tax and insurance expenses from SG&A into cost of operations.

This change also contributed to the year-over-year reduction in SG&A expense. SG&A continue to include costs associated with winding down the legacy wireless operations, although those expenses declined further during the quarter. In addition, SG&A remained elevated due to strategic alternatives related costs incurred in evaluating the proposal received from TDS to acquire the remaining publicly held shares of Array.

Consistent with their classification, these costs are excluded from adjusted OIBDA. With the withdrawal of the TDS proposal, we do not expect these costs to recur in the fourth quarter. On Slide 24, our outlook remains unchanged. We expect total operating revenue of $205 million to $215 million, adjusted OIBDA of $60 million to $75 million and adjusted EBITDA of $220 million to $235 million.

Capital expenditures are expected to be $25 million to $35 million, driven by an expected increase in ground lease buyout activity during the remainder of the year. In closing, Array continued to make meaningful progress on its journey to becoming a leading tower company.

I want to personally thank our team for their dedication, execution and contributions throughout the year. We remain firmly focused on completing the T-Mobile integration, expanding our customer relationships and optimizing our ground lease portfolio.

The momentum across the business is clear, and I'm excited about the opportunities ahead and the progress we will continue to achieve together. I will now turn the call back to Walter.

Walter C.D. Carlson

Thank you, Anthony. As I noted in my opening remarks, TDS continues to make solid progress advancing our strategic priorities. The momentum we are seeing across the businesses positions us well as we come into the last 2 months of 2026 and look forward to 2027.

I'd like to again thank all of the outstanding associates across the TDS enterprise for their continued dedication and hard work in serving our customers and supporting the advancement of our business. Operator, please now open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Rick Prints with Raymond James.

質疑応答

Ric Prentiss

I have a couple, want to start on the TDS Telecom side, as we've looked at and tanks with that chart showing kind of fiber versus copper versus coax, as we look at that, obviously, pressure on the legacy side, you talked a little bit about cable and what you're doing there, trying to get some more coax to fiber changes in sales. But as I look at the copper side, it looks like copper, you've had some divestitures, but kind of down $10 million year-over-year on the revenue line in copper markets, but also down $2 million sequentially in 1Q to 2Q, 2Q to 3Q. When do we think about turning that around? I think you mentioned putting some more ILEC fiber out there. But how should we think about stemming that trend on the copper side? And when do we think, broadly speaking, the business in flex so that you get revenue growth at the total level and EBITDA -- OIBDA growth at the total as well as you kind of balance fiber versus legacy.

Kenneth Dixon

Thanks for the question. Yes, what's beautiful for us this year is the [indiscernible] program. And as you saw, the 27,000 addresses that we delivered in the third quarter in our ILEC market, this is core to our strategy is deploying fiber into those EA can markets. And then along the route, picking up those copper-served addresses today in our legacy footprint.

So we saw a nice acceleration in the third quarter. We have a funnel very robust in terms of addresses for our EA Chem in the fourth quarter. And then as you see from some of my comments, we've got record crews right now from a construction standpoint. And candidly, the largest amount of addresses in our pipeline here going into the fourth quarter. So that gives us confidence that we're going to continue to be able to attack those copper markets and ultimately deploy fiber.

Kristina Bothfeld

And Rick, to answer your question around total revenue growth, what I would say is that we expected in the second half of this year that our revenue our fiber revenue growth would more than offset these legacy declines but we're still working towards that inflection point. I will say that inflection point is around the corner. It's not years away. And just like Ken said, our strategy is to accelerate our fiber business as much as possible to offset these legacy pressures in the near term.

Ric Prentiss

And how about as we look down to the OIBDA line? Obviously, you're investing a lot of CapEx think Vicki mentioned someone you mentioned kind of the return on capital hurdle for these projects in the low and mid-teens. How do you think about the OIBDA turning around and becoming growth then? .

Kristina Bothfeld

Yes. So just to elaborate on that. Obviously, revenue plays a huge role in EBITDA. So we're doing everything we can to get to that inflection point on revenue, and that will drop to the bottom line. We also are on pace to hit our transformation initiatives.

We've put a line in the sand that by year-end 2028, we will deliver $100 million in run rate benefits we're still tracking towards that goal. And so the increase in accelerated fiber revenue growth as well as those transformation efforts will help also turn around EBITDA in the future.

