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Carlos Doglioli

Thank you, Brad. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Today, I'll walk you through our fourth quarter and full year results as well as our financial outlook for 2025. Before getting to that, I want to reiterate Brad's comments that 2024 was a year of disciplined execution as we navigated challenges while remaining focused on long-term value creation.
For the full year, our International Telecom segment achieved modest year-over-year revenue growth. However, on a consolidated basis, revenues were impacted by the sunset of a significant program in our US Telecom segment. In light of these dynamics, we took proactive steps and implemented cost containment measures to limit negative cash flow outcomes.
With that, let's now review our P&L results for the fourth quarter and the full year 2024 in more detail. Total company revenue for the fourth quarter was $180.5 million, down 9% when compared with the same period in 2023.
The step down reflects the overall revenue decline in the US Telecom segment due in part to the impact of the conclusion of the Emergency Connectivity Fund, and to a lesser extent, the Affordable Care Program as well as lower legacy wholesale roaming revenues as we transition that service to the carrier services model.
Additionally, in 2024, construction revenue was lower compared with the previous year. For the full year, revenue totalled $729.1 million, representing a 4% decrease from 2023 due to the factors previously mentioned.
Operating income in the fourth quarter increased to $8.7 million versus operating income of $3.3 million in Q4 of 2023. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to a $6.6 million reduction in restructuring expenses, and a $5.8 million reduction in cost of services, partially offset by the impact of lower revenue.
Full year operating loss for 2024 was $0.8 million versus a full year operating income of $13.2 million in 2023. The loss in 2024 was driven primarily by the year-over-year revenue decline and the $35.3 million goodwill impairment charge taken earlier in the year.
Net income for the fourth quarter was $3.6 million or $0.14 per share. This compares with the prior year's net loss of $5.8 million or $0.46 per share. The year-over-year increase in net income was primarily driven by an $8.9 million tax benefit. Full year 2024 net loss was $26.4 million or $2.10 per share compared to a net loss of $14.5 million or $1.25 per share the previous year. The increase in full year net loss reflects a goodwill impairment charge of $35.3 million.
Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $46.2 million, down 9% from the year ago period, primarily as a result of the declines in US Telecom revenues. Full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA decreased to $184.1 million down from $189.5 million in the prior year.
Looking now at the segment's performance. Beginning with our International segment, Q4 revenues of $94.8 million were essentially flat compared with the fourth quarter of the previous year. International revenue for the full year 2024 was up nearly 2% to $377.5 million, driven by high-speed data subscriber and fixed revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA for the International segment increased 4.8% for the quarter and 9.7% for the full year. Demand for high-speed broadband services and operational improvements contributed to the quarter.
In our domestic segment, fourth quarter revenues were $85.8 million, down 18% year-over-year and down 10% for the full year. As previously mentioned, revenue was impacted by the conclusion of the ECF and ACP government programs and lower construction revenue. The revenue decline led to a decrease in adjusted EBITDA for the domestic segment down 29% for the quarter and 20% for the full year.
Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow highlights. We ended the year with a net debt ratio of 2.54 times on total debt outstanding of $557.4 million. Our net cash provided by operating activities was strong at $129.2 million for the year ended 2024, up from $111.6 million in 2023. This was driven primarily by improvements in working capital and gains realized from asset dispositions.
Turning now to capital expenditures. CapEx for the year totalled $110.4 million, net of $108.5 million in reimbursable capital expenditures. This compares to $163.3 million net of $32.9 million in reimbursable capital expenditures in the prior year. Notably, beginning in 2024, we dialed down the capital intensity of our business as planned, marking the conclusion of our three year investment strategy.
We continue to see government support as a key factor in enhancing our infrastructure in rural US markets. We returned capital to our shareholders through $14.7 million in dividends and $10 million in stock repurchases during 2024.
With that, let's move to our outlook for 2025. In 2025, our priority is to stabilize the US Telecom segment and continue expanding margins in our International segment with the goal of enhancing cash flow generation and strengthening ATN's long-term profitability. We expect modest international revenue growth, while domestic revenue will continue to reflect the shift from legacy services to a longer-term competitive position anchored in enterprise and carrier services.
Adjusted EBITDA for the International segment is expected to expand the long-time revenue growth and cost efficiencies while domestic profitability will be temporarily impacted as we focus on solidifying the foundation of our business for future opportunities.
Turning to our outlook for 2025. We expect full year revenue in 2025 to be in line with 2024, excluding construction revenues. Adjusted EBITDA to be essentially flat with last year. Capital expenditures in the range of $90 million to $100 million net of reimbursements. Net debt ratio to remain in line with prior year, with a slight potential improvement exiting 2025 compared with 2024. We continue to monitor net debt ratio with the objective to bring down leverage closer to 2 times over the medium term.
Before handing the call back to Brad, let me provide some insights into how we expect the quarters to play out in 2025. In the first quarter, we expect adjusted EBITDA to be relatively flat to slightly down compared with last year with restructuring and reorganization charges in an amount similar to the amount taken last year.
We expect a more consistent linear improvement as the year progresses, with the second half contributing the majority of our annual results. The expected quarterly cadence reflects continued growth in our International segment muted by the business transition underway in our domestic segment under new leadership.
In summary, as we enter 2025, our focus remains on improving cash flow driving operational efficiencies and transitioning to a sustainable recurring revenue streams. We are confident that this effort will support long-term shareholder value creation.
Thank you again for your time today. I will now hand the call back over to Brad.

