Altice USA Reports Fourth Quarter and Fully Year 2022 Results

Altice USA reports results for the fourth quarter and full year that ended December 31, 2022. Key broadband highlights include the following:

• Fiber Broadband Primary Service Units: Quarterly fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband net additions were +36k in Q4 2022, more than three times the growth compared to Q4 2021 (+11k). Fiber broadband net adds were +102k in FY 2022 driven by both higher fiber gross additions and increased migrations of existing customers. Total fiber broadband customers reached 172k as of the end of FY 2022.
• Residential Broadband PSUs: Quarterly Residential broadband net losses were -8k in Q4 2022, compared to -2k broadband net losses in Q4 2021. Residential broadband net losses were -103k in FY 2022, compared to -3k organic net losses in FY 2021.
• Fiber (FTTH) rollout update: As of Q4 2022, the Company has 2.16 million FTTH passings, adding +251k new FTTH passings in the fourth quarter and adding +988k in FY 2022. This represents the highest amount of annual incremental FTTH passings to date (vs. +271k new passings in FY 2021, and +390k new passings in FY 2020).
• Rollout of Optimum 5 Gig and 2 Gig Fiber Internet service: In the last year the Company introduced both Optimum 5 Gbps (5 Gig) and 2 Gbps (2 Gig) Fiber Internet, with symmetrical data speeds up to 5 Gig and 2 Gig respectively. The new 5 Gig and 2 Gig Optimum Fiber Internet tiers are now available across Long Island and Connecticut in our fiber footprint. At the end of Q4 2022, 45% of the Company’s fiber passings had multi-gig speeds available.
• 1 Gbps (1 Gig) broadband speed sell-in to all new customers, where 1 Gig or higher services are available, was 40% in Q4 2022. Approximately 20% of the Residential broadband customer base currently take 1 Gig speeds, representing a significant growth opportunity for the Company.
• Broadband speeds taken on average have nearly doubled in the past three years to 402 Mbps in Q4 2022. Approximately 40% of the Company’s broadband customers remain on plans with download speeds of 200 Mbps or less, representing a sizable opportunity to continue to upgrade speeds. Broadband-only customer usage averaged 564 GB per month in Q4 2022, which is 22% higher than the average usage of the entire customer base (461 GB per month).
• New build activity update: the Company has been accelerating the pace of its network edge-outs, adding +49k passings in Q4 2022, and a total of +200k total passings in the last twelve months. The Company continues to see strong momentum in growing customer penetration, typically reaching approximately 40% within a year of rollout in new-build areas. The Company is targeting an incremental 150k+ new passings in FY 2023.