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Fair Value Measurements
 12 Months Ended
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 values of Cash and cash equivalents and Short-term investments approximate their book values due to the short-term nature of these financial instruments. The fair values of Long-term investments were estimated using quoted market prices for the individual issuances. The fair value of long-term debt, excluding capital lease obligations and the current portion of such long-term debt, was estimated using market prices for the 6.95% Senior Notes at December 31, 2011 and 7.5% Senior Notes at December 31, 2010, and discounted cash flow analysis for the 6.7% Senior Notes at December 31, 2011 and 2010.