Brad Martin

Thanks, Carlos. Before we wrap up, I want to reiterate our core message. We are focused, disciplined in executing on our strategy. We have taken meaningful steps to position the business for long-term success, balancing strategic investment with the financial discipline to drive operational efficiency and future growth.
Our US business is evolving, aligning with the increasing need for enterprise and carrier solutions. Our international operations continue to deliver, reinforcing our ability to scale and optimize in key markets. Our infrastructure investments backed by government funding provide opportunities for sustainable expansion with lower capital intensity. The strength of our strategy lies in execution and adaptability. Our focus remains the same, building a resilient, high-performing business that delivers long-term value. Thank you for your time and continued support. We appreciate your interest in ATN, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.
With that, operator, we'd like to open it up for questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Hamed Khorsand, BWS Financial.

Hamed Khorsand

Hi, good morning. First question I had was about the capital expenditure budget. Last year, you had been mentioning that your target was going to be 10% to 15% revenue this time around, it's a little bit higher on the initial guidance. Is there additional projects you're taking for '25, if you can just explain what your goals are?

Carlos Doglioli

Hamed, this is Carlos. Thanks for the question. We believe that the guidance is in line with that -- those expectations, 10% to 15%, that's -- and we -- as we mentioned, we've been scaling back CapEx, in 2024, it was close to 30% lower than the previous year. And for 2025, we're expecting continuous improvement along those lines.

Brad Martin

Hamed, a major dynamic too is the reimbursable CapEx to grant all the grants that we have participated in.

Hamed Khorsand

Got it. And then the other question I had was you've given a lot of stats over the years about homes passed, but it sounds like you're changing focus to enterprise and carrier. Are there any statistics you could provide us to what kind of traction you're getting on that front, how many customers you're gaining and so forth?

Brad Martin

So Hamed, this is Brad. There has been a focus on enterprise and carrier for a long time, and that really has been the core of our US markets for many years. Internationally, it's a more spread customer base between consumer, enterprise, carrier, and wholesale.
So from a go-forward even in '24, we did see enterprise both internationally as well as our stronger performing areas above 6.5% growth in our business base. We did see about a 2.7% quarter-over-quarter subscriber growth in business customers internationally in Q4. So it is a key area for international, which does have a broader consumer segment.
And then on a go forward for enterprise and wholesale US markets, an important dynamic that we're working with is that we are seeing increasing pipeline demand for additional capacity in the form of backhaul and even demand for things like Spectrum are increasing. So something that we, again, have been working with many years in our US markets, and we'll continue to monitor for the best outcomes for the business.

