Nuvera Communications (NUVR) 10-K/A2023 FY Annual report (amended)

UNITED STATES

 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C.  20549

AMENDMENT No 1 TO FORM 10-K ON FORM 10-K/A

(X)   ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023

(  )    TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from______to______

Commission File Number: 0-3024

NUVERA COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

27 North Minnesota Street

New Ulm, Minnesota 56073

(Address of principal executive offices)

Registrant's telephone number, including area code:  (507) 354-4111

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12 (g) of the Act: 

Title of each class                                                      Trading Symbol                            Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock - $1.66 par value                                     NUVR                                                                   OTCQB Marketplace

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes  ☐   No  ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.  Yes  ☐ No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes  ☒  No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes  ☒  No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large, accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large, accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “non-accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. ☐  Large, accelerated filer  ☐  Accelerated filer  ☒  Non-accelerated filer  ☒  Smaller reporting company  ☐  Emerging growth company ☐

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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐     

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  Yes  ☐  No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common stock was sold, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was $55,420,052. This calculation is based upon the closing price of $13.50 of the stock on June 30, 2023, as quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace. Without asserting that any director or executive officer of the registrant, or person owning 5% or more of the registrant’s common stock, is an affiliate, the shares of which they are the beneficial owners have been deemed to be owned by affiliates solely for this calculation.

As of March 15, 2024, the registrant had 5,133,207 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on May 23, 2024, are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Note to Amendment No. 1 to Form 10-K on Form 10-K/A.

On March 15, 2024, Nuvera Communications, Inc. (“Nuvera: or the Company”) filed its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. After filing, the Company discovered that the filing did not show a conformed opinion on the audited financial statements from the independent registered public accounting firm. The Company is filing this Amendment No. 1 to Form 10-K on Form 10-K/A to include the conformed signature, correct the location of Item 15 Exhibits and Financial Statements Schedule and the Signature page. The Company also has made a few substantive changes in this Amendment No. 1 to Form 10-K on Form 10-K/A to the original Form 10-K filing.

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

The SEC encourages companies to disclose forward-looking information so that investors can better understand a company’s prospects and make informed investment decisions. Certain statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including those relating to the impact on future revenue sources, pending and future regulatory orders, continued expansion of the fiber communications network and expected changes in the sources of our revenue and cost structure resulting from our entrance into new communications markets, are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements reflect, among other things, our current expectations, plans and strategies, and anticipated financial results. These forward-looking statements reflect, among other things, our current expectations, plans, strategies, and anticipated financial results. There are a number of risks, uncertainties and conditions that may cause the actual results of Nuvera Communications, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Nuvera,” the “Company,” “we” or “our” or “us”) to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Many of these circumstances are beyond our ability to control or predict. Moreover, forward-looking statements necessarily involve assumptions on our part. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “seeks,” “targets,” “continues,” “should,” “will be,” “will continue,” or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Nuvera and its subsidiaries to be different from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties may include, but are not limited to: i) unfavorable general economic conditions that could negatively affect our operating results; ii) substantial regulatory change and increased competition; iii) our possible pursuit of acquisitions could be expensive or not successful; iv) we may not accurately predict technological trends or the success of new products; v) shifts in our product mix may result in declines in our operating profitability; vi) possible consolidation among our customers; vii) a failure in our operational systems or infrastructure could affect our operations; viii) data security breaches; ix) possible replacement of key personnel; x) elimination of governmental network support we receive; xi) our current debt structure may change due to increases in interest rates or our ability to comply with lender loan covenants and xii) possible customer payment defaults. For these forward-looking statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in federal securities laws. Shareholders and the investing public should understand that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could affect our actual results and cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements that appear throughout this report. Furthermore, these statements speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required under federal securities laws or the rules and regulations of the SEC, we disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. 

Website Access to SEC Reports

Our website at www.nuvera.net provides information about our products and services, along with general information about Nuvera and its management and financial results. Copies of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, can be obtained, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practical after these reports are electronically filed or furnished to the SEC. To obtain this information, visit our website noted above and select “About Us – Investors” to view Nuvera SEC filings,” or call (844) 354-4111. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding public companies, including Nuvera Communications, Inc. Any reports filed with the SEC may also be obtained from the SEC’s Reference Room at 100F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549.

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Code of Business Conduct and Ethics

Our Board of Directors (BOD) have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that is applicable to all directors, the chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO) and to all other employees of Nuvera. All employees of Nuvera have undergone training on this Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. The information required by Item 406 of Regulation S-K is contained under “Code of Business Conduct” in the definitive proxy statement (2024 Proxy Statement) and is incorporated by reference. Our BOD has also adopted written charters for its committees that comply with the NASDAQ Global Select Market. Copies of the committee charters are available on our website above or by contacting us at (844) 354-4111.  

PART I

Item 1.   Business

Company Overview and History

Nuvera is a diversified communications Company headquartered in New Ulm, Minnesota with more than 118 years of experience in the communications business. We operate in one principal business segment: the Communications Segment.

Our principal line of business is the operation of seven communications companies. Our original business was founded in 1905 and consisted of the operation of a single communications company (New Ulm Rural Telephone Company). In 1984, we changed our name to New Ulm Telecom, Inc. In 1986, we acquired Western Telephone Company (WTC). In 1993, we acquired Peoples Telephone Company (PTC). In 2008, we acquired Hutchinson Telephone Company (HTC). In 2012, we acquired Sleepy Eye Telephone Company (SETC). In 2018, we acquired Scott-Rice Telephone Co. (Scott-Rice). Our businesses consist of connecting customers to our advanced fiber communications network, providing managed services, switched service and dedicated private lines, connecting customers to long distance service providers and providing many other services associated with our businesses. Our businesses also provide Internet protocol television (IPTV), cable television services (CATV), Internet access services, including high-speed broadband access, and long-distance service. We also install and maintain communications systems to the areas in and around our service territories in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. In 2008 we acquired Hutchinson Telecommunications, Inc. This company operates in and around the city of Litchfield, Minnesota and operates under less regulatory oversight than our other communications companies. In 2010, we acquired the cable TV system in the city of Glencoe and operate Glencoe under the Hutchinson Telecommunications, Inc. communications company. This Company offers the same services as our other communications companies. In 2000, we changed our marketing name to NU-Telecom and operated under that name in our markets. In 2018, we changed our marketing name to Nuvera and currently operate under that name in our markets.

Recent Business Development

On March 31, 2023, Nuvera and the other owners of FiberComm, LC (Fibercomm) sold 100% of their interest in FiberComm to ImOn Communications, LLC. FiberComm has been providing high quality Internet and voice services to businesses in the Sioux City, Iowa market for over 20 years. Nuvera owned a 20% interest in FiberComm through its wholly owned subsidiary PTC. Nuvera announced the execution of the FiberComm sale agreement in January 2023. Nuvera recognized a gain of $4,660,775, net of escrow true ups, in book value in connection with the sale of the FiberComm interest. Prior to the sale of Nuvera’s equity investment in FiberComm, Nuvera had guaranteed a portion of a ten-year loan owed by FiberComm, set to mature on April 30, 2026. On March 31, 2023, upon closing of the sale, the loan was paid and Nuvera was released from their guarantee of loan.

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On December 15, 2021, the Company announced plans to build and deploy gigabit-speed (Gig or Gbps) fiber Internet across its network creating crucial access to the fastest speeds available for rural communities, small cities and suburban areas across Minnesota. Nuvera’s investment in a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network infrastructure will allow more underserved communities across Minnesota to leverage the quality of life and economic opportunity that access to a state-of-the-art network provides. The Company will continue to build and deploy the Gig-speed service over the next few years. Nuvera’s fiber network gives customers affordable access to a range of speeds from 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 1 Gig. Nuvera’s goal is to bring Gig-speed service to as many communities as possible.

Nuvera’s fiber Internet prices range from $50 per month to $100 per month for Gig-speed services. Customers can choose the right speed at an affordable price, including low-income households through Federal programs.

The Communications Segment operates the following communications companies and has investment ownership interests as follows:

Communications Segment

We report the business operations of our seven communications companies and their associated services as a single segment that we refer to as the Communications Segment. 

The Communications Segment operates the following communications companies: Nuvera, HTC, PTC, Scott-Rice, SETC, WTC and Litchfield, Minnesota. Nuvera, HTC, Scott-Rice, SETC, WTC and Litchfield are independent communications companies that are regulated by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission at the state level, while PTC is an independent communications company that is regulated by the Iowa Utilities Board at the state level. Our communications companies located in Redwood Falls and Litchfield are currently not under the same level of regulatory oversight as our other communications companies. As of December 31, 2023 we served 33,280 data connections and 13,656 access lines in many Minnesota communities. We provide broadband and/or voice services in Arlington, Bellechester, Cologne, Courtland, Dassel, Evan, Goodhue, Hanska, Hector, Hutchinson, Klossner, Litchfield, Mazeppa, Elko New Market, New Ulm, Prior Lake, Redwood Falls, Sanborn, Savage, Searles, Sleepy Eye, Springfield and White Rock, as well as the adjacent rural areas of Blue Earth, Brown, Goodhue, McLeod, Meeker, Nicollet, Redwood, Rice, Scott and Wabasha counties in south central Minnesota. We also serve the community of Aurelia, Iowa as well as the adjacent rural areas surrounding Aurelia. The Communications Segment also operates multiple IPTV and CATV systems in Minnesota (including the cities of Cologne, Courtland, Glencoe, Goodhue, Hanska, Hutchinson, Litchfield, Mayer, Elko New Market, New Germany, New Ulm, Plato, Prior Lake, Redwood Falls, Sanborn, Savage, Sleepy Eye and Springfield) and one IPTV system in Aurelia, Iowa. These systems serve 8,214 customers.

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The Communications Segment derives its principal revenues from (i) voice service charges to its residential and business subscribers, (ii) access charges to Interexchange Carriers (IXCs) for providing the carriers access to our local phone networks and (iii) the provisioning of video and data services.

None of our communications companies are dependent upon any single customer or small group of customers. No single customer accounted for 10% or more of our consolidated revenues in any of the last two years.

We provide a variety of business communication services to small, medium and large business customers, including many services over our advanced fiber-optic (fiber) network. The services we offer include scalable high speed broadband Internet access and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone services, which range from basic service plans to virtual hosted systems. Our hosted VoIP package utilizes our soft switching technology and enables our customers to have the flexibility of employing new telephone advances and features without investing in a new telephone system. This package includes voice service, calling features, IP business telephones and unified messaging, which integrates multiple technologies into a single system and allows the customer to receive and listen to voice messages through e-mail. 

In addition to Internet and VoIP services, we also offer a variety of commercial data connectivity services in select markets including private line and Ethernet services to provide high bandwidth across point-to-point and multiple site networks.

We receive most of our revenues through the following sources:

Voice Service – We receive recurring revenue for basic local voice services that enable end-user customers to make and receive telephone calls within a defined local calling area for a flat monthly fee. In addition to subscribing to basic local telephone services, our customers may choose from multiple voice service plans with a variety of custom calling features such as call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification and voicemail. Our VoIP digital phone service is also available as an alternative to the traditional telephone line.   

Network Access – We provide access services to other communications carriers for the use of our facilities to terminate or originate long distance calls on our fiber network. Additionally, we bill monthly subscriber line charges (SLCs) to substantially all our customers for access to the public switched network. These monthly SLCs are regulated and approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In addition, network access revenue is derived from several federally administered pooling arrangements designed to provide support and distribute funding to us.   

Video Service – We provide a variety of enhanced video services on a monthly recurring basis to our customers. Depending on geographical market availability, our video services range from limited basic service to advanced digital TV, which includes several plans each with hundreds of local, national music channels including premium and pay-per-view channels as well as video-on-demand service. Certain customers may also subscribe to our advanced video services, which consist of high-definition (HD) TV, digital video recorders (DVR) and Whole Home DVR. Our Whole Home DVR allows customers the ability to watch recorded shows on any TV in the house, record multiple shows at one time and utilize an intuitive on-screen guide and user interface. Video subscribers also have access to our TV Everywhere service which allows subscriber access to full episodes of available shows, movies and live screens using a computer or mobile device. We also receive monthly recurring revenue from our subscribers for providing commercial TV programming in competition with local CATV, satellite dish TV and off-air TV service providers. We serve twenty-two communities with our IPTV services and five communities with our CATV services.

Data Service – We provide high speed Internet to business and residential customers depending on the nature of the network facilities that are available, the level of service selected and the location. Our revenue is earned based on the offering of various flat rate packages based on the level of service, data speeds and features. We also provide e-mail and managed services, such as web hosting and design, on-line file back up and on-line file storage.  

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Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-Cam)/Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF) – The Company currently receives funding based on the A-CAM, except for Scott-Rice, which receives funding from the FUSF. Scott-Rice’s settlements from the National Exchange Carriers Association (NECA) pools are based on nationwide average schedules, which includes the pooling and redistribution of revenues based on a company’s actual or average costs. See below for a discussion regarding A-CAM and FUSF.

Other – Our customers are billed for toll and long-distance services on either a per call or flat-rate basis. This also includes the offering of directory assistance, operator service and long-distance private lines. We also generate revenue from directory publishing through an outside vendor, sales and service of customer premise equipment (CPE), bill processing and other customer services. Our directory publishing revenue in our telephone directories recurs monthly. We also provide retail sales and service of cellular phones and accessories through Telespire, a national wireless provider. We resell these wireless services as Nuvera Wireless, our branded product. We receive both recurring revenue for our wireless services, as well as revenue collected for the sale of wireless phones and accessories. 

