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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about Verizon. A strong fourth quarter is powering

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Speaker 2: Verizon right now. Shares hired to the tune about nine

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Speaker 2: tenths of a percent. The company reported numbers this morning

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Speaker 2: that beat analyssessments. Also saw strong gains in new mobile

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Speaker 2: phone and broadband customers. Let's break it all down the

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Speaker 2: quarter that was and the future with Hans Bessberg. He

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Speaker 2: is Verizon chairman and CEO joining us now, Hans, great

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Speaker 2: to have you with us. Let's go to subscribers, because

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Speaker 2: you reported a net gain of five hundred and sixty

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Speaker 2: eight thousand monthly phone subscribers. The expectation had been for

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Speaker 2: below five hundred thousand. So from where you're sitting, where

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Speaker 2: do you think that those gains are coming from?

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Speaker 1: So I think, first of all, we have a great deal, Frank.

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Speaker 1: We had a very strong coarctor both financially and operationally.

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Speaker 1: We added actually one million new postped customer customers on

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Speaker 1: on broadband and why as together and as you right

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Speaker 1: for it said on the wireless side of five hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixty eight thousand, very strong quarter. We have great

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Speaker 1: offerings in the market. We have the best network that

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Speaker 1: is supporting that, and we have gradually improved now we're

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Speaker 1: five six quarter sequentially improvement both operational and financially, So

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Speaker 1: we not only had a great operational quarter, but they

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Speaker 1: also continue to expand our margins and our cash flow

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Speaker 1: for the full year was nineteen point eight billion dollars,

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Speaker 1: So very strong financials with the really solid growth on

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Speaker 1: customers as well. So I think the products resonate with

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Speaker 1: the market today more than ever. I mean, you cannot

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Speaker 1: work live play without mobility and broadband, and I think

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Speaker 1: we are meeting that as the largest carrier in the country.

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Speaker 3: You know, in addition to earnings, you also announced a

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Speaker 3: new AI initiative as well. And how do you feel

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Speaker 3: about the customers that you're bringing on when it comes

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Speaker 3: to AI connect, because is this something that you believe

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Speaker 3: will be a significant growth.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely think about this. I mean, today the majority

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Speaker 1: of the NAI is large language models being developed in

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Speaker 1: enumerous large data centers. When that's going to be applications

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Speaker 1: for enterprises to use, they're going to go further out

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Speaker 1: in the network, both for the transport cost, for privacy, security, latency.

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Speaker 1: We have those assets were compute storage. We're cooling, we

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Speaker 1: have power. We already have that in our system that

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Speaker 1: we can host, and we already now have customers like

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Speaker 1: Google Meta that is using our network for their AI work,

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Speaker 1: you know. So this is just the start of it,

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Speaker 1: and the second phase is going to be way out

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Speaker 1: in the network and then Verizon, which have fiber across

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Speaker 1: the whole concrete, have also space and cooling and as

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Speaker 1: well as power. We have a lot of power that

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Speaker 1: we can resell as well. So all that is creating

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Speaker 1: a new business for us on existing assets that we

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Speaker 1: don't need to develop, they're already there. It's a great

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Speaker 1: opportunity with a big announcements of Yenai and data cents

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Speaker 1: in the country, and US is the leader here and

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Speaker 1: will be the winner on GENAI. I think we're a

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Speaker 1: great position to be part of that. Well.

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Speaker 2: Hans Corporates vand is the theme of the morning of course,

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Speaker 2: with that big announcement from Meadow. When it comes to

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Speaker 2: this opportunity that you see in Ai and you're ambition

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Speaker 2: to be the leader when it comes to gen Ai,

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Speaker 2: how much are you willing to devote of Capex to

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Speaker 2: that goal?

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Speaker 1: So, as I said, the majority of what we have

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Speaker 1: we already have done it, deployed one or one fiber strategy,

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Speaker 1: so we have fiber going around across the countrete, close

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Speaker 1: to data centers, close to all the enterprises. We already

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Speaker 1: have space, we have capacity or power that we can reuse.

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Speaker 1: So much what we have is already invested. So we

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Speaker 1: think about the second part of JNAI when the large

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Speaker 1: language models are already developed and you need to be

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Speaker 1: closer to the user, the company, the enterprise, or whatever

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Speaker 1: it might be, and there were well positioned. We already

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Speaker 1: have revenues from it today. We had in the fourth quarter.

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Speaker 1: Even though we're small, we're now ramping that up and

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Speaker 1: that's why we were announced today AI Connect, which is

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Speaker 1: our product and solution for this.