Ric Prentiss

Great. And the second 1 is for Anthony. Obviously, it seems like we get daily, weekly buzz from what SpaceX is doing, what DISH is doing. Can you let us tell how many Dish sites you had and what's happening as far as any discussions on the tower side with satellite companies in general? And how soon might we see something from satellite companies that impact you guys? .

Anthony Carlson

So in terms of your first question, we had about 330 DISH sites, of course, they're no longer paying for those. They're in the process of standing that equipment. That's not how many we have. We're not going to comment on any sort of particular satellite company. But what we will say is that we have great assets that are tracked to anybody who is interested in building out a terrestrial network and indeed, the largest carriers in the united states and many other players as well are already tenants of ours, and we look forward to working with anybody who's interested in building out retrial networks.

Ric Prentiss

And do you think strategically, if satellites do something terrestrially, how do you think of the impact on your tower business, neutral positive, very positive. But what's kind of the array of outcomes that you kind of look at what might happen in the still foobar unclear exactly what's happening.

Anthony Carlson

Well, obviously, there's no sort of big strategic questions about, hey, you know what's the -- assuming potential other major entrants become terrestrial network players, what's the end number of sort of terrestrial networks. But if that number goes up, I don't think there is any alternative of being broadly bullish for our business because or in the business of leasing space on towers if the number of major carriers goes from 3 to 4 or more, those carriers will need to use our space and that means more revenue for us.

So I think that's broadly bullish. I don't think a scenario where satellite companies are able to replace terrestrial networks entirely with satellite-based Services is very likely. I think that there are many laws of physics reasons for that, that have been discussed by many other people in many other forms. So we broadly believe that.

We think that direct-to-device communication is broadly complementary to the terrestrial service that is provided by terrestrial mobile networks, and we think it's great for consumers. So we're broadly bullish on the opportunities from additional mobile care.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi.

Michael Rollins

I am curious if you could just share more perspective on the competitive landscape from the combination of wireless satellite you've got the potential for some overbuilds or incumbent builds depending on which markets we're talking about for you guys? And just how you're thinking about the long-term penetration or share opportunity and where broadband ARPUs go over time if competition stays where it is or picks up a bit. .

Unknown Executive

So where TDS has deployed fiber, we're not seeing a material impact from satellite. I would say if you look at areas that we've deployed fiber. I think I will just point to some of the things that we've seen most recently in the third quarter. We actually saw our fiber churn improve on a year-over-year basis by 20 basis points, and that was an improvement in what I'd say during mover season where we usually see elevated churn. .

The next thing, as we've put addresses out into the market with those marketable addresses, we had our biggest fiber net add in our customer -- in our company history at approximately 17,000. So the demand for our services is fantastic.

We believe strongly that fiber is the best solution for broadband. And if we look at the usage utilization on our network in terms of consumption, of data. It grew double digits again on a year-over-year basis. And we see that growth continuing and we see with more and more artificial intelligence usage in the home that fiber is absolutely the best solution. So we feel very confident in our fiber strategy.

In terms of ARPU, as I said, we absolutely believe that we're going to continue to see the usage on our network. And we believe a fiber strategy with the ability to go to multi-gig PON, whether it's up to 8 on XGS or 25 gig PON that over time, you'll see ARPUs increase based on the need for more and more data.

So we believe our fiber strategy is right on, and that's 1 of the reasons why we just spoke about converting 30,000 of our cable addresses over that we feel are great opportunity at very low cost to move to fiber and why we're so bullish on the A-CAM program to accelerate that and to candidly take as much copper out of our network in the next couple of years is possible.

Kristina Bothfeld

And Mike, with respect to penetration rates. So in our expansion markets, we're still consistently hitting on average, 25% penetration by month and A lot of that has to do with our robust presales model and kind of pent-up demand because typically, we have presales penetration of 20% that leads into that nice month 12 penetration. And then we're still targeting steady-state penetration rates of 40%.

And in our more mature markets, we are hitting those targets. And then with respect to EACAM, we've shared that our targeted penetration rates are 65% to 75% we're still in the early stages of deploying in these EA CAM markets, but we do have some areas that have passed that 12-month mark, and they're trending really nicely to those long-term targets.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Sergey with Gamco Investors.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy

My first question is for Walter. You mentioned that a potential combination between TDS array still has benefits in your opinion. But given the fact that the 2 parties couldn't agree on consideration price what set of circumstances could lead TDS to potentially try again? And maybe if Array monetizes its remaining spectrum and becomes a smaller company, does that make things easier for a potential combination. Kind of any thoughts on that front would be appreciated.

