joining us right now exclusively is the company's ceo john stankey. and john welcome.it's good to be with you. >> let's talk a little bit about what you're seeing. the numbers came in better than expected on every metric that i'm looking through here. earnings per share. revenue. free cash flow, postpaid phone net adds. and the full year number was better than the guidance that you had just given the street in december at an analyst day meeting. what happened in the last weeks of the quarter? >> well, i think you kind of touched on the important thing is we set out some guidance for the year and across the board we consistently met or exceeded it. and that's exactly what we set out to do, which is to simplify the business and get ourselves into a position where we're executing more consistently and have the confidence that we can deliver on these things. and that's one reason why i at the analyst day that you referred to, we laid out some three year objectives of what we think we can do. and i think effectively, what you saw in the fourth quarter is that the business c

john stankey has been delivering. know after quite a few years obviously of frustration on the part of their shareholder base. absolutely good for. >> a fresh three. >> year high. >> it is it is. did a good job. >> 11.9 billion in cash from operating activities. the leverage ratio obviously continues to decline. they're very aggressive in fiber as our as our viewers know. he was on squawk box. >> he was very good this. >> morning earlier very good. and that stock is benefiting. >> david i got to ask you what. >> okay. you want to ask me something. >> or do you think that proctor's up because of the scalloped toilet paper? i don't know. first new innovation in toilet paper in 30 years. >> don't have any opinion? >> first new innovation for in 30 years. really? yes. bristol-myers. first new innovation on schizophrenia. and procter and gamble. first new innovation on toilet paper. so, hey, name your poison. >> that's amazing. >> that's toilet paper. makes it feel like that you're in a four star hotel. i actually, i feel

. >> i had john stankey on not that long ago talking about the dod and saying, come on.y single ban that we were looking to put into the use for public airwaves, there will be some federal agency that would put up their hand and say we're in favor of 5g, just not in this band. and over time that brings down american innovation. you have rules on the books from 1975 that prevent a radio station and newspaper from owning each other. it doesn't make any sense. i think brendan is going to take a forward-looking view to make sure the marketplace is reflected in the regulations of idea. >> many of the media ownership rules are just not adapted for the current age in any way. >> it's incredible. >> which leads to questions as to whether you could see a deal in which, for example, our parent company or at least our current parent company, comcast, would be allowed to merge with a charter or a large telecommunications company. >> that's more of an antitrust question than ownership question. >> the sec has an important role to play. >> it applies a different framework to those typ