Telephone and Data Systems (TDS) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Telephone and Data Systems published the results on November 6, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• EPS shown is diluted earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to TDS common shareholders, the figure TDS leads its release with. Including discontinued operations (chiefly the wireless operations Array sold to T-Mobile on August 1, 2025), diluted EPS was $0.25, against a loss of $0.84 a year earlier. Net income shown is net income (loss) attributable to TDS common shareholders, including discontinued operations.
• Array, named United States Cellular Corporation until August 1, 2025, is 81.9% owned by TDS. It now leases tower space and holds wireless spectrum and minority stakes in wireless operating companies; TDS consolidates it.

Source: TDS Q3 2026 results, November 6, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Telephone and Data Systems splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Telephone and Data Systems's TDS Telecom revenue was $247 million in Q3 2026, down 3% from $255 million in Q3 2025, 81% of total revenue.
• Telephone and Data Systems's Array revenue was $53.9 million in Q3 2026, up 14% from $47.1 million in Q3 2025, 18% of total revenue.
• Telephone and Data Systems's All Other (corporate, other and intercompany eliminations) revenue was $5.6 million in Q3 2026, down 12% from $6.3 million in Q3 2025, 2% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

These are TDS Telecom's updated 2026 estimates; the previous ranges were $1,000-$1,025 million of revenue and $300-$320 million of Adjusted OIBDA, with capital expenditures of $625-$675 million. Array's 2026 estimates were unchanged: revenue of $205-$215 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $220-$235 million. TDS gives no guidance for income taxes or EPS.

In its Q3 2026 release, Telephone and Data Systems said:

“Revenues of $990 million to $1,010 million”

“Adjusted OIBDA of $280 million to $300 million”

“Adjusted EBITDA of $290 million to $310 million”

“Capital expenditures of approximately $750 million”

Source: TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Nov 6, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the TDS forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

Total operating revenues and diluted EPS from continuing operations, each as first reported in that quarter's release. Q1 and Q2 2026 EPS include Array's gains on wireless spectrum license sales.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Telephone and Data Systems's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Nov 6, 2026

Telephone and Data Systems has two businesses. TDS Telecom, which sells broadband, video, voice and wireless service, brought in $247.3 million of TDS's $306.7 million Q3 2026 revenue, down 3%. Array, the former United States Cellular Corporation, which sold its wireless operations to T-Mobile on August 1, 2025 and now leases tower space, brought in $53.9 million, up 14%. (TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026; TDS Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 24, 2026)

TDS Telecom's revenue is mostly residential: $179.2 million in Q3 2026, against $181.8 million a year earlier. Commercial revenue was $32.5 million and wholesale $34.8 million. TDS said residential fiber revenue grew 14%, more than offset by divestitures and continued declines in legacy markets; the 2025 divestitures alone took $4.1 million out of Q3 revenue. (TDS Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 6, 2026; TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

The shift is toward fiber. Incumbent fiber broadband connections rose 17% to 144,100 and expansion fiber connections 27% to 191,200, while incumbent copper fell 30% to 71,100. TDS Telecom added 16,700 residential fiber connections in the quarter and about 76,000 marketable fiber service addresses, and its service addresses reached 2.0 million. (TDS Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 6, 2026; TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

Array's site rental revenue rose mainly because of its master lease agreement with T-Mobile, which leases space on a minimum of 2,015 additional Array towers for at least 15 years and about 1,800 more on an interim basis. Array expects the interim lease revenue, $4.9 million in Q3 2026, to decline as T-Mobile ends those leases over a 30-month period ending January 2028. Array owned 4,455 towers in 19 states at September 30, 2026. (TDS Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 6, 2026)

TDS's diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.26 in Q3 2026, against $0.33 a year earlier, on net income attributable to common shareholders from continuing operations of $29.6 million, against $40.2 million. TDS posted an operating loss of $30.0 million; earnings came from other income, including $41.4 million of equity in earnings of unconsolidated entities and $22.0 million of interest and dividend income, plus a $25.9 million income tax benefit. (TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

Q3 2026 was a quieter quarter than the first half, when Array booked gains on spectrum license sales: TDS's nine-month diluted EPS from continuing operations was $3.62. Array received regulatory approval in October for its remaining pending spectrum sales, which remain subject to FCC finality and other closing conditions. (TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

TDS repurchased about 6 million of its shares in Q3 2026 at an average of $36.65, and nearly 15 million in 2026 for more than $520 million; its board approved a further $250 million authorization. Diluted weighted average shares were 115,000 thousand, against 118,844 thousand a year earlier. Preferred share dividends of $17.3 million are deducted before common shareholders' earnings. (TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

TDS publishes full-year estimates for TDS Telecom and Array in its release, with no EPS or tax guidance. With Q3 2026 results it lowered TDS Telecom's 2026 revenue estimate to $990 million to $1,010 million (from $1,000-$1,025 million) and Adjusted OIBDA to $280 million to $300 million (from $300-$320 million), and raised capital expenditures to about $750 million (from $625-$675 million). Array's estimates, including revenue of $205-$215 million, were unchanged. (TDS Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Telephone and Data Systems, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Telephone and Data Systems's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning TDS is on is TDS a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the TDS forecast, and what the company does is on the Telephone and Data Systems (TDS) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Telephone and Data Systems published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.