“Looking into the second half of the year, we expect cash taxes to be a billion dollars higher compared to the second half of last year.”

In context

“from securitization facilities was a $700 million use of cash. These efforts highlight the improving quality of free cash flow we're delivering. We expect to continue reducing our aggregate net balance of direct supplier and vendor financing on a year-over-year basis, which should lower our interest expense and continue to improve cash flow ratability over time. DIRECTV distributions in the quarter were about $740 million, and we continue to expect DIRECTV cash distributions to decline at a similar rate to 2023, or by about 20% annually. We generated $4.6 billion of free cash flow in the quarter and $7.7 billion in the first half of the year. Free cash flow is up $2.5 billion compared to the first half of last year, which is consistent with our goal of driving more ratable free cash flow. Looking into the second half of the year, we expect cash taxes to be a billion dollars higher compared to the second half of last year. We also expect to incur a onetime payment of $480 million in the third quarter related to our wireless network transformation. Overall, we're on pace to deliver on our full-year free cash flow guidance in the $17 billion to $18 billion range. To close, I'm very pleased with our team's performance in the first half of the year and we're on pace to deliver on all of our full-year financial guidance. Brett, that's our presentation. We're now ready for the Q&A. Brett Feldman: Thank you, Pascal. Operator, we're ready to take the first question. Operator: Our first question will come from the line of John Hodulik of UBS. Please go ahead. John Hodulik: Great. Thanks, guys. A couple if I could. First, John, you talked about higher activity levels in the second half in wireless, and obviously, the”