As previously announced, TDS will hold a teleconference on February 21, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. CST. Listen to the call live via the Events & Presentations page of investors.tdsinc.com.

Investing in our networks; TDS Telecom provides 2025 guidance

CHICAGO (February 21, 2025) — Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE:TDS) reported total operating revenues of $1,240 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, versus $1,313 million for the same period one year ago. Net income (loss) attributable to TDS common shareholders and related diluted earnings (loss) per share were $(11) million and $(0.10), respectively, for the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $(523) million and $(4.64), respectively, in the same period one year ago.

Net income (loss) attributable to TDS common shareholders excluding a fourth quarter 2023 TDS Telecom non-cash charge related to goodwill impairment (Non-GAAP) of $547 million ($511 million, net of tax) and related diluted earnings (loss) per share excluding a fourth quarter 2023 TDS Telecom non-cash charge related to goodwill impairment (Non-GAAP) were $(12) million and $(0.11), respectively, for the fourth quarter of 2023.

TDS reported total operating revenues of $4,964 million and $5,160 million for the years ended 2024 and 2023, respectively. Net income (loss) attributable to TDS common shareholders and related diluted earnings (loss) per share were $(97) million and $(0.85), respectively, for the year ended 2024 compared to $(569) million and $(5.06), respectively, for the year ended 2023. Net income attributable to TDS common shareholders excluding 2024 impairment losses (non-GAAP) of $137 million ($103 million, net of tax) and related diluted earnings (loss) per share excluding 2024 impairment losses (non-GAAP) were $(12) million and $(0.11), respectively, for the year ended 2024. Substantially all of the UScellular impairment loss was related to the retained high-band spectrum unit of accounting which includes the 28 GHz, 37GHz and 38 GHz frequency bands.

Net income (loss) attributable to TDS common shareholders excluding a fourth quarter 2023 TDS Telecom non-cash charge related to goodwill impairment (Non-GAAP) of $547 million ($511 million, net of tax) and related diluted earnings (loss) per share excluding a fourth quarter 2023 TDS Telecom non-cash charge related to goodwill impairment (Non-GAAP) were $(58) million and $(0.53), respectively, for the year ended 2023.

Full year 2024 Highlights*

•Announced multiple transactions related to the strategic alternatives review

◦Transaction with T-Mobile and four spectrum transactions with various mobile network operators

•Improved wireless operating results

◦Postpaid and prepaid net losses improved

◦Postpaid and prepaid churn improved

◦Fixed wireless customers grew 27%

•Cash flows from operating activities and free cash flow up year over year

•Ongoing 5G mid-band network deployment — providing additional capacity and faster speeds for our customers

•Exceeded full year 2024 fiber address goal

◦Delivered 129,000 marketable fiber service addresses

•Executing on fiber broadband strategy

◦Expanded footprint 6% — increased total service addresses to 1.8 million

◦Residential broadband connections grew 2% and Residential revenue per connection grew 5%

◦Total Wireline expansion residential revenues grew to $114 million, up from $75 million

*Comparisons are Year Ended December 31, 2024 to Year Ended December 31, 2023

“During 2024, we made significant progress on the strategic review of alternatives at UScellular,” said Walter C. D. Carlson, TDS President and CEO. “And as part of our mission to provide outstanding communication services to our customers, both business units invested in their high-quality networks. UScellular continued to deploy its mid-band spectrum to enhance speed and capacity while TDS Telecom grew its footprint and delivered 129,000 new marketable fiber service addresses.

“In 2025, TDS Telecom will continue its ongoing fiber expansion and the FCC’s Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model program and intends to bring a fiber-rich network to over 150,000 new marketable service addresses throughout the country. And while UScellular works toward a successful close on the sale of its wireless operations and spectrum transactions, UScellular remains focused on its operational priorities and growing its tower business.”

On May 24, 2024, TDS and UScellular entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement to sell UScellular's wireless operations and select spectrum assets to T-Mobile US, Inc. (T-Mobile). The transaction is expected to close in mid-2025, subject to regulatory approval and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

On October 17, 2024, UScellular, and certain subsidiaries of UScellular, entered into a License Purchase Agreement with Verizon Communications, Inc. (Verizon) to sell certain AWS, Cellular and PCS wireless spectrum licenses, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, and agreed to grant Verizon certain rights to lease such licenses prior to the transaction close. Additionally, UScellular also entered into agreements with Nsight Spectrum, LLC and Nex-Tech Wireless, LLC for the sale of select spectrum licenses.

