Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Principles

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Condensed Notes to Interim Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited)

Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Principles

The accompanying unaudited interim consolidated financial statements include the accounts of GCI, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries and have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") for interim financial information. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. They should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2010, filed with the SEC on March 15, 2011 as part of our annual report on Form 10-K. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for an entire year or any other period.

(1)Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Principles

In the following discussion, GCI, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries are referred to as “we,” “us” and “our.”

Basis of Presentation

We were incorporated in Alaska in 1997 to affect the issuance of Senior Notes. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Communication, Inc. ("GCI"), we received through our initial capitalization all ownership interests in subsidiaries previously held by GCI. The GCI and GCI, Inc. interim consolidated financial statements include substantially the same account activity.

(a)       Business

We offer the following services:

• Origination and termination of traffic in Alaska for certain common carriers,
• Cable television services throughout Alaska,
• Competitive local access services throughout Alaska,
• Incumbent local access services in areas of rural Alaska,
• Long-distance telephone service,
• Sale of postpaid and prepaid wireless telephone services and sale of wireless telephone handsets and accessories,
• Data network services,
• Internet access services,
• Wireless roaming for certain wireless carriers,
• Broadband services, including our SchoolAccess® offering to rural school districts, our ConnectMD® offering to rural hospitals and health clinics, and managed video conferencing,
• Managed services to certain commercial customers,
• Sales and service of dedicated communications systems and related equipment, and
• Lease, service arrangements and maintenance of capacity on our fiber optic cable systems used in the transmission of voice and data services within Alaska and between Alaska and the remaining United States and foreign countries.

(b)       Principles of Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the consolidated accounts of GCI, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany transactions between non-regulated affiliates of our company are eliminated. Intercompany transactions generated between regulated and non-regulated affiliates of the company are not eliminated in consolidation.

(c)       Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2011-04 “Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements in U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”)”which amends current guidance to achieve common fair value measurement and disclosure requirements in GAAP and IFRS.  The amendments generally represent clarification of FASB ASC Topic 820, but also include instances where a particular principle or requirement for measuring fair value or disclosing information about fair value measurements has changed.  This pronouncement is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2011.  The adoption of ASU 2011-04 is not expected to have a material impact on our statement of operations, financial position or cash flows.

(d)       Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

FASBASU 2009-13 addresses the accounting for multiple deliverable arrangements to enable vendors to account for products or services (“deliverables”) separately rather than as a combined unit. Specifically, this guidance amends the criteria in Subtopic 605-25, “Revenue Recognition - Multiple-Element Arrangements”, for separating consideration in multiple-deliverable arrangements. This guidance establishes a selling price hierarchy for determining the selling price of a deliverable, which is based on: (a) vendor-specific objective evidence; (b) third-party evidence; or (c) estimates. This guidance also eliminates the residual method of allocation and requires that arrangement consideration be allocated at the inception of the arrangement to all deliverables using the relative selling price method. In addition, this guidance significantly expands required disclosures related to a vendor's multiple-deliverable revenue arrangements. The adoption of ASU 2009-13 on January 1, 2011, did not have a material impact on our statement of operations, financial position or cash flows.

Under ASU 2010-28 “Intangibles—Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): When to Perform Step 2 of the Goodwill Impairment Test for Reporting Units with Zero or Negative Carrying Amounts”, if the carrying amount of a reporting unit is zero or negative, an entity must assess whether it is more likely than not that goodwill impairment exists. To make that determination, an entity should consider whether there are adverse qualitative factors that could impact the amount of goodwill, including those listed in ASC 350-20-35-30. As a result of the new guidance, an entity can no longer assert that a reporting unit is not required to perform the second step of the goodwill impairment test because the carrying amount of the reporting unit is zero or negative, despite the existence of qualitative factors that indicate goodwill is more likely than not impaired. The adoption of ASU 2010-28 on January 1, 2011, did not have a material impact on our statement of operations, financial position or cash flows.

ASU 2010-29 “Business Combinations (Topic 805): Disclosure of Supplementary Pro Forma Information for Business Combinations” specifies that if a public entity presents comparative financial statements, the entity should disclose revenue and earnings of the combined entity as though the business combination(s) that occurred during the current year had occurred as of the beginning of the comparable prior annual reporting period only. The amendments in this update also expand the supplemental pro forma disclosures under Topic 805 to include a description of the nature and amount of material, nonrecurring pro forma adjustments directly attributable to the business combination included in the reported pro forma revenue and earnings. The adoption of ASU 2010-29 on January 1, 2011, did not have a material impact on our statement of operations, financial position, cash flows or related disclosures.

(e)       Regulatory Accounting and Regulation

       We account for our regulated operations in accordance with the accounting principles for regulated enterprises. This accounting recognizes the economic effects of rate regulation by recording cost and a return on investment as such amounts are recovered through rates authorized by regulatory authorities. Accordingly, plant and equipment is depreciated over lives approved by regulators and certain costs and obligations are deferred based upon approvals received from regulators to permit recovery of such amounts in future years. Our cost studies and depreciation rates for our regulated operations are subject to periodic audits that could result in a change to recorded revenues.

(f)Earnings per Common Share

We are a wholly-owned subsidiary of GCI and, accordingly, are not required to present earnings per share. Our common stock is not publicly traded.

(g)       Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Significant items subject to estimates and assumptions include the allowance for doubtful receivables, unbilled revenues, accrual of the Universal Service Fund (“USF”) high cost area program support, share-based compensation, inventory reserves, reserve for future customer credits, valuation allowances for deferred income tax assets, depreciable and amortizable lives of assets, the carrying value of long-lived assets including goodwill, cable certificates and wireless licenses, purchase price allocations, deferred lease expense, asset retirement obligations, the accrual of Cost of Goods Sold (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) and the accrual of contingencies and litigation. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

The accounting estimates related to revenues from the high cost USF program are dependent on various inputs including current line counts, the most current rates paid to us, and our assessment of the impact of new Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) regulations, and the potential outcome of FCC proceedings.  Some of the inputs are subjective and based on our judgment regarding the outcome of certain variables and are subject to upward or downward adjustment in subsequent periods. 

Effective in the second quarter of 2010, we changed our USF high-cost area program support accrual methodology due to a change in our estimate of the current amounts expected to be paid to us. The effect of this change in estimate was a revenue increase of $4.7 million, a net income increase of $3.1 million, and a basic and diluted net income per share increase of $0.06 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2010.

(h)       Income Taxes

GCI, Inc., as a wholly-owned subsidiary and member of the GCI controlled group of corporations, files its income tax returns as part of the consolidated group of corporations under GCI. Accordingly, all discussions regarding income taxes reflect the consolidated group's activity. Our income tax expense and deferred income tax assets and liabilities are presented herein using the separate-entity method.

(i)       Classification of Taxes Collected from Customers

We report sales, use, excise, and value added taxes assessed by a governmental authority that are directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between us and a customer on a net basis in our income statement. Following are certain surcharges reported on a gross basis in ourConsolidated Statement of Operations for the three and six months endedJune 30, 2011 and 2010(amounts in thousands):

		Three Months Ended		Six Months Ended
		June 30,		June 30,
		2011	2010	2011	2010
Surcharges reported gross	$	1,376	1,416	2,800	2,751