Sales and Marketing

The key components of our overall marketing strategy include:

We currently offer our services through customer service call centers, our website and commissioned sales representatives.  Our customer service call centers and dedicated sales teams serve as the primary sales channels for consumer, commercial and carrier services.  Our sales efforts are supported by digital media, direct mail, bill inserts, radio, TV and Internet advertising, public relations activities, community events and customer promotions. We sell our Gig consumer fiber broadband service through our fiber network, which we launched in late 2021 in select markets.  

In addition to our customer service call centers, customers can contact us through our website, online chat and social media channels. Our online customer portal enables customers to pay their bills, manage their accounts, order new services and utilize self-service help and support. Our priority is to continue enhancing our comprehensive customer care system to produce a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, which is important to our ability to reduce churn and generate recurring revenues.

Business Strategies

Transform our Company into a dominant fiber-gig broadband provider:

On December 15, 2021, the Company announced plans to build and deploy Gig-speed fiber Internet across its network creating crucial access to the fastest speeds available for rural communities, small cities and suburban areas across Minnesota. The five-year build plan, which began in late 2021, will when complete, include approximately 60,000 location passings to fiber enabling Gig-capable services by 2025. In 2023, we upgraded 17,132 locations with fiber services and faster broadband speeds and plan to upgrade more than 10,400 locations in 2024. This marks the biggest fiber deployment project in our Company’s history. In addition to best-in-class upload and download speeds, we believe the resulting fiber network will offer better reliability, improved speed consistency, and a lower operating cost relative to competing broadband network technologies. Given these benefits, we believe that our fiber deployment strategy will allow us to realize meaningful improvements to our operating results, broadband subscriber penetration and customer retention.  

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We believe our customers place a value on the fact that we are a local company whose goal is to meet their total communications needs. The success of this vision depends on the following strategies:

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Competition

We compete in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive industry and expect competition will continue to intensify as consolidations and mergers occur within the industry. Regulatory developments and technological advances over the past several years have increased opportunities for alternative communications service providers, which in turn have increased competitive pressures on our business. These alternative providers often face fewer regulations and have lower cost structures than we do. In addition, several of our competitors have consolidated with other communication providers and as a result are generally larger, have more financial and business resources and have greater geographical reach to provide services. Our competitive advantages include: our strong commitment and presence in the communities we serve, knowledge of these markets, our experienced voice service and support team, and our ability to offer more flexible communications solutions than our larger competitors.

The long-range effect of competition on the delivery of communications services and equipment will depend on technological advances, regulatory actions at both the federal and the state levels, court decisions, and possible additional future federal and state legislation. Past federal and state legislation have tended to expand competition in the communications industry. 

Alternatives to our service include customers leasing private line switched voice and data services in or adjacent to our service territories that permit the bypassing of our communications facilities. In addition, microwave transmission services, wireless communications, fiber/coaxial cable deployment, VoIP, satellite and other services also permit the bypassing of our local exchange network. These alternatives to local exchange service represent a potential threat to our long-term ability to provide local exchange services at economical rates.

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To meet competition, present in our industry, we are deploying the latest FTTH technology to deliver our data, video and voice services at a higher bandwidth, enabling us to provide our services at much higher speeds. 

We compete in the cities of Redwood Falls, Litchfield and Glencoe, Minnesota. These communications companies are currently not under the same level of regulatory oversight as our communications companies. Lumen Technologies is the existing communications company in these markets. Competition also exists in the other communities and areas served by us for traditional telephone service from wireless communications providers and we also expect competition to increase from service providers offering VoIP. We experience competition in the Minnesota communities of Glencoe, Hutchinson, Litchfield, Elko New Market, New Ulm, Prior Lake, Redwood Falls, Savage, Sleepy Eye and Springfield in the provisioning of video services. Comcast is the existing incumbent provider of video services in the New Ulm market. Mediacom is the existing incumbent provider of video services in the Hutchinson, Litchfield, Elko New Market, Prior Lake, Redwood Falls, Savage, Sleepy Eye and Springfield markets. Several other communications providers compete with us in our markets in providing Internet services. We have responded to these competitive pressures by creating active programs to market our products and enhance our infrastructure to create higher customer value.  

We are experiencing competition for some of our other services from IXCs, such as customer billing services, dedicated private lines and network switching. The provisioning of these services is contractual in nature and is primarily directed by the IXCs. Other services, such as directory advertising, operator services and cellular communications are open to competition, based primarily on service and customer experience.

We expect competition to remain a significant factor affecting our operating results and that the nature and extent of that competition will continue to increase in the future. See Part I – Item 1A – “Risk Factors – Risks Relating to Our Business”.

Human Capital Resources

As of December 31, 2023, we employed approximately 214 employees, including part-time employees. We also use temporary employees in the normal course of our business. Our employees are the cornerstone of our success. We are committed to providing meaningful, challenging work and opportunities for professional growth in a positive environment. To attract and retain qualified and experienced employees, we offer compensation and benefit packages, which we believe are competitive within the industry and the local markets in which we operate. Our benefit packages, may include, among other items, incentive compensation based on the achievement of financial targets, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) savings plan with an employer match, paid time off, and wellness and employee assistance programs. Additionally, for certain eligible employees, we provide long-term incentive compensation, in the form of non-qualified stock options (Options). In addition, we are committed to providing employees continuing education and training programs in order for employees to achieve career goals and professional growth.

We embrace diversity and inclusion and seek to hire and retain high-quality employees of all backgrounds and experiences. Honoring our employees as individuals is key to our culture. We believe diversity of backgrounds contributes to different ideas, which in turn drives better results for customers. We respect differences and diversity as qualities that enhance our efforts as a team and believe embracing diversity and a culture of inclusion makes our Company a better place to work. We believe in and support the principles incorporated in all anti-discrimination and equal employment laws.

We also strive to create and provide a safe, healthful and secure workplace that is free from discrimination or harassment. Our workplace policies and procedures protect against behavior that creates an offensive, hostile, or intimidating work environment. Safety is a top priority, and we have a strong, ongoing commitment to ensure employees are properly trained and have appropriate safety and emergency equipment. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented safety protocols and procedures to protect our employees, customers and business partners. These procedures included transitioning as many employees as possible to remote work-from-home arrangements, providing additional safety training and personal protective equipment for customer and business-facing employees, and complying with social distancing and other health and safety measures as required by federal, state and local governmental agencies.

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Materials and Supplies

The materials and supplies that are necessary for our operations are available from a variety of sources. We are not dependent on any particular supplier or group of affiliated suppliers for our equipment needs.

Regulation

The following summary provides a high-level overview, but may not include all present and proposed federal, state and local legislation and regulations affecting the communications industry. Some legislation and other regulations are currently the subject of judicial proceedings, legislative hearings and administrative proposals that could change the manner in which this industry operates. At this time, we cannot predict the outcome of any of these developments or their potential impact on us. Regulation can change rapidly in the communications industry and these changes could have an adverse effect on us in the future.

Overview

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP), rules and regulations of the SEC and, where applicable, conform to the accounting principles as prescribed by federal and state telephone utility regulatory authorities.

The services we offer are subject to varying levels of regulatory oversight. Federal and state regulatory agencies share responsibility for enforcing statutes and rules relative to the provision of communications services. Our interstate communications services are subject to regulation by the FCC. Intrastate services are governed by the relevant state regulatory commission. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TA96) and the rules enacted under it also gave oversight of interconnection arrangements and access to network elements to the state commissions. Our TV services are governed by FCC rules and municipal franchise agreements. There are also varying levels of regulatory oversight depending on the nature of the services offered or if the services are offered by a communications company.

Our communications companies located in Redwood Falls, Litchfield and Glencoe provide services with less regulatory oversight than our other local communications companies. A company must file for interexchange authority to operate with the appropriate public utility commission in each state it serves. Our communications companies located in Redwood Falls, Litchfield and Glencoe provide a variety of services to both residential and business customers in multiple jurisdictions.

Federal Regulatory Framework

All carriers must comply with the FCC Act of 1934 (FCA34) as amended that requires, among other things, that our interstate services be provided at just and reasonable rates and on non-discriminatory terms and conditions. The TA96 amended the FCA34 and has had a dramatic effect on the competitive environment in the communications industry. In addition to these laws, we are also subject to rules promulgated by the FCC and could be affected by any regulatory decisions or orders they issue.

The TA96 and Local Competition

The primary goal of the TA96 and the FCC’s rules promulgated under it was to open local communications markets to competition while enhancing universal service. To some extent, Congress pre-empted the local authority of states to oversee local communications services.

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The TA96 imposes a number of requirements on all local communications providers including:

Access Charges

Access charges refer to the compensation received by local exchange carriers (LECs) for the use of their networks by an IXC. We provide two types of access services: special access and switched access. Special access is provided through dedicated circuits that connect other carriers to our network and is structured on a flat monthly fee basis. Switched access rates that are billed to other carriers are based on a per-minute of use fee basis. The FCC regulates prices that we charge for interstate access charges. There has been a trend toward lowering the rates charged to carriers accessing local networks and the application of a SLC as a flat rate on end-user bills. Regulation, competition, carriers optimizing their network costs and lower demand for dedicated lines have resulted in lower access rates and overall lower minutes of use on our network, which has affected our network access revenues.  

Interstate access rates are established by the nationwide pooling of companies known as NECA. The FCC established NECA in 1983 to develop and administer interstate access service rates, terms and conditions. Revenues are pooled and redistributed on the basis of each company’s actual or average costs. There has been a change in the composition of interstate access charges in recent years, shifting more of the charges to the end user and reducing the amount of access charges paid by IXCs. We believe this trend will continue. 

Intrastate access rates are filed with the regulatory commissions in Minnesota and Iowa.

Wireline Interstate

Our communications companies participate in the NECA common line pool where end-user common line funds collected are pooled. A portion of our communications companies’ revenue are based on settlements distributed from this pool. Our communications companies also participate in the NECA traffic-sensitive pool. These pool settlements are adjusted periodically.

Access rates for our communications companies located in Redwood Falls, Litchfield and Glencoe were established according to an order issued by the FCC in 2001. Under that order, the switched access rates charged by a competitive carrier can be no higher than the rates charged by the communications company with whom we compete.  

Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) and FUSF Reform 

The FCC released the National Broadband Plan in April 2010 recommending significant changes to the access charge policy and processes. This was followed on November 18, 2011, by FCC Order 11-161 (the Transformation Order), with comprehensive rules reforming all forms of ICC and implementing a new support mechanism for the deployment of broadband. Generally, the ICC reform sets forth a path towards a “bill & keep” regime which eliminates compensation for termination of traffic received from another carrier. The timeline for this transition had numerous steps depending on the type of traffic exchanged and the regulated status of the affected LEC.   

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These rules have been clarified in several orders on Reconsideration and have had an impact on our companies by reducing our terminating ICC, including intrastate and interstate access charges.  

The FCC Transformation Order also confirmed the applicability of access charges on VoIP traffic and eliminated reciprocal compensation charges for termination of local wireless traffic. Despite these changes IXCs and others are still quite aggressive in disputing carrier access charges and/or the applicability of access charges to their traffic.

Due to the combination of rate reforms instituted by the FCC, competitive substitution by wireless and other carriers and decreased use of the switched network, the aggregate amount of interstate network access charges paid by long distance carriers to access providers such as our Company, has decreased and we project that this decline will continue. For the year ended December 31, 2023, communications network access revenue represented 5.8% of our operating revenue, down from 7.2% for the year ended December 31, 2022. This excludes any funding received from FUSF and the A-CAM for broadband funding (see below for more information).

FUSF

The FUSF was originally established to overcome geographic differences in costs of providing voice service and to enable all citizens to communicate over networks regardless of geographical location and/or personal income. The FCC established universal service policies at the national level under terms contained in the Telecommunications Act of 1934. The TA96 requires explicit FUSF mechanisms and enlarged the scope of universal service to include four distinct programs:

In its Transformation Order released November 18, 2011, the FCC adopted rules which dramatically reform the universal service program and ICC regime. These rules eliminated the legacy Local Switching support, but also provide for a new Connect America Fund (CAF) support for rate of return carriers to make up some of their access revenue reductions and provide direct support to PriceCap carriers (i.e. the larger, national LECs such as Verizon and AT&T) for broadband build outs. The new rules have caused rates for end users to increase as ICC is reduced and the legacy mandate for ubiquitous voice service shifts toward broadband availability as a key outcome of the program. 

FUSF high-cost payments are distributed by NECA and are only available to carriers that have been designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) by a state commission. Each of our communications companies has been designated as an ETC. Our communications companies located in Redwood Falls, Litchfield and Glencoe are also eligible to be designated as ETCs if they meet the requirements of the program and meet a public interest standard as determined by the appropriate state regulatory agency. Our communications companies located in Redwood Falls, Litchfield and Glencoe are currently not receiving FUSF support. All ETCs must certify annually to the Universal Service Administrative Company or their appropriate state regulatory commission that the funds they receive from the FUSF are being used in the manner intended. The states must then certify to the FCC which carriers have met this standard. The Transformation Order expands the information that must be reported to the State Commissions to include information on broadband availability, plans for expansion to unserved and underserved areas, in addition to information about voice services. To some extent, these levels of scrutiny make the receipt of a consistent level of FUSF payments each year more difficult to predict.   

