When we refer to free cash flow during today's call, we mean adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures as defined in our earnings release. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release or on our website at ir.cableone.net. During the fourth quarter, residential broadband connect activity showed year-over-year growth, while disconnects improved significantly compared to the previous quarter. With a considerable amount of the foundational work largely behind us, our focus is on defending our existing customer base, capitalizing on profitable growth opportunities, and executing on key efficiency initiatives.
As we've noted previously, some of our go-to-market customer acquisition and retention initiatives will put downward pressure on ARPU. Our fiber-based wired network delivers greater reliability, higher speeds, lower latency, and substantial scalable capacity for our broadband customers who continue to demonstrate growing demand for our services. Utilization trends continue to demonstrate that our network is well-suited to meet growing consumer demand. Despite this growth, peak hour downstream and upstream utilization remained at or below 20%, demonstrating that network capacity remains well ahead of demand and will not be a barrier to growth.
Following Verizon's acquisition of Frontier, our overlap with Frontier remains less than 10% of our footprint, and a meaningful portion of that overlap has already been upgraded to fiber over the past several years. Importantly, we view this as a complementary product that strengthens our overall value proposition, increases customer lifetime value, and supports both retention and acquisition within residential broadband. Early engagement has been encouraging, and we believe this channel can drive incremental revenue and deepen our presence in targeted commercial verticals over time. Average monthly installs during the final three months of 2025 increased compared to the prior year period, reflecting improved execution and growing demand across these solutions.