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Video Transcript

Ben Dold
Hello, I'm Ben Dold, President and COO of Midco, and I'm joined today by Cole Mack, Vice President of Field Engineering and Construction. Good to be with you today, Cole.  

Cole Mack
Thank you, Ben. 

Ben Dold  
Cole, construction season is ramping up soon. What do you and the team have planned for this spring and summer?  

Cole Mack  
Well, yes, it's going to be a very busy year. We're finally getting out of our winter season, and the teams are very poised to get off to a fast start. Fiber expansion is a very big year. Minnesota is going to be a popular market. But of course, our fiber upgrade initiatives across the entire footprint are really bringing a lot of focus for the teams this year, and we'll be very busy here very soon. 

Ben Dold
That sounds great, Cole. So, what do the construction plans that you have for fiber expansion and fiber upgrade mean for our customers in our communities?  

Cole Mack 
Well, we'll be bringing our best-in-class fiber broadband service throughout the communities, and you're going to see a whole lot of Midco, a lot of communication, a lot of our workforce and our teams out in the communities and being present. 

Ben Dold  
You know, I'm really glad that you brought up the visibility and presence of our team in the community throughout the construction process because having that visibility and communication is really important to us. But it doesn't just stop there. You know, when Midco comes into a new community, we bring our whole team there. And so, we're there to support customers, and we're there to be involved and be a force for good in the communities that we serve. So, I'm really glad that you talked about that. I'm excited to see the team get out in those new communities and our existing communities this spring and summer, as well. 

Cole Mack 
Absolutely. Very excited. The team does a wonderful job of staying engaged. And not only are we there to deliver services and build but also be a true member of the community and be there to support whatever it is that's going on. 

Ben Dold
That's great. So, Cole, what are you most excited about as we look ahead to this upcoming construction season?  

Cole Mack  
I'm most excited about some of the milestones that the teams are looking to achieve this year. We have a number of big wins in front of us. The West Metro is a huge one after a very fast start last year, and we’re looking to have a really strong close to finished, if not completely finished in 2026.  

Fiber Up is really rolling. This year is a huge one for getting all of our fiber-to-the-prem construction done. Grand Forks, Bismarck and Sioux Falls are seeing their final year of fiber-to-the-prem builds, and it’s really exciting.  

I would say the other one that's probably the most exciting for the whole group, although not directly construction related, is bringing MidcoTV, really the culmination of MidcoTV, to all of our residential customers. We know that paves a huge way for our construction teams to keep moving with upgrades, and it's something that I think all of us that have been around for a while are really excited to see it come to life. 

Ben Dold 
So we've used the terms Fiber Up and fiber expansion throughout this conversation. For folks that are not familiar, can you just describe what those terms mean for Midco and for our customers?  

Cole Mack 
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Fiber Up and fiber expansion, they're both part of our Fiber Forward initiative overall. Fiber expansion is our new growth, new fiber deployment into new areas.  

And essentially, Fiber Up is really our generational upgrade to improve our network overall, both driving fiber deeper and closer to the customer. But then also, it’s bringing in best-in-class service, new services with Wi-Fi, Midco TV and really just improving the overall reliability of our network so that we're covered far into the future for the next generation. 

Ben Dold 
That's great. You know, we talk a lot about Fiber Up being a generational upgrade of the network and that we're continuing to innovate and use new technologies to deliver all the capacity and reliability that our customers need. That's another great example of how we're doing that, so I appreciate it. 

Thanks for your time today. Good luck to the team for a safe and productive season, bringing enhanced connectivity to our friends and neighbors across the footprint. Really appreciate it. 

Cole Mack 
Absolutely. Thank you, Ben.