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Fair Value Measurements | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2011
Disclosure Text Block |
Fair Value Measurements | NOTE 4 FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, U.S. Cellular did not have any financial assets or liabilities that were required to be recorded at fair value in its Consolidated Balance Sheet in accordance with GAAP. However, U.S. Cellular has applied the provisions of fair value accounting for purposes of computing the fair value of financial instruments for disclosure purposes as displayed below.
|  |  | December 31, |  |  | December 31, |
|  |  | 2011 |  |  | 2010 |
|  |  | Book Value |  |  |  | Fair Value |  |  | Book Value |  |  | Fair Value |
(Dollars in thousands) |  |
Cash and cash equivalents (1) | $ | 424,155 |  |  | $ | 424,155 |  |  | $ | 276,915 |  |  | $ | 276,915 |
Short-term investments (2)(3) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Certificates of deposit |  | — |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | 250 |  |  |  | 250 |
| Government-backed securities (4) |  | 127,039 |  |  |  | 127,039 |  |  |  | 146,336 |  |  |  | 146,336 |
Long-term investments (2)(5) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Government-backed securities (4) |  | 30,057 |  |  |  | 30,140 |  |  |  | 46,033 |  |  |  | 46,034 |
Long-term debt (6) |  | 876,111 |  |  |  | 899,022 |  |  |  | 863,657 |  |  |  | 850,374 |
In preparing its Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended December 31, 2011, U.S. Cellular discovered certain errors related to the classification of outstanding checks with the right of offset. This error resulted in the misstatement of Cash for the year ended December 31, 2010. The amounts herein have been revised to reflect the proper amounts. See Note 2 — Revision of Prior Period Amounts for additional information. Designated as held-to-maturity investments and are recorded at amortized cost in the Consolidated Balance Sheet. Maturities are less than twelve months from the respective balance sheet dates. Includes U.S. treasuries and corporate notes guaranteed under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program. Maturities range between 18 and 21 months from the balance sheet date. Excludes capital lease obligations and current portion of Long-term debt. The fair value s of C ash and cash equivalents and Short-term investments approximate the ir book value s due to the short-term nature of these financial instruments. The fair value s of Long-term investments were estimated using quoted market prices for the individual issuances. The fair value of l ong-term debt, excluding capital lease obligations and the current portion of such l ong-term debt, was estimated using market prices for the 6.95% S enior N otes at December 31, 2011 and 7.5% S enior N otes at December 31, 2010, and discounted cash flow anal ysis for the 6.7% S enior N otes at December 31, 2011 and 2010.

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- Definition Tabular disclosure of the fair value measurement of assets and liabilities which includes [financial] instruments measured at fair value that are classified in stockholders' equity. Such assets and liabilities may be measured on a recurring or nonrecurring basis. The disclosures which may be required or desired include: (1) for assets and liabilities measured on a recurring basis, disclosure may include: (a) the fair value measurements at the reporting date; (b) the level within the fair value hierarchy in which the fair value measurements in their entirety fall, segregating fair value measurements using quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1), significant other observable inputs (Level 2), and significant unobservable inputs (Level 3); (c) for fair value measurements using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3), a reconciliation of the beginning and ending balances, separately presenting changes during the period attributable to the following: (i) total gains or losses for the period (realized and unrealized), segregating those gains or losses included in earnings (or changes in net assets), and a description of where those gains or losses included in earnings (or changes in net assets) are reported in the statement of income (or activities); (ii) purchases, sales, issuances, and settlements (net); (iii) transfers in and transfers out of Level 3 (for example, transfers due to changes in the observability of significant inputs); (d) the amount of the total gains or losses for the period in subparagraph (c) (i) above included in earnings (or changes in net assets) that are attributable to the change in unrealized gains or losses relating to those assets and liabilities still held at the reporting date and a description of where those unrealized gains or losses are reported in the statement of income (or activities); (e) the valuation technique(s) used to measure fair value and a discussion of changes in valuation techniques, if any, during the period and (2) for assets and liabilities that are measured at fair value on a nonrecurring basis (for example, impaired assets) disclosure may include, in addition to (a) above: (a) the reasons for the fair value measurements recorded; (b) the same as (b) above; (c) for fair value measurements using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3), a description of the inputs and the information used to develop the inputs; and (d) the valuation technique(s) used to measure fair value and a discussion of changes, if any, in the valuation technique(s) used to measure similar assets and/or liabilities in prior periods. Where the quoted price in an active market for the identical liability is not available, the Level 1 input is the quoted price of an identical liability when traded as an asset. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 820 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 3 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6925170&loc=d3e19279-110258 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 157 -Paragraph 32 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 157 -Paragraph 33 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 107 -Paragraph 10 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 5: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 820 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 5 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6925170&loc=d3e19296-110258 Reference 6: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 820 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6925170&loc=d3e19207-110258 Reference 7: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 157 -Paragraph 6 -Footnote 4 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 8: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 820 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6925170&loc=d3e19190-110258 + Details
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