Hamed Khorsand

Okay. And then last question is on the International side in mobile. You saw more prepaid subscribers that dropped off this past quarter. Was that competition? Or was this the consumer changing their habits as to how many phones they have?

Brad Martin

Yes. This is primarily competition. That's primarily our largest market in Guyana. And we've talked previously on calls, there was a new 5G entrant that came into the market about 18 months ago and did have an impact on the prepaid segment.
And the prepaid segment where the impact was really for pay-as-you-go prepaid voice customers. So these are our lowest ARPU customers in that market. We did -- we have seen significant growth in our data plans. Part of our strategy in that market as Guyana has been growing macro-economically, is provides -- effectively get to the higher value plans into the higher-value customer base and we have continued to see good movement with some significant improvements in our data plan subscribers of about 26% year-over-year.

Hamed Khorsand

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Rick Prentiss, Raymond James & Associates.

Rick Prentiss

Hey, good morning, guys.

Brad Martin

Good morning.

Rick Prentiss

A couple of questions for you. Obviously, going deeper into the carrier managed services, I think I heard you mention to Hamed the backhaul side of it. What specific services are you guys looking to do there? Is it also maybe dark fiber? And you mentioned Spectrum demand. How do you monetize Spectrum demand on that carrier managed services side?

Brad Martin

So Rick, part of our carrier managed services offering is inclusive of some of our Spectrum assets. So we do have -- we do have the ability to lease our Spectrum assets. It's a relatively lower component of that business. But carrier managed services is inclusive of lit services, dark services, tower lease, tower service maintenance, backhaul services and in some cases, we actually do leverage our Spectrum with the carriers that are Spectrum holdings, and that's primarily in Southwest.

Rick Prentiss

Okay. Has there been any thoughts about maybe trying to monetize the spectrum through a sale? We've seen a similar, now, Glass & Steel company, TDS, US cellular sold their wireless operations sold chunks of Spectrum, not just in wireless to T-Mobile, but Verizon and AT&T. Any thoughts about would there be more value created by selling the asset rather than leasing asset Spectrum or on some of the consumer markets?

Brad Martin

Yes. So Rick, we continuously evaluate our portfolio of assets to get enhanced shareholder value in the long run. That's inclusive of underutilized Spectrum or infrastructure. And then that's something that, again, we did announce a small Spectrum deal this past year. But it's something we're evaluating. And see if we -- to try to, again, bring higher shareholder value.

Rick Prentiss

Makes sense. Okay. Carlos, I think you mentioned some restructuring charges, was that comment restructuring charges just 1Q '25 would look like the restructuring in 1Q '24? Or was it that restructuring charges in '25 will resemble more like what '24 costs were?

Carlos Doglioli

We mentioned the restructuring charges that we currently expect for Q1, Rick, which we expect them to be of a similar size to what we had in Q1 of prior year. That was the reference.

Rick Prentiss

I think for the year, maybe the total restructuring charges in '24 or more like $8 million versus 1Q last year was like $1 million. Was that a ballpark?

Carlos Doglioli

It was a little over $1 million in Q1. Yes, that's correct.

Rick Prentiss

Okay. You mentioned shareholder returns, managing cost cutting, managing CapEx, et cetera. How should we think about how shareholder returns might manifest itself?

Carlos Doglioli

Okay. I think, Rick, when you look at the way we've been managing the capital intensity of the business, we feel that as we've been navigating some of the challenges that we faced in the US and at the same time, continuing to improve the business profitability and margins in international as we grow revenues there steadily.
We feel that we've been very prudent and improving cash flow through the reduction of our CapEx spend, so feel that we continue to move along the lines of that Spectrum kind of now after we've finished our three year investment strategy. And we believe that, that will allow us to improve cash flow over time and also move down our leverage over time. As we've said, our goal is to try to move it down to the 2 times over the medium term.