On November 6, 2024, UScellular, and certain subsidiaries of UScellular, entered into a License Purchase Agreement with New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC (AT&T), a subsidiary of AT&T, Inc. to sell certain 3.45 GHz and 700 MHz wireless spectrum licenses, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, and agreed to grant AT&T certain rights to lease and sub-lease such licenses prior to the transaction close.

Due to the pending transaction with T-Mobile, UScellular is not providing 2025 financial guidance.

TDS’ current estimates of full-year 2025 results for TDS Telecom are shown below. Such estimates represent management’s view as of February 21, 2025 and should not be assumed to be current as of any future date. TDS undertakes no duty to update such estimates, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that final results will not differ materially from estimated results.

The following tables reconcile EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted OIBDA to the corresponding GAAP measures, Net income or Income before income taxes. In providing 2025 estimated results, TDS has not completed the below reconciliation to Net income because it does not provide guidance for income taxes. Although potentially significant, TDS believes that the impact of income taxes cannot be reasonably predicted; therefore, TDS is unable to provide such guidance.

1EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted OIBDA are defined as net income adjusted for the items set forth in the reconciliation above. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted OIBDA are not measures of financial performance under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (GAAP) and should not be considered as alternatives to Net income or Cash flows from operating activities, as indicators of cash flows or as measures of liquidity. TDS does not intend to imply that any such items set forth in the reconciliation above are infrequent or unusual; such items may occur in the future. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted OIBDA as measurements of profitability, and therefore reconciliations to Net income are deemed appropriate. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted OIBDA are useful measures of TDS’ operating results before significant recurring non-cash charges, nonrecurring expenses, gains and losses, and other items as presented above as they provide additional relevant and useful information to investors and other users of TDS’ financial data in evaluating the effectiveness of its operations and underlying business trends in a manner that is consistent with management’s evaluation of business performance. Adjusted EBITDA shows adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and accretion, gains and losses while Adjusted OIBDA reduces this measure further to exclude Equity in earnings of unconsolidated entities and Interest and dividend income in order to more effectively show the performance of operating activities excluding investment activities. The table above reconciles EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted OIBDA to the corresponding GAAP measure, Net income or Income before income taxes. Additional information and reconciliations related to Non-GAAP financial measures for December 31, 2024, can be found on TDS' website at investors.tdsinc.com.

TDS will hold a conference call on February 21, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Central Time.

•Access the live call on the Events & Presentations page of investors.tdsinc.com or at

https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/548841993

•Access the call by phone at (888) 330-2384 (US/Canada), passcode: 1328528

Before the call, certain financial and statistical information to be discussed during the call will be posted to investors.tdsinc.com. The call will be archived on the Events & Presentations page of investors.tdsinc.com.

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS) provides wireless, broadband, video, and voice to approximately 5.5 million connections nationwide through its businesses, UScellular and TDS Telecom. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, TDS employed approximately 7,900 associates as of December 31, 2024.

Visit investors.tdsinc.com for comprehensive financial information, including earnings releases, quarterly and annual filings, shareholder information and more.