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For the year ended December 31, 2023, we recorded an aggregate of $3,526,006 from FUSF, consisting of $1,609,041 of CAF support, $1,349,317 of Broadband Loop Support (BLS) and $567,648 for Consumer Broadband-only Loop Support (CBOL) funding. Our net FUSF in 2023 comprised 4.5% of our total revenue for the year. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we received an aggregate of $2,770,698 from FUSF, consisting of $1,467,845 of CAF support and $1,302,853 of BLS. Our net FUSF in 2022 comprised 4.2% of our total revenue for the year. We receive no State USF as the states in which we operate have not established state USF mechanisms. 

On December 12, 2023, the Company announced that it confirmed eligibility for Consumer Broadband-only Loop Support (CBOL) funding through the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC). The incremental funding will be used to continue to support the Company’s multi-year fiber construction initiative. The Company began receiving a monthly benefit in November of 2023 with the first payment receipt confirmed in December. On an annualized basis this new program will provide $3.9 million of new funding based on the tariff filing and the Company’s expected line counts. The monthly CBOL subsidy formula is reviewed and subject to revision on an annual basis and subject to changed based on updated USAC funding criteria July 1 of each year.

In 2019, the Company elected to receive funding from A-CAM, except for Scott-Rice, which still receives funding from the FUSF.  

A-CAM

The FUSF was established as part of the TA96 and provides subsidies to communications providers as means of increasing the availability and affordability of advanced communications services. In 2011, significant reform was introduced, including the creation of the CAF, to help modernize the FUSF and promote support of these communications services in the nation’s high-cost areas. In 2016, the FCC announced additional reform to further transition the CAF from supporting the provision of voice services to the provision of broadband services. On March 30, 2016, the FCC issued a Report and Order (2016 Order) that adopts the following changes to the FUSF for rate-of-return carriers:

While the 2011 FUSF Transformation Order established CAF Phase I and CAF Phase II as high-cost support mechanisms for the price-cap carriers (i.e., the larger, national LECs such as Verizon and AT&T), it was not as specific about how subsidies would change for the rate-of-return carriers (i.e., the smaller LECs, including all rural LECs). In contrast, the 2016 Order focused on the rate-of-return carriers, announced specific changes to existing funding mechanisms as well as a new funding mechanism, and provided rural communications providers with greater certainty about future support.

One of the major changes introduced by the 2016 Order was the creation of the A-CAM, a new CAF support mechanism for rate-of-return carriers. Utilization of the A-CAM was voluntary; and rate-of-return carriers may have instead chosen to continue relying on the legacy support mechanism known as interstate common line support, but then modified and renamed CAF BLS. Each carrier needed to decide which support mechanism to elect, and must have elected one or the other, per state.

On February 25, 2019, the FCC issued Public Notice DA 19-115, which contained revised offers of A-CAM support and associated revised service deployment obligations. On February 27, 2019, the Company’s BOD authorized and directed the Company to accept the FCC’s revised offer of A-CAM support and the revised associated service deployment obligations. Under the revised FCC offer Notice, the Company will be entitled to annually receive (i) $596,084 for its Iowa operations and (ii) $8,354,481 for its Minnesota operations. The Company will receive the revised A-CAM offer over the next 10 years starting in 2019. The Company will use the support that it receives through the A-CAM program to meet its defined broadband build-out obligations, which the Company is currently completing. A letter of acceptance to elect the revised A-CAM support was filed by the Company with the FCC on March 8, 2019. The FCC accepted the Company’s letter on March 11, 2019.

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On September 29, 2023, Nuvera announced that it had notified the FCC that the Company had decided to remain on the current A-CAM funding, rather than moving to the Enhanced A-CAM (E-ACAM) program that the FCC introduced earlier in 2023. A-CAM and E-ACAM are FCC administered programs to subsidize the deployment of broadband to rural areas. E-ACAM is a successor to this program which requires participating carriers to offer broadband and voice services at speeds of 100/20 Mbps or faster to all E-ACAM required locations within its study area. Broadband providers were required to choose one of the two funding options and notify the FCC by September 29, 2023.

Build-out obligations: A-CAM carriers under the original A-CAM program must complete deployment of 10 Mbps downstream/1 Mbps upstream service to a number of eligible locations equal to 40 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2020, to 50 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2021, to 60 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2022, to 70 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2023, to 80 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2024, to 90 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2025, and to 100 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2026. A-CAM carriers who elected additional funding and additional obligations under the revised A-CAM program must complete deployment of 25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream service to a number of eligible locations equal to 40 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2022, to 50 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2023, to 60 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2024, to 70 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2025, to 80 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2026, to 90 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2027, and to 100 percent of fully funded locations by the end of 2028. As of December 31, 2023, Nuvera has completed the deployment of 10/1 service to 99.5% of its funded locations and 25/3 service to 60.3% of its funded locations in Minnesota and has completed deployment of 10/1 service to 100% of its funded locations and 25/3 service to 76.5% of its funded locations in Iowa. 

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Act) passed on March 31, 2021, and included $65.0 billion toward broadband. The broadband Internet portion of the Infrastructure Act is aimed at increasing Internet coverage for more universal access, including for rural, low-income, and tribal communities. 65% of this funding is set aside specifically for underserved communities. Additionally, this measure is designed to help make Internet access more affordable and increase digital literacy.

The Infrastructure Act set aside $42.5 billion for Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration administers the grant program and is in the process of soliciting comments before issuing final rules.

Privacy and Data Security Regulation

The FCA34 generally restricts the nonconsensual collection and disclosure to third parties of communication company customers’ personally identifiable information by communication companies, except for rendering service, conducting legitimate business activities related to the service, and responding to legal requests. We are also subject to various state and federal regulations that provide protections for customer proprietary network information (CPNI) related to our voice services. The FCC expects broadband Internet access service providers such as us to take reasonable, good faith steps to comply with existing statutory requirements to protect broadband CPNI and plans to propose new privacy and data security rules for broadband ISPs. The FCC has recently imposed substantial civil penalties and remediation obligations on several companies for alleged privacy and data security violations.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) exercises authority over privacy protections, generally, using its existing authority over unfair and deceptive acts or practices to apply greater restrictions on the collection and use of personally identifiable and other information relating to customers. It also has undertaken numerous enforcement actions against parties that do not provide sufficient security protections against the loss of unauthorized disclosure of this type of information. We also are subject to stringent data security and data retention requirements on website operators and online services. Other privacy-oriented laws have been extended by courts to online video providers and are increasingly being used in privacy lawsuits, including class actions, against providers of video materials online.

We are also subject to state and federal laws and regulations regarding data security that primarily apply to sensitive personal information that could be used to commit identity theft. Most states have security breach notification laws that generally require a business to give notice to consumers and government agencies when certain information has been disclosed, due to a security breach, and the FCC has adopted security breach rules for voice services. Several states have also enacted general data security requirements to safeguard consumer information, including the proper disposal of consumer information.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, in cooperation with other federal agencies and owners and operators of United States critical infrastructure, have developed a voluntary framework that provides a prioritized, flexible, repeatable, performance-based and cost-effective approach to cybersecurity risk. It is compendiums of existing cross-sector cyber-defense processes, practices and protocols that can help companies identify, assess and manage their cyber risks and vulnerabilities, and several governmental agencies have encouraged compliance with this framework. Additionally, in December 2015, Congress enacted the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, which is intended to encourage and facilitate the sharing of security threat and defensive measure information with government agencies and other companies, to strengthen the country’s overall cybersecurity protections. Finally, there are pending legislative proposals that could impose new requirements on owners and operators of critical infrastructure and the FCC is considering expanding its cybersecurity guidelines or adopting new cybersecurity requirements.    

Network Architecture and Technology

We have and plan to continue to make significant investments in our technologically advanced fiber communications networks and continue to enhance and expand our fiber network by deploying technologies to provide additional capacity to our customers. As a result, we can deliver high-quality, reliable data, video and voice services in the markets we serve. Our wide-ranging fiber network provides an easy reach into existing and new areas. By bringing the fiber network into the customer premises, we can increase our service offerings, quality and bandwidth services. Our existing fiber network enables us to efficiently respond and adapt to changes in technology and can support the rising customer demand for bandwidth in order to support the growing amount of data devices in our customer’s homes and businesses.

Our fiber networks are supported by advanced 100% digital switches, with a core fiber network connecting all our remote exchanges. We continue to replace our copper cable network to increase bandwidth to provide additional products and services to our marketable homes. We are replacing our existing copper cable with fiber cable throughout our network and to all customer premises that take our services, resulting in a 100% fiber network that supports all the inter-office and host-remote links, as well as all business parks within our service areas that take our service. In addition, this fiber infrastructure provides the connectivity required to provide broadband and long-distance services to our residential and commercial customers. Our fiber network utilizes FTTP and fiber-to-the-node networks to offer residential and commercial services.

We operate advanced fiber networks which we own or have entered into long-term leases for fiber network access. At December 31, 2023, our fiber networks consisted of approximately 3,538 route miles.

At December 31, 2023, we passed 35,173 locations with FTTP. We intend to continue to make strategic enhancements to our fiber network including improvements in overall network reliability and increases to our broadband speeds. We offer data speeds of up to 1 Gbps in select markets, and up to 100 Mbps and 60 Mbps in markets where 1 Gbps is not yet available, depending on the geographical region.

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We also provide fixed wireless broadband service to homes and small businesses from 30 towers, 6 of which we own, with the remaining towers being leased. 13 of these towers utilize Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. We have secured 21 licenses in 12 CBRS spectrum counties in Minnesota and Iowa which allows us to offer high-speed Internet to unserved, under-served and hard to serve rural areas.

Environmental Regulation

We are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the use, storage, disposal of, and exposure to, hazardous materials, the release of pollutants into the environment and the remediation of contamination. We could be subject to environmental laws that impose liability for the entire cost of cleanup at a contaminated site, regardless of fault or the lawfulness of the activity that resulted in contamination. We believe that our operations are in compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations.

Employees

As of March 1, 2024, we had 200 full-time equivalent employees dedicated to Nuvera’s operations. In addition, as of March 1, 2024, we had an additional 8 full-time equivalent employees that are employed by Nuvera but are dedicated to IES. IES is a minority equity subsidiary of Nuvera and Nuvera acts as the managing entity for IES.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is necessary for our operations but is not material to our overall operations.

Executive Officers of the Registrant

The names and ages of all our executive officers and the positions held by them as of March 1, 2024, are as follows:

Our executive officers are appointed annually and serve at the discretion of our BOD. Mr. Zerbe, President and CEO; Ms. Bornhoft, Vice-President, COO and Corporate Secretary; and Mr. Kawlewski, CFO and Treasurer have written employment contracts. There are no familial relationships between any director and executive officers.

Mr. Zerbe has been President and CEO since September of 2019. Prior to that time, he served as Vice President of Sales for Frontier Communications Corporation until March 2019, where he held positions of increasing responsibility since joining Frontier in 2011. Prior to his employment with Frontier, Mr. Zerbe had more than 20 years of sales, marketing and management experience in the communications industry, with companies such as Spanlink, Cisco Systems, SBC, AT&T and IBM. Mr. Zerbe serves as Chairman of the Board for IES and BBV, both equity subsidiaries of ours. In addition, Mr. Zerbe serves on the Board of Governors of FM, also equity subsidiary of ours.

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Ms. Bornhoft has been Vice President, COO and Corporate Secretary since 1998. Ms. Bornhoft has been employed with the Company since 1990. Ms. Bornhoft serves as a board member for BBV, in addition to serving as President for both IES and BBV, both equity subsidiaries of ours.

Mr. Kawlewski has been CFO and Treasurer since 2009. Mr. Kawlewski also serves as the Treasurer for IES and BBV, both equity subsidiaries of ours.

Item 1A.          Risk Factors.

Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those described below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and the trading price of our common stock.

Risks Relating to Our Business

We expect to continue to face significant competition in all parts of our business and the level of competition could intensify among our customer channels. The communications industry is highly competitive. We face actual and potential competition from many existing and emerging companies, including other incumbent and competitive communications companies, long-distance carriers and resellers, wireless companies, ISPs, satellite companies and CATV companies, and, in some cases, new forms of providers who can offer competitive services through software applications requiring a comparatively small initial investment. Due to consolidations and strategic alliances within the industry, we cannot predict the number of competitors we will face at any given time.

The wireless business has expanded significantly and has caused many subscribers with traditional telephone and land-based Internet access services to give up those services and rely exclusively on wireless service. In addition, consumers’ options for viewing TV shows have expanded as content becomes increasingly available through alternative sources. Some providers, including TV and CATV content owners, have initiated OTT services that deliver video content to TV, computers and other devices over the Internet. OTT services can include episodes of highly rated TV series in their current broadcast seasons. They can also include original content and broadcast or sports content like those that we carry, but that is distinctive and exclusively available through the alternative source. Consumers can pursue each of these options without foregoing any of the other options. We may not be able to successfully anticipate and respond too many of the various competitive factors affecting the industry, including regulatory changes that may affect our competitors and us differently, new technologies, services and applications that may be introduced, changes in consumer preferences, demographic trends, and discount or bundled pricing strategies by competitors.

