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Revenue from Contracts with Customers
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]  
Revenue from Contracts with Customers Revenue from Contracts with Customers
 
Refer to Note 13, Segment Reporting, for a summary of our revenue streams, which are discussed further below.

Wireless Segment Revenue

Historically we earned $1.5 million in monthly fees for services that we provided to Sprint customers who pass through our network, ("travel revenue"). On April 30, 2019, the agreed upon pricing for this service expired, and Sprint suspended further payments. At that time, we ceased recognition of travel revenue until an agreement on pricing could be reached, but continued to provide this service to Sprint’s customers. In October 2019, we initiated binding arbitration with Sprint pursuant to the terms of our affiliate agreement. During June 2020, the arbitrators reset the fee to $1.5 million per month pricing through December 31, 2021. As a result, we recognized $21.0 million of travel revenue during the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 for service that we have provided since May 1, 2019. We collected payment of this amount in July of 2020. We recognized $1.5 million and $6.0 million in travel revenue for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2019, respectively.

Below is a summary of the Wireless segment's contract asset:
 
 
Three Months Ended
June 30,
 
Six Months Ended
June 30,
(in thousands)
 
2020
 
2019
 
2020
 
2019
Beginning Balance
 
$
86,198

 
$
70,371

 
$
84,663

 
$
65,674

Contract payments
 
14,937

 
17,565

 
33,182

 
35,716

Contract amortization against revenue
 
(17,456
)
 
(14,147
)
 
(34,166
)
 
(27,601
)
Ending Balance
 
$
83,679

 
$
73,789

 
$
83,679

 
$
73,789



Our Wireless contract asset is reduced by an estimated obligation to refund amounts that Sprint is later unable to collect from its subscribers. This refund obligation totaled $10.0 million at June 30, 2020 and $7.0 million at December 31, 2019. A change to Sprint’s collection policies extended the timeline to write-off a delinquent subscriber's invoice from four to five months. This had the effect of increasing the cash that we collected from Sprint during the period, but also extended the timeframe under which we can be required to refund those amounts. This drove a $1.8 million increase in the refund obligation, but had no impact on our recognition of revenue. The remaining $1.2 million increase was recognized as contra revenue and was driven by changes in expected credit losses, primarily as a result of COVID-19 and Sprint's participation in the Keep Americans Connected pledge.

Broadband Segment Revenue

Below is a summary of the Broadband segment's capitalized contract acquisition costs:
 
 
Three Months Ended
June 30,
 
Six Months Ended
June 30,
(in thousands)
 
2020
 
2019
 
2020
 
2019
Beginning Balance
 
$
11,663

 
$
10,409

 
$
11,005

 
$
10,091

Contract payments
 
2,248

 
1,457

 
3,933

 
3,156

Contract amortization
 
(1,131
)
 
(1,390
)
 
(2,158
)
 
(2,771
)
Ending Balance
 
$
12,780

 
$
10,476

 
$
12,780

 
$
10,476



Future performance obligations
On June 30, 2020, the Company had approximately $3.1 million allocated to unsatisfied performance obligations that will be satisfied at the rate of approximately $0.8 million per year.