Revenue from Contracts with Customers

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

The Company earns revenue primarily through the sale of its wireless service. Additional revenue is earned from the sale of wireless equipment; from business, residential and enterprise services which provide video, broadband, voice and data services; and from tower and other services. Refer to Note 14, Segment Reporting, for a tabular summary of revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019.

Wireless service

The Company earns revenue primarily through the sale of its wireless service by providing network access to Sprint under the affiliate agreement. Wireless service revenue is variable based on billed revenue to Sprint’s subscribers that originated in the Company's affiliate area, less applicable fees retained by Sprint.

The Company's revenue related to Sprint’s postpaid customers is the amount that Sprint bills its postpaid subscribers, reduced by customer credits, write-offs of receivables, and 8% management and 8.6% service fees. The Company is also charged for the costs of subsidized handsets sold through Sprint’s national channels as well as commissions paid by Sprint to third-party resellers in the Company's service territory.

The Company's revenue related to Sprint’s prepaid customers is the amount that Sprint bills its prepaid subscribers, reduced by costs to acquire and support the customers, based on national averages for Sprint’s prepaid programs, and a 6% management fee.

The Company considers Sprint, rather than Sprint's subscribers, to be the customer and the Company's performance obligation is to provide Sprint a series of continuous network access services within the Sprint Affiliate Area. The Company determined that reimbursements to Sprint including the cost of prepaid handsets and commissions, and postpaid commissions paid by Sprint to third-party resellers, represent consideration payable to a customer. These reimbursements are initially recorded as a contract asset and are subsequently recognized as a reduction of revenue over the expected benefit period between 21 and 53 months. Contract asset balances and activity for 2019 were as follows:



(in millions)	Three Months Ended June 30, 2019			Six Months Ended June 30, 2019
Beginning balance	$	70.4		$	65.7
Contract payments	17.5			35.7
Contract amortization	(14.1		)	(27.6		)
Ending balance	$	73.8		$	73.8

Wireless equipment

The Company also earns revenue through the sale of wireless equipment. The Company owns and operates Sprint-branded retail stores within the Sprint Affiliate Area from which the Company sells equipment, primarily wireless handsets, and service to Sprint subscribers. The Company's equipment is predominantly sold to subscribers through Sprint's equipment financing plans. Under the equipment financing plans, Sprint purchases the equipment from the Company and resells the equipment to its subscribers. The Company is the principal in these equipment financing transactions, as it controls and bears the risk of ownership of the inventory prior to sale, and accordingly, revenue and handset costs are recorded on a gross basis, and the corresponding cost of the equipment is recorded separately to cost of goods sold.

Business, residential and enterprise

The Company also earns revenue in the Cable and Wireline segments from the sale of business, residential, and enterprise services to customers where the performance obligations are to provide cable, broadband, and telephone network services, sell and lease equipment and wiring services, and lease fiber-optic cable. The Company's arrangements for residential services are generally composed of contracts that are cancellable at the customer’s discretion without penalty at any time. As there are multiple performance obligations in these arrangements, the Company recognizes revenue based on the standalone selling price of each distinct good or service. The Company generally recognizes this revenue over time as customers simultaneously receive and consume the benefits of the service, with the exception of equipment sales and home wiring which are recognized as revenue at a point in time when control transfers and when installation is complete, respectively.

Installation fees are allocated to services and are recognized ratably over the longer of the contract term or the period the unrecognized portion of the fee remains material to the contract, typically 10 and 11 months for Cable and Wireline customers, respectively. Additionally, the Company incurs commission and installation costs related to in-house employees and third-party vendors which are capitalized and amortized over the expected benefit period which is approximately 44 months and 72 months for Cable and Wireline, respectively.

Tower and Other

The Company also earns revenue from tower and other services. Tower revenue consists primarily of tower collocation space on cell towers owned by the Company accounted for under Topic 842, Leases. Other revenue includes network access-related charges for service provided to customers across the segments.

Future performance obligations

On June 30, 2019, the Company had approximately $3.4 million allocated to unsatisfied performance obligations, which excludes contracts with original expected duration of one year or less. The following table summarizes the approximate amounts expected to be recognized as revenue after June 30, 2019.



	Amount Expected to be Recognized as Revenue:
(in millions)
2019	$	0.4
2020	0.7
2021	0.7
2022 and thereafter	1.6
Total	$	3.4

Contract acquisition costs and costs to fulfill contracts

Capitalized contract costs represent contract fulfillment costs and contract acquisition costs which include commissions and installation costs in our Cable and Wireline segments. Capitalized contract costs are amortized on a straight-line basis over the average customer life. The Company elected to apply the practical expedient to expense contract acquisition costs when incurred, if the amortization period would be twelve months or less. The amortization of these costs is included in cost of services, and selling, general and administrative expenses. Amortized and capitalized costs for Cable and Wireline contracts were as follows:



(in millions)	Three Months Ended June 30, 2019			Six Months Ended June 30, 2019
Beginning Balance	$	10.4		$	10.1
Contract payments	1.5			3.2
Contract amortization	(1.4		)	(2.8		)
Ending Balance	$	10.5		$	10.5