Competitors in the markets we serve may enjoy certain business advantages, including size, financial resources, favorable regulatory position, a more diverse product mix, brand recognition and connection to virtually all our customers and potential customers. The largest cable operators also enjoy certain business advantages, including size, financial resources, ownership of or superior access to desirable programming and other content, a more diverse product mix, brand recognition and first-in-field advantages with a customer base that generates positive cash flow for its operations.  Our competitors continue to add features, increase data speeds and adopt aggressive pricing and packaging for services comparable to the services we offer. Their success in selling services that are competitive with ours among our various customer channels could lead to revenue erosion in our business. We face intense competition in our markets for long-distance, Internet access, video service and other ancillary services that are important to our business and to our growth strategy.  If we do not compete effectively, we could lose customers, revenue and market share.

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Our future growth is primarily dependent upon our expansion strategy, which may or may not be successful. We are strategically focused on driving growth by expanding our broadband network to provide services in communities that are in, near or adjacent to our network. This expansion strategy includes our FTTH broadband service. This strategy is relatively new in the marketplace and the success of our strategy will depend on the degree to which we are able to successfully establish and continue to enhance this build, which is not assured. This strategy requires considerable management resources and capital investment, and it is uncertain whether and when it will contribute to positive free cash flow and the degree to which we will otherwise achieve our strategic objectives, on a timely basis or at all. As a result, we expect our capital expenditures to exceed the cash flow provided from continuing operations through 2024. Additionally, we must obtain franchises, construction permits and other regulatory approvals to commence operations in these communities. Delays in entering into regulatory agreements, receiving the necessary franchises and construction permits, procuring needed contractors, materials or supplies, and conducting the construction itself could adversely impact our scheduled construction plans and, ultimately, our expansion strategy. Difficulty in obtaining necessary resources may also adversely affect our ability to expand into new markets as could our ability to adequately market a new brand to customers unfamiliar to us as we expand to markets where we do not currently operate. We may face resistance from competitors who are already in markets we wish to enter. If our expectations regarding our ability to attract customers in these communities are not met, or if the capital requirements to complete the network investment or the time required to attract our expected level of customers are incorrect, our financial performance and returns on investment may be negatively impacted.

We must adapt to rapid technological changes. If we are unable to take advantage of technological developments, or if we adopt and implement them at a slower rate than our competitors, we may experience a decline in the demand for our services. Our industry operates in a technologically complex environment. New technologies are continually developed, and existing products and services undergo constant improvement. Emerging technologies offer consumers a variety of choices for their communication and broadband needs. To remain competitive, we will need to adapt to future changes in technology to enhance our existing offerings and to introduce new or improved offerings that anticipate and respond to the varied and continually changing demands of our various customer channels. Our business and results of operations could be adversely affected if we are unable to match the benefits offered by competing technologies on a timely basis and at an acceptable cost, or if we fail to employ technologies desired by our customers before our competitors do so.

New technologies, particularly alternative methods for the distribution, access and viewing of content, have been, and will likely continue to be, developed that will further increase the number of competitors that we face and drive changes in consumer behavior. Consumers seek more control over when, where and how they consume content and are increasingly interested in communication services outside of the home and in newer services in wireless Internet technology and devices such as tablets, smartphones and mobile wireless routers that connect to such devices. These new technologies, distribution platforms and consumer behaviors may have a negative impact on our business.

In addition, evolving technologies can reduce the costs of entry for others, resulting in greater competition and significant new advantages for competitors. Technological developments could require us to make significant new capital investments to remain competitive with other service providers. If we do not replace or upgrade our network and its technology on a timely basis, we may not be able to compete effectively and could lose customers. We may also be placed at a cost disadvantage in offering our services. Technology changes are also allowing individuals to bypass communications companies and cable operators entirely to make and receive calls, and to provide for the distribution and viewing of video programming without the need to subscribe to traditional voice and video products and services. Increasingly, this can be done over wireless facilities and other emerging mobile technologies in addition to traditional wired networks. Wireless companies are aggressively developing networks using next-generation data technologies, which can deliver high-speed Internet service via wireless technology to a large geographic footprint. As these technologies continue to expand in availability and reliability, they could become an effective alternative to our high-speed Internet services. Although we use fiber-optics in parts of our networks and are building a new FTTP network, including in some residential areas, we continue to rely on coaxial cable and copper transport media to serve customers in many areas. The facilities we use to offer our video services, including the interfaces with customers, are undergoing a rapid evolution, and depend in part on the products, expertise and capabilities of third parties. If we cannot develop new services and products to keep pace with technological advances, or if such services and products are not widely embraced by our customers, our results of operations could be adversely impacted.

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Shifts in our product mix may result in a decline in operating profitability. Margins vary among our products and services. Our profitability may be impacted by technological changes, customer demands, regulatory changes, the competitive nature of our business and changes in the product mix of our sales. These shifts may also result in our long-lived assets becoming impaired or our inventory becoming obsolete. We review long-lived assets for potential impairment if certain events or changes in circumstances indicate that impairment may be present.

Public health threats, such as the outbreak of COVID-19, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows and stock price.  We may face risks associated with public health threats or outbreaks of epidemic, pandemic or communicable diseases, such as the outbreak of the COVID-19 and its variants. The COVID-19 pandemic had in the short-term and may in the long-term adversely impact the global economy, financial markets and supply chains. The outbreak had resulted in federal, state and local governments implementing mitigation measures, including shelter-in-place orders, travel restrictions, limitations on business, school closures, vaccination and testing requirements and other measures. Governments had enacted fiscal and monetary stimulus measures to counteract the impacts of COVID-19.

As a critical infrastructure provider, we continued to operate our business and provide services to our customers. Although we are considered an essential business, the outbreak of COVID-19 and any preventive or protective actions implemented by governmental authorities may have a material adverse effect on our operations, customers and suppliers and could do so for an indefinite period. Adverse economic and market conditions because of COVID-19 could also adversely affect the demand for our products and services and may also impact the ability of our customers to satisfy their obligations to us. In addition, concerns regarding the economic impact of COVID-19 have caused volatility in financial and other capital markets, which has and may continue to adversely affect the market price of our common stock and our ability to access capital markets. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have transitioned a substantial number of our employees to telecommuting and remote work arrangements, which may increase the risk of a security breach or cybersecurity attack on our information technology systems that could impact our business.

We cannot reasonably estimate at this time the resulting future financial impact of COVID-19 on our business, but the prolonged effect of it could have a material adverse effect to our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may adversely impact our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and unpredictable, including the severity and duration of the outbreak, current and new variants of COVID-19, the availability and distribution of effective treatments and vaccines, the effectiveness of actions taken to contain or mitigate its effects and any resulting economic downturn, recession or depression in the markets we serve.

We receive support from various funds established under federal and state laws, and the continued receipt of that support is not assured. A significant portion of our revenues come from network access and subsidies. An order adopted by the FCC in 2011 (2011 Order) significantly impacted the amount of support revenue we receive from the USF, CAF and ICC. The 2011 Order reformed core parts of the USF, broadly recast the existing ICC scheme, established the CAF to replace support revenues provided by the USF and redirected support from voice services to broadband services.

We receive subsidy payments from various federal and state universal service support programs, including high-cost support, Lifeline and E-Rate programs for schools and libraries. The total cost of the various FUSF programs has increased significantly in recent years, putting pressure on regulators to reform the programs and to limit both eligibility and support. We cannot predict future changes that may impact the subsidies we receive. However, a reduction in subsidies support may directly affect our profitability and cash flows.

In 2022 and 2023, we received $11.72 million and $12.48 million in payments under the federal A-CAM and FUSF programs.

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We cannot predict future changes that may have an impact on the subsidies we receive. However, a reduction in subsidies support may directly affect our profitability and cash flows. In addition, the federal debt limit continues to be actively debated as plans for long-term national fiscal policy are discussed. Moreover, over the last decade, including 35 days beginning on December 22, 2018, the United States government has shut down several times and some regulatory agencies have had to furlough employees and stop some activities. Further, the outcome of any budget discussion could have a significant effect on programs that support us. The failure of Congress to approve future budgets or increase the debt ceiling of the of the United States on a timely basis or decrease funding for any of these programs could delay or result in the loss of support payments we receive.

Any delay or reduction in federal support may directly affect our profitability and cash flows and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

A disruption in our networks and infrastructure could cause service delays or interruptions, which could cause us to lose customers and incur additional expenses. Our customers depend on reliable service over our fiber network. The primary risks to our network infrastructure include physical damage to lines, security breaches, capacity limitations, power surges or outages, software defects and disruptions beyond our control, such as natural disasters and acts of terrorism. From time to time in the ordinary course of business, we experience short disruptions in our service due to factors such as physical damage, inclement weather and service failures of our third-party service providers. We could experience more significant disruptions in the future. Disruptions may cause service interruptions or reduced capacity for customers, either of which could cause us to lose customers and incur unexpected expenses.

There have been recent media reports alleging that certain lead sheathed copper cables that are part of our copper network may present general health or environmental risks in areas where those facilities are deployed. We have not been given access to the test methodology or the test results on which those reports are based, so we are unable to access the accuracy or implications of those reports. We are currently researching our network for lead cable in service that was identified in the media reports. Until that time, we cannot predict what actions, if any, we may ultimately take with respect to the lead sheathed cable in our network or the potential financial, operational, regulatory or reputational impacts of the situation on us.

A cyber-attack may lead to unauthorized access to confidential customer, personnel and business information that could adversely affect our business. Attempts by others to gain unauthorized access to organizations' information technology systems are becoming more frequent and sophisticated and are sometimes successful. These attempts may include covertly introducing malware to companies' computers and networks, impersonating authorized users or "hacking" into systems. We seek to prevent, detect and investigate all security incidents that do occur; however, we may be unable to prevent or detect a significant attack in the future. Significant information technology security failures could result in the theft, loss, damage, unauthorized use or publication of our confidential business information, which could harm our competitive position, subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny, expose us to litigation or otherwise adversely affect our business. If a security breach results in misuse of our customers' confidential information, we may incur liability as a result.

Our operations require substantial capital expenditures, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity may be impacted if funds for capital expenditures are not available when needed. We require significant capital expenditures to maintain, upgrade and enhance our network facilities and operations. While we have historically been able to fund capital expenditures from cash generated from operations and borrowings under our revolving credit facility, the other risk factors described in this section could materially reduce cash available from operations or significantly increase our capital expenditure requirements, which may result in our inability to fund the necessary level of capital expenditures to maintain, upgrade or enhance our network. This could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity.

We may be unable to obtain necessary hardware, software and operational support from third-party vendors. We depend on third-party vendors to supply us with a significant amount of hardware, software and operational support necessary to provide certain of our services, to maintain, upgrade and enhance our network facilities and operations, and to support our information and billing systems. Some of our third-party vendors are our primary source of supply for certain products and services for which there are few substitutes. The global supply chains were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and may be impacted by future pandemics, which may cause a delay in the development, manufacturing and shipping of products and in some cases an increase in product costs. If any of these vendors should experience financial difficulties, experience supply chain issues, have demand that exceeds their capacity or can no longer meet our specifications or provide products or services we need or at reasonable prices, our ability to provide some services may be hindered, in which case our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

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Video content costs are substantial and continue to increase. We expect video content costs to continue to be one of our largest operating costs associated with providing video service. Video programming content includes network programming designed to be shown in linear channels, as well as the programming of local over-the-air TV stations that we retransmit. The cable industry has experienced continued increases in the cost of programming, especially the cost of sports programming and local broadcast station retransmission content. Programming costs are generally assessed on a per-subscriber basis, and therefore, are directly related to the number of subscribers to which the programming is provided. Our relatively small subscriber base limits our ability to negotiate lower per-subscriber programming costs. Larger providers can often qualify for discounts based on the number of their subscribers. This cost difference can cause us to experience reduced operating margins, while our competitors with a larger subscriber base may not experience similar margin compression. In addition, escalators in existing content agreements can result in cost increases that exceed general inflation. While we expect video content costs to continue to increase, we may not be able to pass such cost increases on to our customers, especially as an increasing amount of programming content becomes available via the Internet at little or no cost. Also, some competitors or their affiliates own their programming, and we may not be able to secure license rights to that programming. As our programming contracts with content providers expire, there is no assurance that they will be renewed on acceptable terms or that they will be renewed at all, in which case we may not be able to provide such programming as part of our video services packages and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Our ability to attract and/or retain certain key management and other personnel in the future could have an adverse effect on our business. We rely on the talents and efforts of key management personnel, many of whom have been with our Company or in our industry for decades. While we maintain long-term and emergency transition plans for key management personnel and believe we could either identify internal candidates or attract outside candidates to fill any vacancy created by the loss of any key management personnel, the loss of one or more of our key management personnel could have a negative impact on our business.

Acquisitions present many risks, and we may be unable to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions. From time to time, we make acquisitions and investments or enter into other strategic transactions. In connection with these types of transactions, we may incur unanticipated expenses; fail to realize anticipated benefits; have difficulty integrating the acquired businesses; disrupt relationships with current and new employees, customers and vendors; incur significant indebtedness or have to delay or not proceed with announced transactions. The occurrence of any of the foregoing events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We may face significant challenges in combining the operations of an acquired business with ours in a timely and efficient manner. The failure to successfully integrate an acquired business and to successfully manage the challenges presented by the integration process may result in our inability to achieve anticipated benefits of the acquisition, including operational and financial synergies. Even if we are successful in integrating acquired businesses, we cannot guarantee that the integration will result in the complete realization of anticipated financial synergies or that they will be realized within the expected time frames.

Increasing attention to, and evolving expectations for, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives could increase our costs, harm our reputation, or otherwise adversely impact our business.

