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#I'm not sure there's a disconnect with all investors and the way we see the length of the cycle.
We see it the way our customers articulate it.
So, when we have a customer, a major customer, who says it's a 10-year initiative, we believe them.
When we have another customer and all the Connect America Fund work that says it's through 2020, we believe them.
When we see backlog that's almost doubled year over year, and that's all the result of customer awards, and those awards go into the next decade, we think this is a long cycle.
And I think it was encouraging this quarter, for example, to see Verizon announce the expansion of Fios in Boston when you consider that they announced a six-year program, which at the end of it we will have been doing Fios for them for literally 18 years.
So, that's about as long a cycle as I think you can see in a technology-based network business.
<UNK>, there's a mix of customers, and when you have this kind of growth, and you have a quarter that's back-end loaded, it's going to be difficult to build April's production in April.
So, once again, as we've discussed this before, we're very confident that our procedures are consistent, consistently applied.
And as you can see, the DSO, even though the seasonal impact was a challenge, actually came down.
<UNK>, I'll just talk generally about the difference between, say, fiber to the node and vectoring technologies or improvements to the copper versus fiber.
We play a major role in both.
There are upgrades not only to the electronic DSLAMs but also improvements to the existing copper facilities.
So, not only have we done it in the past but we're doing it currently and we look at that as a nice opportunity.
With respect to CAF and fixed wireless, we are engaged with one customer who's a major wireless carrier.
All of the other opportunities that we're seeing with respect to CAF are traditional fiber deployments and new DSLAM installations.
If you don't have the spectrum and you don't have a wireless network, it seems unlikely that somebody would develop one simply to just do CAF work.
And we've not seen any evidence that's the case, but could change.
And then I think on free cash flow, we're growing the business and having very high returns on capital.
Our leverage is coming down on a gross basis.
And as long as our customers want us to grow and we're earning high returns on equity, we're happy to support them.
Now, that doesn't mean that we can't do a better job of collecting and invoicing, but at the same hand, we're not going to, in a business where we are actually deleveraging and are earning high returns on equity, we're not going to let that influence our investment plans.
<UNK>, the first thing I would tell you is, from the Company's perspective, we don't think about backlog quarterly.
These are long-term agreements.
They have renewal options, in some instances we have a long history of successfully renewing these contracts.
So, remember, the way we value backlog, where we're looking to trailing revenues to value the remaining term under the contract, I'd probably argue that backlog, given our growth rate right now, in some hypothetical sense is probably understated.
So, as we continue to grow, the backlog will come up as it gets revalued.
But when we have master contracts that have a fixed term, when you get to the end of the term, there's no backlog left, that doesn't mean there's no growth or no revenue, it just means you have to renew the contract.
So, I think there's still plenty of opportunities for us to book new business, but there is going to be this renewal cycle that we go through where there may be a period of time where backlog is flat.
The best example ---+ and I'm looking at the schedule ---+ is last year, from the second quarter of 2015 to the third quarter, so from February to April, backlog went down $70 million.
How good of an indicator was that as to our growth rate over the next four quarters.
Zero.
So, that's how we think about backlog.
Master is another long-term contract, <UNK>, is 80%, pretty much like it's always been ---+ 80%, 81%, 82%.
No change.
Yes, thanks, <UNK>.
For the customer split, telco was at 64.7%, cable was 25.9%, facility locating was 5.8%, and electrical and other was 3.6%.
<UNK>, as long as we see solid investment opportunity with high returns on equity, we're going to continue to invest.
This was a big year but there are also some pretty substantial opportunities in front of us.
Just under $40 million, <UNK>.
We don't have a large business in that industry.
It's significant, it's a good business.
So, I don't know how much you can read from our results to the broader industry.
I would just tell you that our folks have had some good opportunities that we've executed well against.
So, that business is growing and we expect it to grow, based on what we know today, through the balance of the calendar year.
