Fair Value Measurements

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

Disclosure Text Block

Fair Value Measurements

2. Fair Value Measurements

As of September 30,2014 and December 31, 2013, U.S. Cellular did not have any financial or nonfinancial assets or liabilities that were requiredto 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.

		Level within the Fair Value Hierarchy	September 30, 2014				December 31, 2013
			Book Value			Fair Value	Book Value		Fair Value
(Dollars in thousands)
Cash and cash equivalents		1	$	273,798	$	273,798	$	342,065	$	342,065
Short-term investments
	U.S. Treasury Notes	1		40,014		40,014		50,104		50,104
Long-term debt
	6.95% Senior Notes	1		342,000		346,104		342,000		309,852
	6.7% Senior Notes	2		532,652		535,254		532,449		507,697

Short-term investments are designated as held-to-maturity investments and recorded at amortized cost in the Consolidated Balance Sheet. Long-term debt excludes capital lease obligations and the 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 value of 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 6.85%for the 6.7% Senior Notes at September 30, 2014.