Q4 2007 Alaska Communications Systems Group Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Alaska Communications Systems fourth quarter 2007 conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) This conference is being recorded today, Monday, March 17, 2008. Now I would like it turn the conference over to Ms. Mary Gasperlin. Please go ahead, ma'am.

MARY GASPERLIN, DIRECTOR, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS GROUP: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Alaska Communications Systems Group fourth quarter and year end 2007 conference call. With me today are Liane Pelletier, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chair of ACS; David Wilson, Chief Financial Officer; and Leonard Steinberg, General Counsel. During this call Company participants will make forward-looking statements as defined under U.S. Securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may include financial projections and estimates or other descriptions of the Company's plans, objectives, expectations or intentions. You're cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements as actual results could differ materially from expectations. As a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside the Company's control. We discussed these factors in our SEC filings.

We expect to file our most recent 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, later this week. You're strongly encouraged to carefully review the 10-K. It will contain a comprehensive restatement of 2006 and 2007 financial results and other useful information. An 8-K containing our earnings press release was filed prematurely by Business Wire before trading markets closed. Our earnings press release was issued subsequent to market close. These materials contain no differences in information. Lastly, any non-GAAP measures referred to during this call have been reconciled to the nearest GAAP measure. You may find these reconciliations in today's press release and our SEC filings on our investor website at wwwalska.com. We'll begin with Liane, then David will review our quarterly annual operational and financial performance, after which Liane will close with a summary and then open the call for questions. With that I would like to turn the call over to Liane. Liane.

LIANE PELLETIER, CHAIR, CEO, PRESIDENT, ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS GROUP: Thank you, Mary. Than you all for participating on the call today. First, let me say I am disappointed we weren't able to bring you our results last month. As you know from our last release we've been working through some accounting issues. The effect of the accounting changes was to increase our 2007 EBITDA performance by nearly $6 million and to increase noncash depreciation by $5 million. While I will let David Wilson walk you through those details, I want to assure you that the issues were isolated and a function of very complex outboard models that our internal controls have been strengthened and that we don't intend for this to ever happen again. Now let me share the results of our 2007 performance.

We closed 2007 with another year of superb execution with growth in top line, bottom line and cash from operations each exceeding (inaudible), of particular importance wireless revenues grew 19%, and enterprise wireline revenues grew 45%. As you know, we anticipate a substantial ROI in the enterprise segment as we bundle our differentiated long haul fiber to the lower 48 with our metro Ethernet, our MPLS, and our in-state fiber transport systems for sophisticated users. We also anticipate a continued high ROI in the wireless segment even as we face a changed brand. The Company's wireless business model builds on best network performance with additional differentiators. Specifically, having earned the reputation of best network, the Company has turned to earning a reputation of best plans and best service. We intend to enhance an already loyal customer base by proactively serving it in many new ways. Our strategies operating operators and budgets for the year contemplate investing for success in the enterprise and wireless segments as these two segments drive the …