Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. ($TDS)

Thank you, Alexia. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Walter Carlson, President and CEO and Chair of TDS, and I will be chairing this Annual Meeting of the TDS shareholders. At this meeting, at this time, I call the meeting to order, and I would like to thank everyone present and on the webcast for participating in this meeting. It is now -- oh my gosh, I would say 8:59. So we got to wait for a second as we decided 9:00. Would you like me to start again? It's -- now it's 9:00 (sic) [ 10:00 ]. Very good. Okay. So we will call the meeting to order. And at this time, polls are open for voting on the matters before this annual meeting as set forth in the notice of annual meeting and proxy statement and on the agenda for this meeting. The rules of conduct that we will follow for this meeting are set forth on the reverse side of the agenda. If you do not have a copy of the agenda and rules of conduct and would like a copy, please raise your hand and one will be brought to you. Does anybody need an agenda? I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the directors, officers and special guests of TDS. I'd first like to introduce the other directors of TDS who are present. LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr., Director and Vice Chair of TDS. Okay, that's better. Okay. Dr. Letitia G. Carlson, Director of TDS and Physician and Clinical Professor at George Washington University Medical Center; Prudence E. Carlson, Director of TDS; Kenneth S. Dixon, Director of TDS and President and Chief Executive Officer of TDS Telecommunications LLC; Kimberly D. Dixon, Director of TDS and former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of FedEx Office; Christopher D. O'Leary, Director of TDS and former Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, International of General Mills; George W. Off, Director of TDS and former Chair and CEO of Checkpoint Systems; Wade Oosterman, Director of TDS and former President, Bell Media and Vice Chair of BCE and Bell. I'm introducing Napoleon. He is joining us, and I don't know whether he's had a chance to dial in, but Napoleon B. Rutledge, Director of TDS and Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer; of McKesson Corporation; Vicki L. Villacrez, Director of TDS and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at TDS. And finally, our last Director, Dirk Woessner, Director of TDS and Senior Vice President at Warburg Pincus. I'd also like to take this time to introduce the other officers of the company and officers of subsidiaries who are present today. So Joseph R. Hanley, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development. And Joe has been at many annual meetings, and this is Joe's last annual meeting. Joe, thank you for your years of service. AnneMarie I. Kreitzer, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer; William Case, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer; Elsa B. Ansani, Vice President, Internal Audit and Corporate Secretary; Kristina S. Bothfeld, Vice President, Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning; John P. Kelsh, General Counsel of TDS and partner of Sidley Austin LLP; Kenneth M. Cutillo, Vice President, Corporate Development; Ilan S. Pragaspathy, Vice President, Growth and Transformation; Rachel M. Tippery, Vice President, Supply Chain, Sourcing and Logistics; John M. Toomey, Treasurer and Vice President, Corporate Relations. Now from the subsidiaries, we have Mark Nachman, Senior Vice President, sales at TDS Telecommunications. Welcome, Mark. Also from TDS Telecommunications, Curtis Adamson, Vice President, Customer Service. Welcome, Curtis. And then from Array Digital Infrastructure, Anthony Carlson, CEO and President of Array Digital Infrastructure. Welcome everyone. I know there are many other guests, but there are 2 other people I want to call out today. First is Julie Mathews, and the second is Mitch Mick. And if you would both stand up together. Stand up. You got to stay standing up. So for those of you who don't know this, Julie Matthews and Mitch Mick have been the underpinnings of this annual meeting and the annual meetings at Array for many years. Each of them have sadly told me that they're interested in retiring. And so in all likelihood, other than as shareholders, they won't be back here next year, but everybody should give them a round of applause for the wonderful work that they've done. PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent registered public accountant, is also in attendance. Shaun Goldfarb of PricewaterhouseCoopers has advised me they have no formal statement to make and will be available to answer any appropriate questions during the Q&A portion at the end of this meeting. To act as inspectors of election, I have appointed Julie Mathews of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. and Douglas Ives of Computershare Investor Services, our independent transfer agent and registrar. Will the holders of any undelivered proxies, please hold them up so that they may be picked up by the inspectors of election at this time. Okay. Seeing none, we'll proceed with our agenda here. So all matters scheduled for business at this meeting will be introduced by the Chair. If any shareholder with a proper purpose would like to address the business at hand, I would ask you to raise your hand and address the chair, identifying yourself and disclosing the nature of your business. In addition, shareholders will have an opportunity following the formal part of the meeting and management presentation to ask any questions they may have. In the interest of time, we will dispense with the reading of the notice of the meeting and the affidavit of mailing of the notice. We will also dispense with the reading of the minutes of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on May 22, 2025. The Secretary has copies of these documents if any shareholder would like to examine them after the meeting. The Board of Directors has set March 23, 2026, as the record date for this shareholders' meeting. By order of the Board of Directors, management of the company distributed a notice of annual meeting and proxy statement on April 8, 2026, and the company's solicited proxies from the shareholders for this meeting. The inspectors have tabulated the proxies received before this meeting and advised me of the voting results immediately prior to the commencement of this meeting. Virtually all votes are received through proxies and and the voting results with respect to all matters are generally known before the meeting starts. Accordingly, the inspectors of election have been instructed to advise me prior to the announcement of such results only in the event that there are changes of outcome considering any votes delivered, changed or revoked after the commencement of this meeting and prior to the closing of the polls for voting. Subject to formal certification by the inspectors of election, I have been informed that a majority of the voting power of each requisite voting group of TDS shares issued and outstanding on March 23, 2026, the record date for this annual meeting, is represented at today's meeting. Accordingly, the formal business of the meeting will proceed on the basis that a quorum is present. The only matters which may properly come before the meeting involving a vote of shareholders are those that were set forth in the notice of annual meeting and proxy statement. The 4 proposals in the notice of annual meeting and proxy statement are: number one, the election of directors; number two, the ratification of auditors; number three, approval of amendment to the company's restated certificate of incorporation to allow for exculpation of officers and number four, advisory vote on executive compensation. The first item of business is the election of directors nominated by the Board of Directors. As indicated in the notice of annual meeting and proxy statement, 4 directors will be elected by the holders of common shares, and 8 directors will be elected by the holders of Series A common shares. The Board of Directors has nominated Kimberly D. Dixon, Christopher D. O'Leary, Wade Oosterman and Dirk S. Woessner for election as directors by the holders of common shares. The Board of Directors has also nominated LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr.; Letitia G. Carlson; Prudence Carlson; myself, Walter Carlson; Kenneth S. Dixon; George W. Off; Napoleon B. Rutledge, Jr.; and Vicki L. Villacrez [Technical Difficulty]