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Speaker 3: I'm also just curious about regular way Internet because if

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Speaker 3: you look at the Internet subscribers that you brought on

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Speaker 3: the rise or it was a decline from a year ago,

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Speaker 3: but it was more than what analysts expected, and so

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Speaker 3: what does that mean about the prospects of the people

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Speaker 3: you are bringing on and what it means for the

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Speaker 3: upcoming quarters.

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Speaker 1: So I think that our broadband strategy that we laid

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Speaker 1: out in the third quarter is really resonating with the market.

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Speaker 1: We have two great products, where the fiber products called files,

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Speaker 1: which is the I would say the highest quality fiber

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Speaker 1: product in the market. We have great success with that.

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Speaker 1: We added fifty thousand new customers in the quarker. Then

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Speaker 1: we have fixed wiles Access, which is a totally different

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Speaker 1: model where your self installed, you have great performance, high

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Speaker 1: customer satisfaction. We add the more than three hundred, three

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Speaker 1: hundred seventy thousand of those in the quarter. So all

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Speaker 1: that product is going into next year and or twenty five.

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Speaker 1: We're already next year to fortify that. And then we

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Speaker 1: have our pending acquisition or Frontier that is adding even

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Speaker 1: more fiber customers. So our broadband strategy is clear. We're

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Speaker 1: taking share at the moment, and we think we can

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Speaker 1: continue to do that into twenty five.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about the share price a little bit, because

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Speaker 2: I'm taking a look over the past five years and

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Speaker 2: I see Forizon shares down about thirteen percent on a

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Speaker 2: total return basis. Hopefully we'll have that chart up and

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Speaker 2: I want to ask CONTs, I mean, what do you

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Speaker 2: think that investors are missing when it comes to your

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Speaker 2: story and why are we seeing this sort of sideways

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Speaker 2: chop when it comes to your shares.

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Speaker 1: I think if you look at share price, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's always a lot of different combinations. I think we

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Speaker 1: of course invested heavily in the five E and the Spectrum,

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Speaker 1: and or we took on a lot of debt during

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Speaker 1: the Spectrum acquisitions in twenty nineteen. Now we're working that down.

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Speaker 1: We're almost down to our death leverage of two point

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Speaker 1: twenty five on debt too beta, so we are actually

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Speaker 1: paying that down. So I think that our capital location

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Speaker 1: has been heavy to build a network and now getting

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Speaker 1: leverage on that, and that's what you see, and that's

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Speaker 1: I hope our shareholders will see that that growth factory

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Speaker 1: can continue and we get leverage on it. Secondly, we

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Speaker 1: are on the eighteenth year of increasing our dividend. I

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Speaker 1: mean there are not many companies are doing that and

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Speaker 1: are of course our yield is high today given that

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Speaker 1: the share price is a little bit subdue, but I

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Speaker 1: think that's what our shareholders should see and the prospect

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Speaker 1: of shareholders both that the dividend has been super stable

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Speaker 1: and growing and then now we're also continue to grow

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Speaker 1: both operationally and financially. So I have high ambitions here

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Speaker 1: and I hope that every stakeholder going to see that.

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Speaker 3: Certainly, the deat load was something investors were keeping an

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Speaker 3: eye on, and as you have made a lot of

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Speaker 3: progress in terms of reducing that load, I do still

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Speaker 3: wonder you had come off an announcement of a massive acquisition.

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Speaker 3: Do you see more potential acquisitions if you're able to

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Speaker 3: tap the capital markets or find it otherwise? Wondering what

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Speaker 3: your inclination here is to do more to expand your

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Speaker 3: reach to mergers and acquisitions.

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Speaker 1: So our strateted is pretty simple. We build one network

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Speaker 1: and we want as many profitable connections on top of

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Speaker 1: it any type of the segments of the market. Today,

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Speaker 1: we're are the number one on wireless. We have a

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Speaker 1: nationwide so we already have it, so now it's just

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Speaker 1: to continue to get leverage on on broadband. We just

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Speaker 1: acquired or in the process acquiring Frontier, we have a

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Speaker 1: great broad and offering. We're planning to address one hundred

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Speaker 1: million households with our broadband offering. So I think we're

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Speaker 1: sitting really good with assets we have, and that's what

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Speaker 1: I want to execute on. As a CEO, you can

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Speaker 1: never say you're never going to do an acquisition. But

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Speaker 1: clearly we have all the assets right now, and now

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Speaker 1: we are in execution mood, and see that we leverage that.

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Speaker 2: All right, Hans really appreciate your time. That is Hans'

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Speaker 2: best or of Horizon