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Fair Value Measurements | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2012
Disclosure Text Block |
Fair Value Measurements | NOTE 3 FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS As of December 31, 2012 and 2011, 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, 2012 |  | December 31, 2011
|  | Level within the Fair Value Hierarchy |  | Book Value |  |  | Fair Value |  | Book Value |  | Fair Value
(Dollars in thousands) |  |  |
Cash and cash equivalents | 1 |  | $ | 378,358 |  | $ | 378,358 |  | $ | 424,155 |  | $ | 424,155
Short-term investments (1)(2) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Government-backed securities (3) | 1 |  |  | 100,676 |  |  | 100,676 |  |  | 127,039 |  |  | 127,039
Long-term investments (1)(4) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Government-backed securities (3) | 1 |  |  | 50,305 |  |  | 50,339 |  |  | 30,057 |  |  | 30,140
Long-term debt (5) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 6.95% Senior Notes | 1 |  |  | 342,000 |  |  | 376,610 |  |  | 342,000 |  |  | 364,162
| 6.7% Senior Notes | 2 |  |  | 532,194 |  |  | 582,744 |  |  | 534,111 |  |  | 534,860
(1) | Designated as held-to-maturity investments and are recorded at amortized cost in the Consolidated Balance Sheet.
(2) | Maturities are less than twelve months from the respective balance sheet dates.
(3) | Includes U.S. treasuries and corporate notes guaranteed under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.
(4) | Maturities range between 14 and 23 months from the balance sheet date.
(5) | 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, and discounted cash flow analysis using an estimated yield to maturity of 6.09% a nd 6.85% for the 6.7% Senior Notes at December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively.

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- Definition The entire disclosure of the fair value measurement of assets and liabilities, which includes financial instruments measured at fair value that are classified in shareholders' equity, which may be measured on a recurring or nonrecurring basis. + 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=7578670&loc=d3e19279-110258 Reference 2: 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=7578670&loc=d3e19190-110258 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 Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 820 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=7578670&loc=d3e19207-110258 Reference 5: 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 6: 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 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. + Details
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