Companies across multiple industries are facing increasing scrutiny from a variety of stakeholders related to their ESG practices. Expectations regarding voluntary ESG initiatives and disclosures may result in increased costs (including but not limited to increased costs related to compliance, stakeholder engagement, contracting and insurance), changes in demand for certain offerings, enhanced compliance or disclosure obligations, or other adverse impacts our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

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While we may at times engage in voluntary initiatives (such as voluntary disclosures, certifications, or goals, among others) to improve the ESG profile our Company and/or offerings or to respond to stakeholder demands, such initiatives may be costly and may not have the desired effect. Expectations around companies’ management of ESG matters continues to evolve rapidly, in many instances due to factors that are out of control. While we commit to certain initiatives or goals, we may not ultimately be able to achieve them due to cost, technological, or other constraints. Moreover, actions or statements that we may take based on expectations, assumptions, or third-party information that we currently believe to be reasonable may subsequently be determined to be erroneous or be subject to misinterpretation. Even if this is not the case, our current actions may subsequently be determined to be3 insufficient by various stakeholders, and we may be subject to investor or regulator engagement on our ESG initiatives and disclosures, even if such initiatives are currently voluntary.

Certain market participants, including major institutional investors and capital providers, use third-party benchmarks and scores to assess companies’ ESG profiles in making investments or voting decisions. Unfavorable ESG ratings could lead to increased negative investor sentiment towards us, which could negatively impact our share price as well as our access to and cost of capital. To the extent ESG matters negatively impact our reputation, it may also impede our ability to compete as effectively to attract and retain employees, customers, or business partners, which may adversely impact our operations. In addition, we expect there will likely be increasing levels of regulation, disclosure-related and otherwise, with respect to ESG matters, which will likely lead to increased costs as well as scrutiny that could heighten all the risks identified in this risk factor. Additionally, many of our customers and suppliers may be subject to similar expectations, which may augment or create additional risks, including risks that may be known to us.  

Risks Relating to Current Economic Conditions

Weak economic conditions may have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Downturns in the economic conditions in the markets and industries we serve could adversely affect demand for our products and services and have a negative impact on the results of our operations. Economic weakness or uncertainty may make it difficult for us to obtain new customers and may cause our existing customers to reduce or discontinue the services to which they subscribe. This risk may be worsened by the expanded availability of free or lower cost services, such as streaming or OTT services or substitute services, such as wireless phones and public Wi-Fi networks. Weak economic conditions may also have an impact on the ability of third parties to satisfy their obligations to us.

Risks Relating to Our Stock

The price of our common stock may be volatile and may fluctuate substantially, which could negatively affect the holders of our common stock. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate widely as a result of various factors including, but not limited to, period-to-period fluctuations in our operating results, the volume of the sales of our common stock, the limited number of holders of our common stock and the resulting limited liquidity in our common stock, dilution, developments in the communications industry, the failure of securities analysts to cover our common stock, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts, competitive factors, regulatory developments, labor disruptions, general market conditions and market conditions affecting the stock of communications companies. Communications companies have, in the past, experienced extreme volatility in the trading prices and volumes of their securities, which has often been unrelated to operating performance. High levels of market volatility may have a significant adverse effect on the market price of our common stock. In addition, in the past, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in their stock price. This type of litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management's attention and resources, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and/or the market price of our common stock.

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Our organizational documents could limit or delay another party’s ability to acquire us and, therefore, could deprive our investors of a possible takeover premium for their shares. Several of the provisions in our Articles of Incorporation could make it difficult for another company to acquire us. Among other things, these provisions:

●      Restrict any one individual or entity from beneficially owning more than seven percent of the outstanding capital stock of the corporation.

We also are subject to laws that may have a similar effect. For example, federal and certain state telecommunications laws and regulations generally prohibit a direct or indirect transfer of control over a business without prior regulatory approval. These laws and regulations make it difficult for another company to acquire us, and therefore could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock.

Risks Relating to Our Indebtedness and Our Capital Structure

We have a substantial amount of debt outstanding due to our FTTP initiatives, which could adversely affect our business and restrict our ability to fund working capital and planned capital expenditures. As of December 31, 2023, we had $124.2 million of debt outstanding. Our substantial amount of expected indebtedness could adversely impact our business, including:

We cannot guarantee that we will generate sufficient revenues to service our debt and have adequate funds left over to achieve or sustain profitability in our operations, meet our working capital and capital expenditure needs or compete successfully in our markets.

We may not be able to refinance our existing debt if necessary, or we may only be able to do so at a higher interest rate. We may be unable to refinance or renew our credit facilities and our failure to repay all amounts due on the maturity dates would cause a default under the credit agreement. Alternatively, any renewal or refinancing may occur on less favorable terms. If we refinance our credit facilities on terms that are less favorable to us than the terms of our existing debt, our interest expense may increase significantly, which could impact our results of operations and impair our ability to use our funds for other purposes.

Our variable-rate debt subjects us to interest rate risk, which could have an impact on our cost of borrowing and operating results. Certain of our debt obligations are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. Increases in interest rates could have a negative impact on the results of our operations and operating cash flows. We utilize Interest Rate Swap Agreements (IRSAs) to convert a portion of our variable-rate debt to a fixed-rate basis. However, we do not maintain interest rate hedging agreements for all our variable-rate debt and our existing hedging agreements may not fully mitigate our interest rate risk, may prove disadvantageous or may create additional risks. Changes in fair value of cash flow hedges that have been de-designated or determined to be ineffective are recognized in earnings. Significant increases or decreases in the fair value of these cash flow hedges could cause favorable or adverse fluctuations in the results of our operations.

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Risks Related to the Regulation of Our Business

We are subject to a complex and uncertain regulatory environment, and we face compliance costs and restrictions greater than those of many of our competitors. Our businesses are subject to regulation by the FCC and other federal, state and local entities. Rapid changes in technology and market conditions have resulted in changes in how the government addresses communications, video programming and Internet services. Many businesses that compete with our communications companies are comparatively less regulated. Some of our competitors are either not subject to utilities regulation or are subject to significantly fewer regulations. In contrast to our subsidiaries regulated as cable operators and satellite video providers, competing on-demand and OTT providers and motion picture and digital video disc firms have almost no regulation of their video activities. Recently, federal and state authorities have become more active in seeking to address critical issues in each of our product and service markets. The adoption of new laws or regulations, or changes to the existing regulatory framework at the federal, state or local level, could require significant and costly adjustments that could adversely affect our business plans. New regulations could impose additional costs or capital requirements, require new reporting, impair revenue opportunities, potentially impede our ability to provide services in a manner that would be attractive to our customers and potentially create barriers to enter new markets or to acquire new lines of business. We face continued regulatory uncertainty in the immediate future. Not only are these governmental entities continuing to move forward on these matters, but their actions remain subject to reconsideration, appeal and legislative modification over an extended period, and it is unclear how their actions will ultimately impact our business. We cannot predict future developments or changes to the regulatory environment or the impact such developments or changes may have on us.

Increased regulation of the Internet could increase our cost of doing business. Current laws and regulations governing access to, or commerce on, the Internet are limited. As the significance of the Internet continues to expand, federal, state and local governments may adopt new rules and regulations applicable to, or apply existing laws and regulations to, the Internet. During 2017, the FCC adopted an order eliminating its previous classification of Internet service as a telecommunications service regulated under Title II of the TA96. This effectively limits the FCC’s authority over ISPs. The FCC retained rules requiring ISPs to disclose practices associated with blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of Internet traffic. The FCC order has been challenged in court and the outcome of the challenge cannot be determined at this time.  

The outcome of pending matters before the FCC and the FTC and any potential congressional action cannot be determined at this time but could lead to increased costs for the Company in connection with our provision of Internet services and could affect our ability to compete in the markets we serve.

We are subject to extensive laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, natural resources and worker health and safety. Our operations and properties are subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, natural resources and worker health and safety, including laws and regulations governing and creating liability in connection with the management, storage and disposal of hazardous materials, asbestos and petroleum products. We are also subject to laws and regulations governing air emissions from our fleet vehicles. As a result, we face several risks, including:

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The cost of complying with environmental requirements could be significant. Similarly, the adoption of new environmental laws or regulations, or changes in existing laws or regulations or their interpretations, could result in significant compliance costs or unanticipated environmental liabilities.

Effects of climate change may impose risk of damage to our infrastructure, our ability to provide services, and may cause changes in federal and state regulation, all of which may result in potential adverse impacted to our financial results. Extreme weather events precipitated by long-term climate change have the potential to directly damage network facilities or disrupt our ability to build and maintain portions of our network. Any such disruption could delay network deployment plans, interrupt service for our customers, increase our costs and have a negative effect on our operating results. The potential physical damage effects of climate change, such as increased frequency and severity of storms, droughts, floods, fires, freezing conditions, sea-level rise, and other climate-related events, could adversely affect our operations, infrastructure, and financial results. Operational impacts resulting from the potential physical effects of climate change, such as damage to our network infrastructure, could result in increased costs and loss of revenue. We could incur significant costs to improve the climate resiliency of our infrastructure and otherwise prepare for, respond to, and mitigate such physical effect of climate change. We are not able to accurately predict the materiality of any potential losses or costs associated the physical effects of climate change.

Further, customers, consumers, investors and other stakeholders are increasingly focusing on environmental issues, including climate change, water use, deforestation, plastic waste, and other sustainability concerns. Concern over climate change or other ESG matters may result in new or increased legal and regulatory requirements to reduce or mitigate impacts to the environment and reduce the impact of our business on climate change, which could increase our costs for monitoring and compliance. Further, climate change regulations may require us to alter our proposed business plans or increase our operating costs due to increased regulation or environmental considerations and could adversely affect our business and reputation. 

Our business may be impacted by new or changing tax laws or regulations and actions by federal, state, and/or local agencies, or by how judicial authorities apply tax laws.  Our operations are subject to various federal, state and local tax laws and regulations. In connection with the products and services we sell, we calculate, collect, and remit various federal, state, and local taxes, surcharges and regulatory fees to numerous federal, state and local governmental authorities. In many cases, the application of tax laws is uncertain and subject to differing interpretations, especially when evaluated against new technologies and communications services, such as broadband Internet access and cloud related services. Tax laws are dynamic and subject to change as new laws are passed and new interpretations of the law are issued or applied. Changes in tax laws, or changes in interpretations of existing laws, could materially affect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a major federal tax reform, which had a significant impact on our tax obligations and effective income tax rate.

Item 1B.  Unresolved Staff Comments

Not required for a smaller reporting company.

Item 1C.  Cybersecurity Risks

Material Effects from Cybersecurity Incidents

Our business is subject to risk from cybersecurity threats and incidents, including attempts to gain unauthorized access to our systems or networks, or those of our managers, employees, and third-party vendors and service providers, to disrupt operations, corrupt data or steal confidential or personal information and other cybersecurity breaches. Nuvera considers cybersecurity risk a serious threat to our assets and our people and has put processes in place designed to mitigate the risk and impact of any such cybersecurity threat or incident.

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Our operations rely on the secure, accurate and timely receipt, storage, transmission, use, disclosure, and other processing of confidential and other information (including personal information) in our systems and networks. We also rely on the secure, accurate and timely receipt, storage, transmission, use, disclosure, and other processing of confidential and other information in the systems and networks of our customers and third parties, including suppliers, sellers and servicers, financial market utilities, and other third parties. Cybersecurity risks for companies like ours continue to increase. Like many companies and government entities, from time to time we have been, and expect to continue to be, the target of attempted cybersecurity incidents and other information security threats, including those from nation-state and nation-state supported actors.

As of the date of this report we have not experienced or aware of any cybersecurity incidents resulting, or reasonably likely to result in, a material impact to our company, including to our business, financial condition, and results of operations. There is no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management program will prevent cybersecurity incidents from having such impacts in the future.

Additionally, insider threats also remain a risk given our workforce diversification to include contractors, remote workers, part-time employees, and full-time employees. As referenced above, our third-party vendors and service providers and their supply chain connections remain a potential source of risk.

For additional information, see Risk Factors – Risks Related to Our Business. Potential cybersecurity threats are changing rapidly and advancing in sophistication. We may not be able to protect our systems and networks, or the confidentiality of our confidential or other information (including personal information), from cybersecurity incidents and other unauthorized access, disclosure, and disruption.

Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy

Our cybersecurity program is built upon the National Institute for Standards and Technology and other best practice frameworks. We employ processes for assessing, identifying, and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats, including engaging an independent cybersecurity consultant to audit our systems and procedures, make recommendations for improvement and monitor remediation of any identified risks. We also conduct random vulnerability testing including network penetration testing, phishing and social engineering tests. In addition, we also require Systems and Organization Control (“SOC”) type reports from our service providers for our payroll and human resources system and stock administrator.

Although we maintain systems and controls designed to prevent cybersecurity breaches from occurring, and we have processes to identify and mitigate threats, the development and maintenance of these systems, controls and processes is costly and requires ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become increasingly sophisticated. Moreover, despite our efforts, the possibility of a breach occurring cannot be eliminated entirely. As we engage in more electronic transactions with service customers and vendors, and rely more on cloud-based information systems, the related security risks will increase, and we will need to expend additional resources to protect our technology and information systems. In addition, there can be no assurance that our internal information technology systems or those of our third-party contractors, or our consultants’ efforts to implement adequate security and control measures, will be sufficient to protect us against breakdowns, service disruption, data deterioration or loss in the event of a system malfunction, or prevent data from being stolen or corrupted in the event of a cyberattack, security breach, industrial espionage attacks or insider threat attacks which could result in financial, legal, business or reputational harm.