Colleen Thompson, Vice President - Corporate Relations

colleen.thompson@tdsinc.com

Julie Mathews, IRC, Director - Investor Relations

julie.mathews@tdsinc.com

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: All information set forth in this news release, except historical and factual information, represents forward-looking statements. This includes all statements about the company’s plans, beliefs, estimates, and expectations. These statements are based on current estimates, projections, and assumptions, which involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that may affect these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: whether the announced transactions whereby UScellular has agreed to sell its wireless operations and selected spectrum assets will be successfully completed or whether UScellular will be able to find buyers at mutually agreeable prices for its remaining spectrum assets; whether any such strategic alternative will result in additional value for TDS or its shareholders and whether the process will have an adverse impact on TDS’ businesses; if the announced transactions are not successfully completed there may be substantial changes in which the wireless business is conducted; if the announced transactions are successfully completed, substantial costs will be triggered and changes required in the manner in which UScellular’s remaining business is conducted; strategic decisions regarding the tower business; intense competition; the ability to obtain or maintain roaming arrangements with other carriers on acceptable terms and changes in roaming practices; the ability to obtain access to adequate radio spectrum to meet current or anticipated future needs, including participation in FCC auctions; the ability to attract people of outstanding talent throughout all levels of the organization; TDS' lack of scale relative to larger competitors; changes in demand, consumer preferences and perceptions, price competition, or churn rates; advances in technology; impacts of costs, integration problems or other factors associated with acquisitions, divestitures or exchanges of properties or wireless spectrum licenses and/or expansion of TDS’ businesses; the ability of the company to successfully construct and manage its networks; difficulties involving third parties with which TDS does business; uncertainties in TDS’ future cash flows and liquidity and access to the capital markets; the ability to make payments on TDS and UScellular indebtedness or comply with the terms of debt covenants; the effect on TDS' business if the collateral securing its secured term loan is foreclosed upon; conditions in the U.S. telecommunications industry; the value of assets and investments; the state and federal regulatory environment, including changes in regulatory support received and the ability to pass through certain regulatory fees to customers; pending and future litigation; cyber-attacks or other breaches of network or information technology security; control by the TDS Voting Trust; disruption in credit or other financial markets; deterioration of U.S. or global economic conditions; and the impact, duration and severity of public health emergencies. Investors are encouraged to consider these and other risks and uncertainties that are more fully described under “Risk Factors” in the most recent filing of TDS’ Form 10-K.

For more information about TDS and its subsidiaries, visit:

TDS: www.tdsinc.com

UScellular: www.uscellular.com

TDS Telecom: www.tdstelecom.com

Due to rounding, the sum of quarterly results may not equal the total for the year.

1First quarter 2024 connections were adjusted to remove subscribers that could no longer access the UScellular network due to the CDMA shutdown. This resulted in 11,000 and 2,000 subscribers removed from the postpaid and prepaid base, respectively, that are not included in Net additions (losses) for the quarter.

2Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) - metric is calculated by dividing a revenue base by an average number of connections and by the number of months in the period. These revenue bases and connection populations are shown below:

•Postpaid ARPU consists of total postpaid service revenues and postpaid connections.

•Prepaid ARPU consists of total prepaid service revenues and prepaid connections.

3Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) - metric is calculated by dividing total postpaid service revenues by the average number of postpaid accounts and by the number of months in the period.

4Handset upgrade rate calculated as total handset upgrade transactions divided by average postpaid handset connections.

5Churn rate represents the percentage of the connections that disconnect service each month. These rates represent the average monthly churn rate for each respective period.

6Fourth quarter 2023 Prepaid ARPU excludes a $6 million reduction of prepaid revenue related to an adjustment to correct a prior period error recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.

7Market penetration is calculated by dividing the number of wireless connections at the end of the period by the total estimated population of consolidated operating markets.

8Represents instances where a third-party wireless carrier rents or leases space on a company-owned tower.

9Average number of tenants that lease space on company-owned towers, measured on a per-tower basis.

1Total residential broadband connections increased by 8,100 during the three months ended March 31, 2024, due primarily to net additions of 6,400 as well as certain other adjustments.

2Divestitures in the fourth quarter of 2024 resulted in a decrease of 15,700 connections.

3Total residential revenue per connection is calculated by dividing total residential revenue by the average number of residential connections and by the number of months in the period.

1    Consists of TDS corporate, intercompany eliminations and all other business operations not included in the UScellular and TDS Telecom segments.

N/M - Percentage change not meaningful.

1Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure which TDS believes may be useful to investors and other users of its financial information in evaluating liquidity, specifically, the amount of net cash generated by business operations after deducting Cash paid for additions to property, plant and equipment and Cash paid for software license agreements.

The following non-GAAP financial measure isolates the total effects on net income of the Loss on impairment of intangible assets at TDS Telecom and UScellular, including tax impacts. TDS believes this measure may be useful to investors and other users of its financial information to assist in comparing financial results with periods that were not impacted by impairment charges.

The following table reconciles EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted OIBDA to the corresponding GAAP measures, Net income (loss) and Income (loss) before income taxes. Income and expense items below Operating income (loss) are not provided at the individual segment level for UScellular Wireless and UScellular Towers; therefore, the reconciliations begin with EBITDA and the most directly comparable GAAP measure is Operating income (loss) rather than Net income (loss) at the segment level.