Rick Prentiss

And shareholder value looking at potential dividend increases, potential stock buyback, what -- when we say improved shareholder value? Is it just increasing free cash flow? Or is it actually, kind of, the remuneration back?

Carlos Doglioli

Yes. No. So the -- in terms of the dividends or the share buybacks, those are the purview of the Board. So -- but our commitment from an operational perspective, is to make sure that we lower -- we improved our cash flow through improving EBITDA margin, improving EBITDA in general and then reduce the capital intensity of the business. I think as we do that, we'll be able to drive leverage down on and have, obviously, optionality that the Board can leverage.

Rick Prentiss

Okay. Last one for me is on the balance sheet, speaking of leverage. Remind us of what your maturity schedule looks like and kind of what your thoughts are on gross debt, not just net debt, and leverage?

Carlos Doglioli

So I think at this point, we just refinanced Alaska this last year. The current maturity is our facility in the Virgin Islands, which I think it's mid-time through next year. So we'll continue to monitor how we go about managing our maturity as we go through the year.

Rick Prentiss

Okay. Very good. Thanks, guys.

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Greg Burns, Sidoti.

Greg Burns

Good morning. In the US segment, how much of that business would you characterize as kind of legacy revenue streams? And how fast is it declining? And do you have plans on maybe converting that to maybe contracts like you signed with AT&T and Verizon? Or is that just going to kind of structurally decline over the next couple of years?

Brad Martin

Yes. So we do point out -- in fact, you can see in our mobile, in our financials, our mobile business in the US, you can see the decline from '23 to '24, that's one of the primary areas we just exited out of our retail mobile operations in the Southwest.
And I think as you know, we participate in the remove and replace program. We did have -- and if you look at our top line total broadband customers, that number has declined in the past year, partially due to the shutdown of some of that legacy, we'll call it mobile broadband customers. This is a legacy LTE in the Southwest.
So those are relatively small, Greg, in the overall total revenues because we've been making this transition. We still have our legacy copper like any major operators across the country. So moving towards copper shutdown is obviously a key initiative. We have that in the US. We have it internationally. That's an important dynamic for cost optimization into the future.

Greg Burns

Okay. And then when we look at, I guess, the profitability of the US Telecom segment next year, is it just a function of the declining revenue that profitability is coming down? Or are you making incremental investments? What's driving the decline in EBITDA next year?

Carlos Doglioli

I think that's a big driver. Greg, this is Carlos. So yes, the revenue decline is a driver of the reduced profitability.

Greg Burns

Okay. And then in terms of maybe monetizing the capital investments you made over the last three years, what kind of investments or changes are you putting in place to accelerate the monetization of that and drive more fiber services and broadband growth?

Brad Martin

So that's part of the transition that we referenced in our US markets. We obviously had some challenges within the '24 cycle. We are making investments in those markets. These are businesses in transition. We put forth for our plan for '25, we believe reflects the right expense model to get these businesses ready for scale.
Our key dynamic for our US markets, obviously is participation in grant programs. As we stated, we have won a significant amount of grant program money for build subsidies between '22 and '24. We continue to -- we intend to continue to participate in those programs, programs like BEAD, which is starting to come to light in some of our operating states. Those are important dynamics to really focus on fiber and fiber-fed telecom services on the consumer side.
And again, some of the legacy technologies were in areas that had a lot of service subsidies like ACP, which went away this past year. So focusing our commercial efforts on where we can have the most success and the best overall returns is an important shift in our US markets for consumer. And then it's really continuing to grow and expand our enterprise and carrier revenue streams.

Greg Burns

Okay. And then just lastly, sort of a modeling perspective, what drove the decline in depreciation quarter-over-quarter this last quarter? And is that a good number to model against going forward?

Carlos Doglioli

I think, yes. The driver has been the less CapEx over the last several quarters.