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Cybersecurity Governance

All employees of the Company have ownership in managing cybersecurity and data privacy risks, however, oversight responsibility is shared by our BOD, Audit Committee and cybersecurity management team. The Audit Committee is responsible for our cybersecurity policies and provides regularly updates to the BOD Our cybersecurity management team, in conjunction with our third-party chief information security officer (“CISO”), conduct regular assessment and management of material risks from cybersecurity threats, including review with our internal cybersecurity management team. All employees and consultants are directed to report to our cybersecurity management team any irregular or suspicious activity that could indicate a cybersecurity threat or incident. 

Our cybersecurity management team has primary responsibility for identifying, assessing and managing our exposure to cybersecurity threats and incidents, subject to oversight by the Audit Committee of the BOD of the processes we establish to assess, monitor and mitigate that exposure.

If a potentially material cybersecurity threat or incident is identified or discovered, the Company’s Cybersecurity Management Team will trigger our incidence response plan, including notifying our CEO, CFO, and other relevant business executives. Our Cybersecurity Management Team, along with our CISO, will work with the appropriate leaders and employees in any impacted business groups, as well as appropriate personnel in our finance, legal and other impacted departments, to assess the risks to the Company and potential impact while determining appropriate remediation steps. If executive management determines that a cybersecurity threat or incident could be material to the Company, our management will notify the Audit Committee, who will escalate the risk to our full BOD, depending on an assessment of the risk.

Item 2.   Properties

We are primarily focused on the provision of communication services and our properties are used primarily for administrative support and to house and safeguard our operating equipment. On December 31, 2023, our gross property, plant and equipment totaled $328,639,174 (net balance of $155,550,572).

We own our corporate headquarters, which are currently located at 27 North Minnesota Street, New Ulm, Minnesota. We also own office facilities and related equipment for administrative personnel, central office buildings and operations in Minnesota and Iowa.

In addition to land and structures, our property consists of equipment necessary for the provision of communication services, including central office equipment, CPE and connections, pole lines, towers, remote terminals, aerial and underground cable and wire facilities and associated outside plant for use in providing our services, telephone switches, fiber networks and fiber communications network equipment, vehicles, furniture and fixtures, computers and other equipment.

In addition to plant and equipment we wholly-own we utilize poles, towers, cable and conduit systems jointly owned with other entities and lease space on facilities from other entities. These arrangements are in accordance with written agreements customary in the industry. We also have appropriate easements, rights of way and other arrangements for the accommodation of our pole lines, underground conduits, aerial and underground cables and wires. 

We believe our properties are suitable and adequate to provide modern and effective communications services within our service areas, including local dial-tone, long distance service, broadband, TV and dedicated and switched long-haul transport. We also believe our properties and equipment are adequately insured. See Note 6 – “Long-Term Debt” for descriptions of the mortgages and collateral relating to the above referenced properties. See Note 1 – “Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” and Note 4 – “Property, Plant and Equipment” for a description of our depreciation policies and information relating to the above referenced properties and equipment and their respective depreciation.

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Item 3.   Legal Proceedings

Other than the litigation incidental to our business, there are no pending material legal proceedings to which we are a party or to which any of our property is subject.  

Item 4.   Mine Safety Disclosures

Not Applicable.

PART II

Item 5.   Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock is quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace under the symbol "NUVR." As of March 1, 2024 there were 1,227 registered stockholders and approximately 763 beneficial owners of Nuvera stock.

The Company’s Articles of Incorporation restrict any one individual or entity from beneficially owning more than seven percent of the outstanding capital stock of the corporation. Specific details of this restriction are contained in Article III of the Company’s Articles of Incorporation.   

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities (registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act)

Repurchases of Nuvera common stock are made to support the Company’s stock-based employee compensation plans and for other corporate purposes. In May 2019, Nuvera announced the adoption of a $4.0 million stock repurchase program running through the end of 2021. Under the stock repurchase program, repurchases could be made from time to time using a variety of methods, including through open market purchase or in privately negotiated transactions in compliance with the rules of the SEC and other applicable legal requirements. The Company did not purchase any shares in 2023 nor the last three quarters of 2022 and there are no dollar amounts set aside for future repurchases under any stock repurchase plans.

In two transactions that closed on February 25, 2022, and February 28, 2022, Nuvera purchased 75,000 shares each from two shareholders, for a total of 150,000 shares at a price of $21.25 per share for a total purchase price of $3,187,500. The shares were purchased pursuant to a privately negotiated purchase agreement between Nuvera and the shareholders. The stock purchase was authorized by the Nuvera BOD, and a waiver was obtained from CoBank, ACB (CoBank) to facilitate the sale. See Nuvera’s Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 2, 2022, for more information regarding this stock purchase. 

Dividends and Restrictions

We declared a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share for the second and first quarters of 2023, which totaled $717,721 for the second quarter and $713,050 for the first quarter. We declared a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share for the fourth, third, second and first quarters of 2022, which totaled $711,841 for the fourth, third, and second quarters and $708,407 for the first quarter.  

On September 29, 2023, the BOD of Nuvera announced that it was suspending dividend payments to its shareholders and will not declare or pay a dividend in the third quarter of 2023. In addition, the BOD of Nuvera did not declare or pay a dividend for the fourth quarter of 2023 as well. The BOD’s action reflects the Company’s commitment to maximize available capital for the foreseeable future as it executes on its Nuvera Gig Cities™ project. This decision focuses available capital on deploying fiber and capturing the growth opportunity in new and existing markets in southern Minnesota. Nuvera believes this investment in the largest infrastructure project in Company history is strengthening its competitive position as a regional provider.

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There are security and loan agreements underlying our current CoBank credit facility that contain restrictions on our distributions to stockholders and investment in, or loans, to others. See below and Note 6 – “Long-Term Debt” for additional information.

Our loan agreements include restrictions on our ability to pay cash dividends to our stockholders. However, we were allowed to pay dividends in an amount up to $3,000,000 in any year if no default or event of default had occurred. Our current Total Leverage Ratio as of December 31, 2023, was 5.03 which exceeded our original maximum total leverage of 4.25 per our existing covenants with CoBank. On November 10, 2023, Nuvera received a waiver from CoBank to increase our maximum leverage ratio to 5.50 to accommodate our increased leverage ratio as of September 30 and December 31, 2023.

Our BOD reviews quarterly dividend declarations based on our anticipated earnings, capital requirements and our operating and financial conditions. The cash requirements of our current dividend payment practices are in addition to our other expected cash needs.

Item 6.   Remove and Reserved

Item 7.  Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our historical financial statements and the related notes contained elsewhere in this report.

Results of Operations

Overview

Nuvera has an advanced fiber communications network and offers a diverse array of communications products and services. We provide broadband Internet access, video services and managed and hosted solutions services. In addition, we provide local voice service and network access to other communications carriers for connections to our networks as well as long distance service.

Our operations consist primarily of providing services to customers for a monthly charge. Because many of these services are recurring in nature, backlog orders and seasonality are not significant factors. Our working capital requirements include financing the construction of our advanced fiber networks. We also require capital to maintain our advanced fiber networks and infrastructure; fund the payroll costs of our highly skilled labor force; maintain inventory to service capital projects, maintain our communication equipment customers; pay dividends and provide for the carrying value of trade accounts receivable (AR), some of which may take several months to collect in the normal course of business.

In 2023, we have seen our overall revenues increase primarily due to Internet growth mentioned above. However, we continue to see accelerated losses in our voice and video service customers as those customers make choices about their entertainment needs and personal finances. We have also experienced increased costs in 2023 which have affected our margins. In addition, we had anticipated increased inflation and future supply chain issues in the inventory, equipment and fiber we use in our business and had therefore purchased a large amount of these items to mitigate these potential issues and not disrupt our business operations.  

With respect to liquidity, we continue to evaluate costs and spending across our organization. This includes evaluating discretionary spending and non-essential capital investment expenditures. As of December 31, 2023, we have $15.8M of our bank revolver available for use if the need arises. The Company may seek additional financing to continue to fund its fiber expansion plans and meet current and future liquidity needs.  

We will continue to actively monitor the situation and may take further actions that alter our operations as may be required by federal, state or local authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders.

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Executive Summary

Highlights:

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Business Trends

Included below is a synopsis of business trends management believes will continue to affect our business in 2024.

Voice and switched access revenues are expected to continue to be adversely impacted by future declines in access lines due to competition in the communications industry from CATV providers, VoIP providers, wireless, other competitors and emerging technologies. As we experience access line losses, our switched access revenue will continue to decline consistent with industry-wide trends. A combination of changing minutes of use, carriers optimizing their network costs, lower demand for dedicated lines and downward rate pressures may affect our future voice and switched access revenues. Access line losses totaled 1,770 or 11.47% in 2023 compared to 2022 due to the reasons mentioned above.

The expansion of our advanced fiber communications network, growth in broadband connection sales along with continued migration to higher connectivity speeds and the sales of Internet value-added services such as on-line data backup and hosted and managed service solutions are expected to continue to offset the revenue declines from the access line trends discussed above.

To be competitive, we continue to invest in our fiber broadband network and continue to focus on the research and deployment of advanced technological products that include broadband services, wireless services, private line, VoIP, digital video, IPTV and hosted and managed services.

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The table below presents our revenue by technology and advanced fiber-build progress for the last five quarters:

We continue to evaluate our operating structure to identify opportunities for increased operational efficiencies and effectiveness. This involves evaluating opportunities for task automation, network efficiency and the balancing of our workforce based on the current needs of our customers.

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Financial results for the Communications Segment for the years ended December 31, 2023, and 2022 are included below:

Revenue

Voice Service – We receive recurring revenue for basic voice services that enable end-user customers to make and receive telephone calls within a defined local calling area for a flat monthly fee. In addition to subscribing to basic local voice services, our customers may choose from multiple voice service plans with a variety of custom calling features such as call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification and voicemail. Voice service revenue was $5,263,385, which was $431,043 or 7.6% lower in 2023 compared to 2022. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in access lines, which was the result of an accelerated industry trend of customers moving to other communications options or dropping their access lines altogether, partially offset by a combination of rate increases introduced into several of our markets in the past few years.

The number of access lines we serve as a Company have been decreasing, which is consistent with a general industry trend, as customers are increasingly utilizing other technologies, such as wireless phones and IP services.

Network Access – We provide access services to other communications carriers for the use of our facilities to terminate or originate long distance calls on our fiber network. Additionally, we bill SLCs to substantially all our customers for access to the public switched network. These monthly SLCs are regulated and approved by the FCC. In addition, network access revenue is derived from several federally administered pooling arrangements designed to provide network support and distribute funding to communications companies. Network access revenue was $3,819,297, which was $939,787 or 19.7% lower in 2023 compared to 2022. This decrease was primarily due to lower minutes of use on our network and lower special access revenues, which was the result of an accelerated industry trend of customers moving to other communications options or dropping their access lines altogether.

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In recent years, IXCs and others have become more aggressive in disputing both interstate carrier access charges and the applicability of access charges to their network traffic. We believe that long distance and other communication providers will continue to challenge the applicability of access charges either before the FCC or directly with the LECs. We cannot predict the likelihood of future claims and cannot estimate the impact.

Video Service – We provide a variety of enhanced video services on a monthly recurring basis to our customers. We receive monthly recurring revenue from our subscribers for providing commercial TV programming in competition with local CATV, satellite dish TV and off-air TV service providers. We serve twenty-two communities with our IPTV services and five communities with our CATV services. Video service revenue was $12,061,703, which was $435,755 or 3.5% lower in 2023 compared to 2022. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in video customers, partially offset by a combination of rate increases introduced into several of our markets over the past few years. The decrease in video customers, continues to be an accelerated industry trend of customers moving to other video options.    

Data Service – We provide high speed Internet to business and residential customers depending on the nature of the network facilities that are available, the level of service selected and the location. Our revenue is earned based on the offering of various flat rate packages based on the level of service, data speeds and features. We also provide e-mail and managed services, such as web hosting and design, on-line file back up and on-line file storage. Data service revenue was $27,509,073, which was $480,741 or 1.8% higher in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase was primarily due to an increase in fiber customers, customers upgrading their packages and speeds, and the implementation of a monthly equipment charge to our customers, partially offset by a decrease in non-fiber customers. We expect continued growth in this area will be driven by completing our advanced FTTP network, expansion of our service areas and marketing managed service solutions to businesses.

A-CAM/FUSF – The Company currently receives funding based on the A-CAM, except for Scott-Rice, which receives funding from the FUSF. Scott-Rice’s settlements from the NECA pools are based on nationwide average schedules, which includes the pooling and redistribution of revenues based on a company’s actual or average costs. See Note 2 – “Revenue Recognition” for a discussion regarding A-CAM and FUSF.

A-CAM/FUSF support totaled $12,479,376, which was $757,964 or 6.5% higher in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase was primarily due to higher FUSF support received for Scott-Rice BLS funding and higher CAF support funding for our operating companies. On December 12, 2023, the Company announced that if confirmed eligibility for CBOL funding through USAC. The incremental funding will be used to continue to support the Company’s multi-year fiber construction initiative. The Company began receiving a monthly benefit in November of 2023 with the first payment receipt confirmed in December. On an annualized basis this new program will provide $3.9 million of new funding based on the tariff filing and the Company’s expected line counts. The monthly CBOL subsidy formula is reviewed and subject to revision on an annual basis and subject to change based on updated USAC funding criteria July 1 of each year.