Walter C.D. Carlson

Sergey, thank you for the question. We don't comment on specific future plans with respect to topics of that type. I would offer the following. We do think that the benefits from a combination of array with TDS would be meaningful. And that's why we proceeded with the offer that we made when we can't reach agreement on terms and price, we don't proceed.

And we don't predict the future, we can't predict the future with great clarity. So there may be circumstances where it makes sense to do this again. And there are so many things that can happen in life. It would be hard to predict exactly what they might be. But I want to underscore what I said in my remarks we are focused intently now on building both businesses and being successful in both businesses. That is our priority.

We've taken a large amount of costs out of the duplication that we had previously experienced from running Array and TDS separately. So we're running the array business very efficiently. We expect to continue that and have taken many of the costs out -- but there are good reasons to do it in the future. And if that makes sense, we will consider it at that time.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy

Got it. Great. My second question is for Ken. So obviously, you've been able to accelerate your build engine significantly. Any concerns about building too fast and also what is the right balance between the build base and following it up with appropriate go-to-market strategy and selling activities so that you're efficiently converting new pacings into customers. And maybe if you can talk about what metrics you typically look at when you analyze this type of convert. .

Kenneth Dixon

Okay. In terms of the -- let me start with the ECam. Obviously, this is a phenomenal program, and we're the largest recipient of the ACAM funding. And with that, has milestones in terms of locations that need to be delivered at the end of 2025 -- I'm sorry, at the end of 2026 and we feel confident in terms of our ability to achieve those.

We also have those same what I'd say, milestones with another 25% of those locations for next year. So ultimately, that's what's guiding us in terms of our EA can build. And 1 of the things that is important to us is that it comes at the perfect time we have a copper revenue challenge, and we have a solution with the A-CAM program and that funding and its ability to bring fiber into those communities. So that's what's really setting the pace for our ACAM build.

The second from expansion perspective is that our strategy is we want to be first to fiber. And as I had announced earlier this year with the additional edge-out opportunities of 300,000 addresses, it's very important for us now that we've established a flag in an expansion market. We've launched our brand, our sales capacity, our customer experience. It's now logical for us to look around that footprint where we can hedge out to and have that ability to be first fiber.

And when we're first to fiber, as Chris mentioned, we see very, very strong penetration rates. So that's really the strategy that we've talked about all year long. From a sales perspective, I think Chris had mentioned earlier as soon as we see those addresses go into our expansion markets, we've been very successful as it relates to that presale penetration and hitting that 1-year penetration milestone.

The second, I've said this all year long as we've opened up additional new open for sale. We have added a lot of vendor capacity in these geographic areas to go door-to-door. We think that's important. And that channel has really developed for us this year, and we've seen significant improvement in terms of their sales.

The other thing that we've spent a ton of time on this year is trying to drive more and more of our overall distribution to our lowest cost of acquisition channel, which is dot-com and I think we're just scratching the surface of what we can accomplish there as we go into 2027.

And then the last thing we're constantly looking at our single-family unit penetration, and we're also looking at our multi-dwelling unit penetration. We brought on some fantastic new leadership focused on MDU in the third quarter, and we're already starting to see the benefits of that. So definitely seeing what I'd say, improved overall sales capacity as we go into fourth quarter and into 2027.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy

Got it. Great. And my last question is for Anthony. So in early September, obviously, TGS and already said in their press release that they intend to increase the efforts to pursue monetization of remaining wireless spectrum assets. Could you provide maybe a bit more color on that front? And I guess, what is the level of interest in C-band right now? And how has space access a potential push to become a terrestrial wireless competitor impacting your discussions with potential buyers? .

Anthony Carlson

Thanks for the question, Serge. We don't have any further specific updates on our monetization efforts at this time, but I think it would be appropriate to reiterate that we think this is a very attractive asset, the C-band scalable -- now that's an existing ecosystem, stand position, creates a lot of opportunity with the upcoming option. So we -- and we continue to think it's a very attractive asset for a wide math potential buyers. .

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to John Toomey for closing remarks.

John Toomey

Thanks again for joining us this morning. And as always, please reach out if you have any additional questions. And I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.