Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (NASDAQ:SHEN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Edward McKay: So in our case, we have the materials. We have our own construction crews ready to do the work. That’s not where the issue is. It’s with the actual — the other utility companies, they’re having trouble getting resources to do their permitting work for the poles and then their locates for the underground facilities. So in some cases, we’re able to mitigate that by paying overtime work for — or over time for the locators that are located underground facilities, for example. We’re also working, in some cases, to do what’s called self-remedy where we’re able to adjust the other telecommunication facilities on the poles. So we’re working on ways to mitigate that, but that’s something we’re going to be dealing with for the next year plus.

Frank Louthan: Yeah. Okay. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Hamed Khorsand of BWS Financial.

Hamed Khorsand: Hey. Good morning. Just on the topic about this CapEx shift and the permitting and so forth. Would you be putting in more investment into getting penetration rates up into the markets that you’ve already established and connected or are you just really focused on the CapEx moving forward maybe next year?

Edward McKay: Hamed, this is Ed. So we’re very focused on increasing the penetration in our existing markets. That’s the primary goal of our sales and marketing teams and definitely focus in that area.

Hamed Khorsand: How does Horizon fit into this — I guess, your planning scope for next year, given that you’re doing everything Glo, the marketing involved, is there any form of distractions I’m trying to get to?

Edward McKay: So we’ll be using a separate engineering and construction team in the Horizon market. So we don’t feel that, that will be a distraction from the current construction we’re doing in the Glo markets.

Hamed Khorsand: Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. I’m showing no further questions. At this time, I would like to turn it back to Jim Volk for closing remarks.

James Volk: Thanks, everyone for joining us today, and have a great day. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.