Other Revenue – Our customers are billed for toll and long-distance services on either a per call or flat-rate basis. This also includes the offering of directory assistance, operator service and long-distance private lines. We also generate revenue from directory publishing through an outside vendor, sales and service of CPE, bill processing and other customer services. Our directory publishing revenue in our telephone directories recurs monthly. We also provide retail sales and service of cellular phones and accessories through Telespire, a national wireless provider. We resell these wireless services as Nuvera Wireless, our branded product. We receive both recurring revenue for our wireless services, as well as revenue collected for the sales of wireless phones and accessories. Other revenue was $4,659,134, which was $645,379 or 16.1% higher in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase was primarily due to a paper bill fee that was instituted in December of 2022 and an increase in the sales and installation of CPE, partially offset by a decrease in directory publishing revenues and long-distance revenues.

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Cost of Services (Excluding Depreciation and Amortization Expense)

Cost of services (excluding depreciation and amortization expense) was $31,178,838, which was $999,068 or 3.3% higher in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase was primarily due to higher costs associated with increased maintenance and support agreements on our equipment and software, and increased costs to maintain a highly skilled workforce. These increases were partially offset by lower programming costs from video content providers due to a loss of video customers. We have experienced increased inflation in our operations in 2023 and expect future inflationary pressures could affect our costs to operate our business.     

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $9,937,451, which was $20,969 or 0.2% higher in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase reflects the increased costs associated with our FTTP network initiative, partially offset by cost containment efforts implemented in 2023 and 2022. We have experienced increased inflation in our operations in 2023 and expect future inflationary pressures could affect our costs to operate our business.    

Depreciation and Amortization Expense

Depreciation and amortization expense was $15,440,415, which was $1,332,169 or 9.4% higher in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase in depreciation expense was primarily due to an increase in our FTTP network assets to aid in our transition to a new advanced FTTP network, reflecting our continual investment in technology and infrastructure in order to meet our customers’ demands for products and services.     

Operating Income

Operating income was $9,235,264, which was $2,274,707 or 19.8% lower in 2023 compared to 2022. This decrease was primarily due to higher costs of services and depreciation, all of which are described above.

See Consolidated Statements of Operations (for discussion below)

Other Income (Expense) and Interest Expense   

Other income in 2023 and 2022, included a patronage credit earned with CoBank, which was a result of our debt agreements with them. The patronage credit allocated and received in 2023 was $692,371, compared to $567,468 allocated and received in 2022. This increase was primarily due to higher outstanding debt balances and increased interest rates on our non-swapped debt in connection with our term debt credit facility and our increased revolving credit facility with CoBank to support our fiber-build initiative. CoBank determines and pays the patronage credit annually, generally in the first quarter of the calendar year, based on its results from the prior year. We record these patronage credits as income when they are received.

Interest and dividend income decreased $80,100 in 2023 compared to 2022. This decrease was primarily due to decreases in dividend income earned on our investments.

Interest expense increased $3,331,625 in 2023 compared to 2022. This increase was primarily due to higher outstanding debt balances and increased interest rates on our non-swapped debt in connection with our increased term debt credit facility and our increased revolving credit facility with CoBank to support our fiber-build initiative.   

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The gain on sale of investments in 2023 primarily reflects the sale of FiberComm by Nuvera and the other owners of FiberComm to ImOn Communications LLC on March 31, 2023. The Company recognized a $217,876 unrealized gain on one of its investments for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Other investment income decreased $121,282 in 2023 compared to 2022. Other investment income is primarily from our equity ownerships in several partnerships and limited liability companies. Other investment income was lower in 2023 compared to 2022, primarily due to the sale of FiberComm in the first quarter of 2023.

Income Taxes

Income tax expense decreased by $383,007 in 2023 compared to 2022 as we recorded income tax expense of $2,315,656 in 2023 and $2,698,663 in 2022. This decrease was primarily due to decreased operating income and increased interest expense partially offset by the gain from the sale of our Fibercomm equity investment on March 31, 2023. The effective income tax rate was approximately (257.6%) for 2023 and 27.3% 2022. The difference between the effective tax rate and the federal statutory tax rate are reconciled in Note 8 – “Income Taxes.” 

Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to the results reported with GAAP, we also use certain non-GAAP measures such as net earnings before interest expense, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and adjusted EBITDA to evaluate operating performance and to facilitate the comparison of our historical results and trends. These financial measures are not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income as a measure of performance and net cash provided by operating activities as a measure of liquidity. They are not, on their own, necessarily indicative of cash available to fund cash needs as determined in accordance with GAAP. The calculation of these non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP are provided below.

Adjusted EBITDA is comprised of EBITDA, adjusted for certain items as permitted or required under our credit facility as described in the reconciliations below. These measures are a common measure of operating performance in the communications industry and are useful, with other data, as a means to evaluate our ability to fund our estimated uses of cash.

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The following table is a reconciliation of net income to adjusted EBITDA for the years ended December 31, 2023, and 2022.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Capital Structure

Nuvera’s total capital structure (long-term and short-term debt obligations, net of unamortized loan fees plus stockholders’ equity) was $220,897,881 at December 31, 2023, reflecting 44.4% equity and 55.6% debt. This compares to a capital structure of $181,134,049 as of December 31, 2022, reflecting 56.6% equity and 43.4% debt. In the communications industry, debt financing is most often based on operating cash flows. Specifically, our current use of our credit facilities is in a ratio of approximately 5.03 times debt to EBITDA (as defined in the loan documents). which is well within acceptable limits for our agreements and our industry. On November 10, 2023, Nuvera received a waiver from CoBank to increase our maximum leverage ratio to 5.50 to accommodate our increased leverage ratio as of September 30, 2023. Our management believes adequate operating cash flows and other internal and external resources, such as our cash on hand and new credit facility are available to finance ongoing operating requirements, including capital expenditures, business development, debt service and temporary financing of trade AR.

Liquidity Outlook

Our short-term and long-term liquidity needs arise primarily from (i) capital expenditures; (ii) working capital requirements needed to support our growth; (iii) debt service; (iv) dividend payments on our stock and (v) potential acquisitions.

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Our primary sources of liquidity for the year ended December 31, 2023, were proceeds from cash generated from operations and cash reserves held at the beginning of the period. As of December 31, 2023, we had a working capital surplus of $22,779,883. In addition, as of December 31, 2023, we had $15.8 million available under our revolving credit facility to fund any short-term working capital needs. The Company may seek additional financing to continue to fund its fiber expansion plans and meet current and future liquidity needs. The Company may seek additional financing to continue to fund its fiber expansion plans and meet current and future liquidity needs. The working capital surplus as of December 31, 2023, was primarily the result of increased inventories to support our fiber-build initiative and a delay in principal payments to CoBank as a part of our new debt facility with them.   

We have not conducted a public equity offering. We operate with original equity capital, retained earnings and additions to indebtedness in the form of senior debt and bank lines of credit.

Cash Flows

We expect our liquidity needs to include capital expenditures, payment of interest and principal on our indebtedness, income taxes and dividends. We use our cash inflow to manage the temporary increases in cash demand and utilize our revolving credit facility to manage more significant fluctuations in liquidity caused by growth initiatives.

While it is often difficult for us to predict the impact of general economic conditions, we believe that we will be able to meet our current and long-term cash requirements primarily through our operating cash flows and debt financing and anticipate that we will be able to plan for and match future liquidity needs with future internal and available external resources. 

We periodically seek to add growth initiatives by either expanding our network or our markets through organic or internal investments or through strategic acquisitions. We believe we can adjust the timing or the number of our initiatives according to any limitations which may be imposed by our capital structure or sources of financing.

The following table summarizes our cash flow:

Cash Flows from Operating Activities

Cash generated by operations for the year ended December 31, 2023, was $18,985,481, compared to cash generated by operations of $26,524,265 in 2022. The decrease in cash from operating activities in 2023 was primarily due to lower operating income and the timing of the increase/decrease in assets and liabilities.

Cash generated by operations continues to be our primary source of funding for existing operations, debt service and dividend payments to stockholders. Cash as of December 31, 2023, was $1,259,904, compared to $310,556 on December 31, 2022.

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Cash Flows Used in Investing Activities

We operate in a capital-intensive business. We continue to upgrade our advanced fiber networks for changes in technology to provide advanced services to our customers.

Cash flows used in investing activities were $62,845,478 for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $53,624,237 used in investing activities in 2022. Capital expenditures relating to our fiber initiative and on-going operations were $55,547,283 in 2023 and $37,977,118 in 2022. Materials and supply expenditures increased by $13,404,354 in 2023 compared to $15,651,923 in 2022. These increases were primarily due to a large purchase of these items to support our fiber-build initiatives and to avoid anticipated supply chain issues and increased inflation we were expecting in future periods. This was offset by proceeds from the sale of our FiberComm equity investment. Our investing expenditures were financed with cash flows from our current operations and advances on our line of credit and delayed draw term loan when needed. We believe that our current operations and new debt financing from CoBank will provide adequate cash flows to fund our plant additions for the upcoming year; however, funding from our revolving credit facility is available if the timing of our cash flows from operations does not match our cash flow requirements. As of December 31, 2023, we had $15.8 million available under our existing revolving credit facility to fund capital expenditures and other operating needs.

Cash Flows Provided by Financing Activities

Cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2023, was $44,809,345. This included loan proceeds from our delayed draw term loan of $40,000,000, loan origination fees of $151,237, changes in revolving credit facility of $4,281,191, grants received for construction of plant of $2,110,162, and the distribution of $1,430,771 of dividends to stockholders. Cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2022, was $25,104,379. This included long-term debt repayments of $57,330,775, loan proceeds of $56,063,223, loan origination fees of $1,165,859, changes in our revolving credit facility and delayed draw term loan of $33,172,860, grants received for plant construction of $396,360, the repurchase of common stock of $3,187,500 and the distribution of $2,843,930 of dividends to stockholders. The change in cash flows used in financing activities in 2023 was primarily due to changes in our revolving credit facility and delayed draw term loan associated with our new credit agreement with CoBank to fund our fiber initiative.

Working Capital

We had a working capital surplus (i.e. current assets minus current liabilities) of $22,779,883 as of December 31, 2023, with current assets of approximately $41.4 million and current liabilities of approximately $18.6 million, compared to a working capital surplus of $18,161,983 as of December 31, 2022. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities was 2.23 and 2.56 as of December 31, 2023, and 2022. The working capital surplus as of December 31, 2023, was primarily the result of increased inventories to support our fiber-build initiative and a delay in principal payments to CoBank as part of our new debt facility with them.  

As of December 31, 2023, other than our total leverage ratio, we were in compliance with all stipulated financial ratios in our loan agreements. As of December 31, 2022, we were in compliance with all stipulated financial ratios in our loan agreements.   

Our current Total Leverage Ratio as of December 31, 2023, was 5.03 which exceeded our original maximum total leverage of 4.25 per our existing covenants with CoBank. On November 10, 2023, Nuvera received a waiver from CoBank to increase our maximum leverage ratio to 5.50 to accommodate our increased leverage ratio as of September 30 and December 31, 2023.

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Long-Term Debt and Revolving Credit Facilities

Our long-term debt obligations as of December 31, 2023, were $124,166,273 (excluding long-term loan origination fees). Our long-term debt obligations as of December 31, 2022, were $79,885,082 (excluding long-term loan origination fees).

On July 15, 2022, Nuvera and CoBank entered into (i) an Agreement Regarding Amendments to Loan Documents and (ii) an Amended and Restated Revolving Loan Promissory Note. The agreements amended our existing credit facility with CoBank and secured a new credit facility in the aggregate principal amount of $130.0 million.

Under the Agreements, among other things, (i) the Company received a $50.0 million term loan to replace existing debt, (ii) a $50.0 million delayed draw term loan, (iii) the Company’s revolving loan was increased from $20.0 million to $30.0 million, (iv) the maturity date of the term loans were set at July 15, 2029, and the maturity day of the revolving loan was set at July 15, 2027, and (v) the Company’s operating subsidiaries’ agreed to extend their previous guarantees, security interests and mortgages to cover the increased amount of the revolving note. The financing was secured to facilitate the Company’s advanced fiber-build plans announced on December 15, 2021. Refer to the Company’s 8-K filing with the SEC on July 20, 2022, for further details regarding the new credit agreements with CoBank.

On December 21, 2023, Nuvera and CoBank entered into (i) an Agreement Regarding Amendments to Loan Documents and (ii) an Amended and Restated Revolving Loan Promissory Note. The agreements amended our existing credit facility with CoBank and increased the Company’s existing credit facility from an aggregate principal amount of $130.0 million to $140.0 million. Under the Agreements, among other things, (i) the Company’s revolving loan was increased from $30.0 million to $40.0 million and (ii) the Company operating subsidiaries agreed to extend their previous guarantees, security interests and mortgages to cover the increased amount of the revolving note. The financing was secured to facilitate the Company’s advanced fiber-build plans announced on December 15, 2021. Refer to the Company’s 8-K filing with the SEC on December 21, 2023, for further details regarding the new credit agreements with CoBank.

Under the new credit agreement, the Company and its respective subsidiaries have entered into security agreements under which substantially all the assets of Nuvera and its respective subsidiaries have been pledged to CoBank as collateral. In addition, Nuvera and its respective subsidiaries have guaranteed all the obligations under the credit facility. The credit agreement contains certain customary events of default, which include failure to make payments when due, the material inaccuracy of representations or warranties, failure to observe or perform certain covenants, cross-defaults, bankruptcy and insolvency-related events, certain judgments, certain ERISA-related events, or a change in control (as defined in the credit agreement).

