WideOpenWest (WOW!) remains optimistic about its customer base, despite recently trimming down its 2022 subscriber and revenue outlook. CFO John Rego on Tuesday asserted customer churn is below 2% – a “historically low” rate.
Speaking at an RBC investor conference, Rego said that figure takes into account both voluntary and involuntary (for non-payment) churn. Fewer people are choosing to cancel service, which ties into “increasing interest rates and decreased moving rates.”
“People are not leaving, so that helps [voluntary churn] be lower,” he said, adding WOW! is continuing to work on ways to reduce churn for non-payment, such as shifting some customers to cheaper internet plans.
The operator reported 519,000 total high speed data subscribers in its third quarter earnings, but noted it expects broadband net adds to fall within a range of 2,000 to negative 2,000 by year-end.
Going into 2023, Rego said WOW! will stick to its current growth plan, referring to how the operator last year sold off five of its service areas for a combined $1.79 billion. Part of the strategy behind that move was to “shrink the company so we can grow the company again.”
WOW! earlier this year raised its fiber passings goal from 200,000 to 400,000 locations by 2027 – a target driven by the operator’s greenfield builds in Florida and South Carolina.
“Out of the gate it looked better than we had thought of the markets we could go to,” Rego noted on the initial greenfield deployments. He added WOW! aims to penetrate markets that have a lone 1-gig provider and perhaps a DSL provider.
“If there’s a single 1-gig provider, they’re probably charging too much, the network is probably a little bit slow and the customer care is probably terrible,” Rego pointed out.
Regarding supply chain issues, Rego reiterated WOW! remains “ahead of the curve,” as the operator already ordered a year’s worth of supplies before starting the greenfield builds.
However, construction was marginally impacted by Hurricane Ian. While WOW!’s greenfield properties in Florida’s Seminole and Orange counties were unscathed by the storm, the company had issues obtaining access to telephone poles and other supplies from the state’s public utilities, who had to focus on repairing damages.
Despite that setback, Rego said WOW! still expects to start selling service in those areas sometime in January. He also mentioned the company is prepping its network for an eventual DOCSIS 4.0 upgrade.
“It’s not here yet…some of the gear we need to offer it hasn’t been invented yet, but I’m sure it will be soon enough,” said Rego. “Network upgrade is always built into our model and our budget, so we’re just going to trek along with it.”