Segment Information

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment Information

Segment Information

As described in more detail below, our segments are managed based on the direct costs of providing services to their customers and the associated selling, general and administrative costs (primarily salaries and commissions). Shared costs are managed separately and included in "Operations and Other" in the tables below. We reclassified certain prior period amounts to conform to the current period presentation, See Note 1— Background for further detail on these changes.

At September 30, 2020, we had the following five reportable segments:

•International and Global Accounts Management ("IGAM") Segment. Under our IGAM segment, we provide our products and services to approximately 200 global enterprise customers and to enterprises and carriers in three operating regions: Europe Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific;

•Enterprise Segment. Under our enterprise segment, we provide our products and services to large and regional domestic and global enterprises, as well as public sector, which includes the U.S. federal government, state and local governments and research and education institutions;

•Small and Medium Business ("SMB") Segment. Under our SMB segment, we provide our products and services to small and medium businesses directly and through our indirect channel partners;

•Wholesale Segment. Under our wholesale segment, we provide our products and services to a wide range of other communication providers across the wireline, wireless, cable, voice and data center sectors. Our wholesale customers range from large global telecom providers to small regional providers; and

•Consumer Segment. Under our consumer segment, we provide our products and services to residential customers. Additionally, Connect America Fund ("CAF") federal support revenue and other revenue from leasing and subleasing are reported in our consumer segment as regulatory revenue.

Product and Service Categories

We categorize our products and services revenue among the following four categories for the IGAM, Enterprise, SMB and Wholesale segments:

•IP and Data Services, which includes primarily VPN data networks, Ethernet, IP, content delivery and other ancillary services;

•Transport and Infrastructure, which includes wavelengths, dark fiber, private line, colocation and data center services, including cloud, hosting and application management solutions, professional services and other ancillary services;

•Voice and Collaboration, which includes primarily local and long-distance voice, including wholesale voice, and other ancillary services, as well as VoIP services; and

•IT and Managed Services, which includes information technology services and managed services, which may be purchased in conjunction with our other network services.

We categorize our products and services revenue among the following four categories for the Consumer segment:

•Broadband, which includes high-speed fiber based and lower speed DSL broadband services;

•Voice, which includes local and long-distance services;

•Regulatory Revenue, which consists of (i) CAF and other support payments designed to reimburse us for various costs related to certain telecommunications services and (ii) other operating revenue from the leasing and subleasing of space; and

•Other, which includes retail video services (including our linear and TV services), professional services and other ancillary services.

The following tables summarize our segment results for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, based on the segment categorization we were operating under at September 30, 2020.

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2020
	International and Global Accounts		Enterprise	Small and Medium Business	Wholesale	Consumer	Total Segments	Operations and Other	Total
	(Dollars in millions)
Revenue:
IP and Data Services	$	381	611	266	318	—	1,576	—	1,576
Transport and Infrastructure	315		420	85	447	—	1,267	—	1,267
Voice and Collaboration	87		357	271	183	—	898	—	898
IT and Managed Services	52		51	13	1	—	117	—	117
Broadband	—		—	—	—	730	730	—	730
Voice	—		—	—	—	401	401	—	401
Regulatory	—		—	—	—	153	153	—	153
Other	—		—	—	—	25	25	—	25
Total revenue	835		1,439	635	949	1,309	5,167	—	5,167
Expenses:
Cost of services and products	229		478	94	120	47	968	1,268	2,236
Selling, general and administrative	58		124	97	16	118	413	437	850
Less: share-based compensation	—		—	—	—	—	—	(31)	(31)
Total expense	287		602	191	136	165	1,381	1,674	3,055
Total adjusted EBITDA	$	548	837	444	813	1,144	3,786	(1,674)	2,112

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2019
	International and Global Accounts		Enterprise	Small and Medium Business	Wholesale	Consumer	Total Segments	Operations and Other	Total
	(Dollars in millions)
Revenue:
IP and Data Services	$	404	631	270	353	—	1,658	—	1,658
Transport and Infrastructure	317		384	93	464	—	1,258	—	1,258
Voice and Collaboration	89		354	300	198	—	941	—	941
IT and Managed Services	56		59	11	2	—	128	—	128
Broadband	—		—	—	—	718	718	—	718
Voice	—		—	—	—	453	453	—	453
Regulatory	—		—	—	—	157	157	—	157
Other	—		—	—	—	37	37	—	37
Total revenue	866		1,428	674	1,017	1,365	5,350	—	5,350
Expenses:
Cost of services and products	235		451	99	134	50	969	1,365	2,334
Selling, general and administrative	64		132	108	15	122	441	390	831
Less: share-based compensation	—		—	—	—	—	—	(38)	(38)
Total expense	299		583	207	149	172	1,410	1,717	3,127
Total adjusted EBITDA	$	567	845	467	868	1,193	3,940	(1,717)	2,223

The following tables summarize our segment results for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 based on the segment categorization we were operating under at September 30, 2020.

