Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (unaudited) (USD $) In Thousands	6 Months Ended
	Jun. 30, 2011	Jun. 30, 2010
Operating activities:
Net cash provided by operating activities	$ 101,639	$ 204,406
Investing activities:
Acquisition of a business	(850)	0
Purchases of property and equipment	(186,186)	(195,405)
Change in prepayments for purchases of property and equipment	(2,953)	(2,836)
Purchases of wireless licenses and spectrum clearing costs	(2,845)	(1,827)
Proceeds from sales of wireless licenses and operating assets	468	0
Purchases of investments	(297,430)	(301,399)
Sales and maturities of investments	149,767	427,287
Purchase of membership units of equity investment	0	(967)
Change in restricted cash	(420)	378
Net cash used in investing activities	(340,449)	(74,769)
Financing activities:
Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt	396,772	0
Repayment of long-term debt	(15,089)	(4,000)
Payment of debt issuance costs	(6,680)	0
Purchase of non-controlling interest	0	(20,973)
Proceeds from the issuance of common stock, net	712	904
Proceeds from sale lease-back financing	23,891	0
Other	(3,467)	(979)
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities	396,139	(25,048)
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents	157,329	104,589
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period	350,790	174,999
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period	508,119	279,588
Supplementary disclosure of cash flow information:
Cash paid for interest	(102,328)	(115,528)
Cash paid for income taxes	(2,974)	(2,977)
Non-cash investing and financing activities:
Contribution of wireless licenses in exchange for an equity interest	$ 0	$ 2,381