Our Long-Term Debt consists of the following notes:

New Credit Agreement

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We generally use variable-rate debt to finance our operations, capital expenditures and acquisitions. These variable-rate debt obligations expose us to variability in interest payments due to changes in interest rates. The terms of our credit facility with CoBank require that we enter into interest rate agreements designed to protect us against fluctuations in interest rates, in an aggregate principal amount and for a duration determined under the credit facility.

Under the new credit facility, Nuvera has the ability to enter into IRSAs in connection with amounts borrowed from CoBank. In connection with the closing of the new credit facility, the Company “rolled over” its two exiting IRSAs. 

As described in Note 7 – “Interest Rate Swaps,” on August 1, 2018, we entered into an IRSA with CoBank covering 25 percent of our then existing debt balance or $16,137,500 of our aggregate indebtedness to CoBank on August 1, 2018. As of December 31, 2023, our IRSA covered $9,798,200, with a weighted average interest rate of 6.11%. 

As described in Note 7 – “Interest Rate Swaps,” on August 29, 2019, we entered into a second IRSA with CoBank covering an additional $42,000,000 of our then aggregate indebtedness to CoBank on August 29, 2019. As of December 31, 2023, our IRSA covered $27,462,606, with a weighted average interest rate of 4.44%.  

Our remaining outstanding debt of $86.9 million remains subject to variable interest rates at an effective weighted average interest rate of 8.55%, as of December 31, 2023.

As of December 31, 2023, our unused revolving credit facility of $15.8 million are subject to an unused commitment fee of 0.25% annually, until drawn. Once drawn, this debt would be subject to an effective weighted average interest rate based on current rate of interest in effect at the time.

Our loan agreements include restrictions on our ability to pay cash dividends to our stockholders. However, we are allowed to pay dividends in an amount up to $3,000,000 in any year if no default or event of default have occurred. Our current Total Leverage Ratio as of December 31, 2023, was 5.03, which exceeded our maximum total leverage ratio of 4.25 per our existing covenants with CoBank. On November 10, 2023, Nuvera received a waiver from CoBank to increase our maximum leverage ratio to 5.50 to accommodate our increased leverage ratio as of September 30 and December 31, 2023.   

Our credit facility requires us to comply with specified financial ratios and tests. These financial ratios include total leverage ratio, debt service coverage ratio and equity to total assets ratio. As of December 31, 2023, we were in compliance with all the stipulated financial ratios in our loan agreements.

There are security and loan agreements underlying our current CoBank credit facility that contain restrictions on our distributions to stockholders and investment in, or loans, to others. Also, our credit facility contains restrictions that, among other things, limits or restricts our ability to enter into guarantees and contingent liabilities, incur additional debt, issue stock, transact asset sales, transfers or dispositions, and engage in mergers and acquisitions, without CoBank approval.  

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See Note 6 – “Long-Term Debt” for information pertaining to our long-term debt and current effective interest rates.  

Guarantees

We had previously guaranteed a portion of the obligations of our Nuvera subsidiary joint venture investment in FiberComm. See Note 13 – “Guarantees.”

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations stated in this 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K are based upon Nuvera’s consolidated financial statements that have been prepared in accordance with GAAP, rules and regulations of the SEC and, where applicable, conform to the accounting principles as prescribed by federal and state telephone utility regulatory authorities. We presently give accounting recognition to the actions of regulators where appropriate. The preparation of our financial statements requires our management to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and the related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and during the reporting period. Actual results may differ from these estimates. Our senior management has discussed the development and selection of accounting estimates and the related Management Discussion and Analysis disclosure with our Audit Committee. For a summary of our significant accounting policies, see Note 1 – “Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.” 

Revenue Recognition

See Note 2 – “Revenue Recognition” for a discussion of our revenue recognition policies.

Allowance for Credit Losses

AR are recorded at amortized cost less an allowance for credit losses (AFCLs) that are not expected to be recovered. The gross amount of AR is recorded net of the corresponding AFCLs in the consolidated balance sheets. We maintain AFCLs resulting from the expected failure or inability of our customers to make their required payments. We recognize the AFCLs based on management’s expectation of the asset’s collectability. The allowance is based on multiple factors including historical experience with bad debts, the credit quality of the customer base, the aging of such receivable and current macroeconomic conditions, as well as management’s expectation of conditions in the future, as applicable. Our AFCLs are recorded on a monthly basis based on the aging of our overall AR. Our AR collection policy includes internal collection efforts after an AR balance is past 30 days due with service being suspended after approximately 40 days and terminated upon 60 days past due.    

Our AFCLs was $150,000 and $140,000 as of December 31, 2023, and 2022.  

Valuation of Goodwill

We have goodwill on our books related to prior acquisitions of communications company properties. As discussed more fully in Note 5 – “Goodwill and Intangibles,” and in accordance with GAAP, goodwill is reviewed for impairment annually or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would reduce the fair value below its’ carrying value. We perform our annual fair value evaluation in the fourth quarter of each year.    

The impairment test for goodwill involves measuring a goodwill impairment loss by comparing the implied fair value of a reporting unit’s goodwill with the carrying amount of that goodwill. Any excess of the carrying value of the reporting unit goodwill over the implied fair value of the reporting unit goodwill will be recorded as an impairment loss.

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In 2023 and 2022, we engaged an independent valuation firm to aid in the completion of an annual impairment test for existing goodwill acquired. For 2023 and 2022, the testing resulted in no impairment to goodwill for Scott-Rice and SETC and no impairment to goodwill for HTC for 2022 as the determined fair value was sufficient to pass the impairment test. For 2023, the testing resulted in an impairment to goodwill for HTC of $9.3 million as the determined fair value was not sufficient to pass the impairment test.  We used a combination of Income (Discounted Cash Flow Method or DCF Method) and Market Approaches to estimate the fair value of the goodwill on our books related to prior acquisitions of communications company properties. The assumptions used in the estimates of fair value were based on projections provided by our management and a rate of return based on market information observed in debt and traded equity securities. Their Market Approaches considered market multiples observed in companies comparable to ours, traded on public exchange or over the counter, or transacted in a merger or acquisition transaction.

Assumptions used in our 2023 DCF model include the following:

The most significant amount of goodwill recorded on our books was due to the acquisitions of HTC, SETC and Scott-Rice. The carrying value of the goodwill was $40,603,029 as of December 31, 2023, and $49,903,029 as of December 31, 2022. The reduction in goodwill was the result of the HTC impairment charge in 2023.

In 2023, we tested the SETC and Scott-Rice goodwill. Based on the DCF model approach that was used, we determined the estimated enterprise fair value of our reporting units exceeded the carrying amount of that reporting units by approximately 16.8% and 9.4% for SETC and Scott-Rice, respectively, which indicated that we had no impairment as of December 31, 2023. In 2023, we tested the HTC goodwill. Based on the DCF model approach that was used, we determined that the carrying amount of that reporting unit exceeded the enterprise’s fair value of that reporting unit and resulted in an impairment of $9.3 million. Future negative changes relating to our financial operations could result in a potential impairment of goodwill.  

Due to changes in financial and credit markets, and overall valuations of communications properties, the Company determined that the carrying value of the HTC reporting unit exceeded its fair value in 2023, which resulted in the impairment listed above. The non-cash impairment charge of $9.3 million did not and is not expected to have any impact on the Company’s operations.

Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes consists of an amount for taxes currently payable and a provision for tax consequences deferred to future periods. Deferred income taxes are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities, and their respective tax basis. Significant components of our deferred taxes arise from differences (i) in the basis of property, plant and equipment due to the use of accelerated depreciation methods for tax purposes, as well as (ii) in partnership investments and intangible assets due to the difference between book and tax basis. Our effective income tax rate is normally higher than the United States tax rate due to state income taxes and permanent differences.

We account for income taxes in accordance with GAAP, which requires an asset and liability approach to financial accounting and reporting for income taxes. As required by GAAP, we recognize the financial statement benefit of a tax position only after determining that the relevant tax authority would more-likely-than-not sustain the position following an audit. For tax positions meeting the more-likely-than-not threshold, the amount recognized in the financial statements is the largest benefit that has a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement with the relevant tax authority.

In accordance with GAAP, we record net unrecognized tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect the income tax provision when recorded. See Note 8 – “Income Taxes.”  

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As of December 31, 2022, we had $19,787 of unrecognized tax benefits that if recognized would affect the tax rate. As of December 31, 2023, the uncertain tax position was reduced to $0 due to a lapse in statute of limitations for the year the position originated.  

We are primarily subject to United States, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wisconsin income taxes. Tax years subsequent to 2019 remain open to examination by federal and state tax authorities. During the year ending December 31, 2022, we settled our examination by the State of Minnesota. The examination did not have a material effect on our financial statements. Our policy is to recognize interest and penalties related to income tax matters as income tax expense. As of December 31, 2023, and 2022 we had $0 and $3,518 of interest or penalties accrued that related to income tax matters.

Property, Plant and Equipment

We record impairment losses on long-lived assets used in operations when events and circumstances indicate the assets might be impaired and the undiscounted cash flows estimated to be generated by those assets are less than the carrying amounts of those assets. In assessing the recoverability of long-lived assets, we compare the carrying value to the undiscounted future cash flows the assets are expected to generate. If the total of the undiscounted future cash flows is less than the carrying amount of the assets, we would write down those assets based on the excess of the carrying amount over the fair value of the assets. Fair value is generally determined by calculating the discounted future cash flows expected from those assets. Changes in these estimates could have a material adverse effect on the assessment of long-lived assets, thereby requiring a write-down of the assets. Write-downs of long-lived assets are recorded as impairment charges and are a component of operating expenses. We have reviewed our long-lived assets and concluded that no impairment charge on these long-lived assets is necessary.

We use the group life method (mass asset accounting) to depreciate the assets of our communication companies. Communications plant acquired in a given year is grouped into similar categories and depreciated over the remaining estimated useful life of the group. When an asset is retired, both the asset and the accumulated depreciation associated with that asset are removed from the books. Due to rapid changes in technology, selecting the estimated economic life of communications plant and equipment requires a significant amount of judgment. We periodically review data on the expected utilization of new equipment, asset retirement activity and net salvage values to determine adjustments to our depreciation rates.

Grant money received from governmental entities for reimbursement of capital expenditures is accounted for as a reduction from the cost of the asset. As the grant was to be used in the Company’s regulated network, the Company accounts for this funding as aid to construction as outlined in the FCC’s Part 32 “Uniform System of Accounts for Telecommunications Companies.” The resulting balance sheet presentation reflects the Company’s net investment in the assets in our property, plant and equipment. Depreciation is calculated and recorded based on the reduced cost of the investment, therefore the impact of prior grants received is reflected in earnings as a reduction in depreciation. Grant funds are shown as inflows in the financing activities section of the statement of cash flows.

Equity Method Investment

We are an investor in several partnerships and limited liability corporations. Our percentages of ownership in these joint ventures range from 7.54% to 24.30%. We use the equity method of accounting for these investments, which reflects original cost and the recognition of our share of the net income or losses from the respective operations.  

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Incentive Compensation

We engaged an outside consultant in 2005 to advise us in our development of an Employee Incentive Plan (EIP) for employees other than executive officers and a Management Incentive Plan (MIP) for our executive officers. Both plans were implemented in 2006. Both plans are cash/stock-based/Option-based incentive plans. Payments on each plan are based on an achievement of objectives of measurable corporate and operational performance with financial targets. The financial targets include the achievement of specified certain operating income before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization criteria, while the operational targets are based upon fiber passings, fiber connections, and net Internet customer additions. The EIP permits the issuance of up to 200,000 shares of our Common Stock in stock awards.  

We accrue an estimated liability each year for these potential payouts and reverse that accrual if the incentive payout targets are not met and paid out. Incentive payouts, if earned, are typically paid in late March of the year following the target year and after the filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K.  

On February 24, 2017, our BOD adopted the Nuvera Communications, Inc. 2017 Omnibus Stock Plan (2017 OSP) effective May 25, 2017. The shareholders of the Company approved the 2017 OSP at the May 25, 2017, Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The purpose of the 2017 OSP was to enable Nuvera and its subsidiaries to attract and retain talented and experienced people, closely link employee compensation with performance realized by shareholders, and reward long-term results with long-term compensation. The 2017 OSP enables us to grant stock incentive awards to current and new employees, including officers, and to Board members and service providers. The 2017 OSP permits stock incentive awards in the form of Options (incentive and non-qualified), stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units (RSU’s), performance stock, performance units, and other awards in stock or cash. The 2017 OSP permits the issuance of up to 625,000 shares of our Common Stock in any of the above stock awards.

See Note 15 – “Stock Based Compensation” for a detailed discussion of our incentive compensation and RSUs. 

Recent Accounting Developments

See Note 1 – “Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” for a discussion of recent accounting developments.

Item 7A.    Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Not required for a smaller reporting company.

Item 8.   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Nuvera Communications, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Nuvera Communications, Inc. (a Minnesota corporation) and subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2023, and 2022, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), stockholders’ equity and cash flows for the years then ended, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the consolidated financial statements). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements, present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023, and 2022, and the consolidated results of their operations and their cash flows for the years then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

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Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments.  The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

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We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2008.

/s/ Olsen Thielen & Co., Ltd

Olsen Thielen & Co., Ltd (251)

Roseville, Minnesota

March 15, 2024

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