<UNK>, I'd just say, generally, when you have an industry environment that's as robust as it is today, and we've got big customers with big programs, they're not all going to be marching in cadence quarter to quarter.
There's going to be times where there's surges and consolidations.
That's just the way these industry expansions have worked, in my experience.
So, I don't know that there's anything broad to read into an individual customer's activity quarter to quarter in a short-term period.
We won't break out individual legal matters.
I think what I'd have to say, and our comments on this call are limited, but I think it's important that we make clear why we filed the lawsuit.
This August, I'll have been President of the Company for 20 years, and in that period of time, those 20 years, we bought 38 businesses.
In every one of those transactions, sellers made promises to us about how they'd behave after the deals were closed.
37 out of 38 times the sellers kept their promise.
Here they haven't.
So, the lawsuit is just simply to insure that the Dycom and the shareholders get what Quanta promised when we entered the 2012 deal.
That's really all we have to say.
<UNK>, the way I've always thought about growth in the industry, and I think it's played out this way a number of times, we're deleveraging the business as we grow EBITDA.
The operating cash flow will have uses and then seasonal flows back out.
And I think as long as you're going to grow at the rate that we are, I think the right way to think about it is not necessarily cash flow from operating activities.
Once again, we're always working on getting better at collections and managing our expenses.
But think about what the investment was in the business to produce organically $600 million worth of growth.
And this is very low EBITDA multiple growth.
So, that's the way we think about the investment cycle.
And we are very confident that we'll manage operating cash flow.
As I just alluded to, I've been doing this for a long time.
If you can take out almost 40% of your equity, keep your leverage at two times, you must know how to manage the operating cash flow or you couldn't accomplish those things.
I think as opportunity presents itself, <UNK>, there are always opportunities to grow our customer relationships on small regional basis, so we're always going to look at those kinds of transactions.
There are some good smaller businesses out there that we can look at, and we'll look at larger businesses as they become available.
As your EBITDA margins are going up, and the incremental is generally non-cash expense, other than the investments you make, as that stream of cash keeps coming in and those investments at least at some level will level off, you'll generate a lot of cash and you'll have a lot of earnings.
Let's start with, in the last year we've signed a six-year contract with Verizon for essentially the entire East Coast.
We've signed three-year extensions with CenturyLink that cover 24 states.
And I guess it ought to be self-evident that the customers see value in us in a long-term relationship or backlog probably wouldn't have doubled and the duration doubled in the last 12 months.
I don't know how to deal with the perception that doesn't look to the actual performance of the business.
With respect to wireless, <UNK>, we are doing DAS, we are doing some small cell, but the bulk of the growth that we saw has really been around macro cells, carrier adds and other improvements to that network.
Once again, it's a substantial business but it's not so large that it may not be an outlier, although our folks are pretty confident in their outlook for the next 12, 18 months in that business.
And that is a business where there is some fair visibility, particularly around site acquisition activity.
So, at least in our business, we feel good about it.
We are executing well.
Can always do better but we feel good about that business.
I think with respect to cable, we're clearly growing with cable, particularly with Comcast.
I think there's been plenty of industry commentary, even at the most recent cable show, and certainly by the major equipment manufactures, about what will be required to increase capacity in the network, and that requires pushing fiber deeper.
So, we see great forward opportunities in that initiative.
I think just this week Cox came out and had some comments in the press where they're talking about taking fiber deeper to increase capacity and also to deal with particularly on the return path.
So, I would just defer people to take a look at what [ARRIS] and some of the other equipment folks are saying.
I don't think they could be any clearer.
And since they make the equipment, I don't know how they could be mistaken.
Okay.
We thank everybody for your time and attention.
We understand this quarter there was a little bit of extra interest on our calendar.
So, just to remind everybody for next year, we always publish the Tuesday before Memorial Day.
And next quarter, we will be publishing the end of August.
So, with that, thanks, and have a good day.