Greg Burns

Okay. So the $33 million numbers, the good -- I guess, a good number to model going forward into '25?

Carlos Doglioli

Yes.

Greg Burns

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

Operator

Rick Prentiss, Raymond James & Associates.

Rick Prentiss

Hey, guys. Figured calls almost done ask. May be a few more if I can. I wanted to question visibility. Obviously, last year, there were some bumps along the way. How visible do you think this business is? I assume the carrier and managed solutions is a more visible business than maybe the consumer side. But help us understand your comfort and visibility and what you were providing today and last night.

Brad Martin

Yes, Rick. So we obviously are -- there are major trends that we are seeing getting confirmed through pipeline development, as I mentioned earlier, for carrier demand for effective bandwidth. So that is something that the industry has been expecting. We believe that in the areas we operate is a combination of the work been done by some of our carrier partners for success around -- with their success around fixed wireless.
Again, we partner with some of the larger carriers in our regions to be able to deliver those services on a wholesale basis. So that's, again, a good confirmation on -- from a visibility perspective that we continue to drive.
Ultimately, we are continuing to move in our US markets. There are things that are somewhat less predictable. Some of the government dynamics tariffs, as you know, are something that's been an evolving dynamic most businesses. We're obviously monitoring that very closely and looking at where those impacts could be. We think it's relatively immaterial based on good work of our distributors and our supply chains.
But generally, those are the things that certainly keep us up as some dynamics are out of our control that you just have to manage those. And that's what every business has to manage. But again, we are still seeing growing demand for high-speed data, fiber, fiber-fed services in the enterprise and in the consumer, even albeit in our US markets, our high-speed data consumer broadband base actually grew 20% over 2024, albeit a very small relative base in comparison to our international.
So again, we definitely are seeing the demand being able to execute some of the major fiber programs we have in process, that is key. And as you know, as those programs gain momentum and get off the ground, which is something that we saw through the '24 period, things start going a little more smoothly, things start going a little more on track. And that's what we're looking to see and it will help us with predictability here in '25 and beyond.

Rick Prentiss

Okay. And then, Carlos, you mentioned one of the main goals in '25 is to stabilize the US domestic business. Should we imply with that, that you're hoping to maybe return to some growth prospects as you look into '26 and beyond that this is the year to kind of stabilize and create a good table than to set the stage to go forward?

Carlos Doglioli

That is the expectation, Rick. And I think as Brad mentioned throughout the call. We also believe that some of the changes that we made in the US are going to solidify their knowledge of the business and be able to drive the business forward as we continue to take hold of the management of the entities.

Rick Prentiss

Right. Okay. And then Brad, you mentioned shutting down copper, obviously, a key initiative for a lot of telcos out there. It's a very costly product out there. How much cost in advance of getting to the other side of that is? Is it a fast process to say, by '26 or '27, we can be shutting down some copper and then see some margin improvement. I'm just trying to think the time frame to get the legacy copper behind you?

Carlos Doglioli

Yes, a difficult one to answer directly, Rick, and that it does vary a lot by markets. We will be for example, by end of this year, about 1/3 of our copper exchanges shut down in Guyana. Alaska in our US markets, a lot of those will depend upon BEAD outcomes. We'll be one of the primary ways in which we will replace that some of that copper infrastructure.
We have a very large copper plan in Alaska. That will be the longest. But I think in generally, like most telecom companies, we are targeting this -- by 2030, we expect to make some to see some progress there. And we'll continue to see where some of these infrastructure investment programs planned, that will be a pretty important determinant of that.

Rick Prentiss

And it does feel like there's a support in Washington. AT&T is obviously making a big -- regulatory, of course, as well. Yes. Okay. Thanks, guys.

Carlos Doglioli

Yes. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Brad Martin for closing remarks.

Brad Martin

Well, thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to continuing our discussions with many of you in the coming months. I appreciate your time and support. Have a great day.

Operator

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