“Further, even including the impact of the Cox transaction and associated integration capital, we expect total combined company capital expenditures to decline in the first full calendar year post close.”

In context

“other operating expenses, driven by merger and acquisition costs related to the pending Cox transaction and severance costs. Turning to Slide 14. Capital expenditures totaled a bit less than $3.1 billion in the third quarter, nearly $500 million higher than last year's third quarter due to CPE spend timing and higher network evolution spend. We continue to expect total 2025 capital expenditures to reach approximately $11.5 billion, lower than our original outlook of $12 billion, primarily as a result of some network evolution capital pushed into 2026. Despite that push, our goal is to ensure that 2025 is the peak capital year, even if by a small margin. And aside from the network evolution timing variance, our previous commentary on capital outlook on a stand-alone basis remains the same. Further, even including the impact of the Cox transaction and associated integration capital, we expect total combined company capital expenditures to decline in the first full calendar year post close. All of those statements are inclusive of the BEAD spending I mentioned earlier. Turning to free cash flow on Slide 15. Third quarter free cash flow totaled $1.6 billion, in line with prior year, given higher CapEx offset by lower cash taxes and a more favorable change in cable working capital tied to CPE spend, some of which will reverse in 4Q. And we expect full year change in cable working capital to be modestly positive. Turning to quarterly and full year 2025 cash taxes. Third quarter cash taxes totaled $53 million, and we expect full year cash tax payments to total approximately $1 billion. We finished the third quarter with $95 billion in debt principal. Our weighted average cost of debt remains at an attractive 5.2%, and our current run rate annualized cash interest is $4.9 billion”