	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2020
	International and Global Accounts		Enterprise	Small and Medium Business	Wholesale	Consumer	Total Segments	Operations and Other	Total
	(Dollars in millions)
Revenue:
IP and Data Services	$	1,167	1,862	798	965	—	4,792	—	4,792
Transport and Infrastructure	942		1,181	265	1,327	—	3,715	—	3,715
Voice and Collaboration	275		1,084	843	561	—	2,763	—	2,763
IT and Managed Services	165		165	33	2	—	365	—	365
Broadband	—		—	—	—	2,178	2,178	—	2,178
Voice	—		—	—	—	1,231	1,231	—	1,231
Regulatory	—		—	—	—	463	463	—	463
Other	—		—	—	—	80	80	—	80
Total revenue	2,549		4,292	1,939	2,855	3,952	15,587	—	15,587
Expenses:
Cost of services and products	694		1,388	297	383	131	2,893	3,810	6,703
Selling, general and administrative	184		395	316	49	352	1,296	1,302	2,598
Less: share-based compensation	—		—	—	—	—	—	(120)	(120)
Total expense	878		1,783	613	432	483	4,189	4,992	9,181
Total adjusted EBITDA	$	1,671	2,509	1,326	2,423	3,469	11,398	(4,992)	6,406

	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2019
	International and Global Accounts		Enterprise	Small and Medium Business	Wholesale	Consumer	Total Segments	Operations and Other	Total
	(Dollars in millions)
Revenue:
IP and Data Services	$	1,221	1,901	817	1,028	—	4,967	—	4,967
Transport and Infrastructure	949		1,085	282	1,441	—	3,757	—	3,757
Voice and Collaboration	267		1,078	929	584	—	2,858	—	2,858
IT and Managed Services	169		198	34	6	—	407	—	407
Broadband	—		—	—	—	2,158	2,158	—	2,158
Voice	—		—	—	—	1,397	1,397	—	1,397
Regulatory	—		—	—	—	471	471	—	471
Other	—		—	—	—	137	137	—	137
Total revenue	2,606		4,262	2,062	3,059	4,163	16,152	—	16,152
Expenses:
Cost of services and products	698		1,313	306	408	159	2,884	3,993	6,877
Selling, general and administrative	198		421	347	44	403	1,413	1,310	2,723
Less: share-based compensation	—		—	—	—	—	—	(114)	(114)
Total expense	896		1,734	653	452	562	4,297	5,189	9,486
Total adjusted EBITDA	$	1,710	2,528	1,409	2,607	3,601	11,855	(5,189)	6,666

Revenue and Expenses

Our segment revenue includes all revenue from our five segments as described in more detail above. Our segment revenue is based upon each customer's classification. We report our segment revenue based upon all services provided to that segment's customers. Our segment expenses include specific cost of service expenses incurred as a direct result of providing services and products to segment customers, along with selling, general and administrative expenses that are directly associated with specific segment customers or activities.

The following items are excluded from our segment results, because they are centrally managed and not monitored by or reported to our chief operating decision maker by segment:

•network expenses not incurred as a direct result of providing services and products to segment customers;

•centrally managed expenses such as Operations, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing, Product Management and IT, which are reported as "Operations and Other";

•depreciation and amortization expense or impairments;

•interest expense, because we manage our financing on a consolidated basis and have not allocated assets or debt to specific segments;

•stock-based compensation; and

•other income and expense items are not monitored as a part of our segment operations.

The following table reconciles total segment adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss):

	Three Months Ended September 30,			Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2020		2019	2020	2019
	(Dollars in millions)
Total segment adjusted EBITDA	$	3,786	3,940	11,398	11,855
Depreciation and amortization	(1,193)		(1,235)	(3,515)	(3,619)
Impairment of goodwill	—		—	—	(6,506)
Other operating expenses	(1,674)		(1,717)	(4,992)	(5,189)
Stock-based compensation	(31)		(38)	(120)	(114)
Operating income (loss)	888		950	2,771	(3,573)
Total other expense, net	(408)		(540)	(1,345)	(1,542)
Income (loss) before income taxes	480		410	1,426	(5,115)
Income tax expense	114		108	369	377
Net income (loss)	$	366	302	1,057	(5,492)