cellular type public traded as nyse usm industry telecommunications founded 1983 ; 33 years ago 1983 headquarters chicago illinois u.s. products cdma2000 1x ev do and lte wireless voice and data services sms text messaging mms picture messaging mobile tv easyedge mobile tv location based services brew easyedge revenue 3.89 billion usd 2014 net income 47 million usd 2014 number of employees 6 700 2014 parent telephone and data systems 84 % website www.uscellular.com united states cellular corporation doing business as u.s. cellular is a regional carrier 1 which owns and operates the fifth largest wireless telecommunications network in the united states serving 4.9 million customers in 426 markets in 23 u.s. states as of the first quarter of 2016 . 2 the company has its headquarters in chicago illinois . contents 1 corporate information 2 customer satisfaction 3 network 3.1 cdma 3g network 3.2 4g lte network 4 timeline 5 phones 6 tablet pcs 7 belief project 7.1 belief plans 7.2 belief plans evolved bpe 7.3 shared data plans 8 corporate headquarters 9 corporate sponsorship 10 nascar 11 sound logo 12 references 13 external links corporate information edit u.s. cellular was formed in 1983 as a subsidiary of telephone and data systems tds inc. which still owns an 84 percent stake . in compliance with federal law u.s. cellular works with national center for missing and exploited children to provide free amber alerts via text messaging . 3 customer satisfaction edit the neutrality of this section is disputed . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met . january 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message pc magazine awarded u.s. cellular along with verizon wireless a reader s choice for cellular service provider award in 2010 stating that it score highest in the customer service category . 4 j. d. power and associates rated u.s. cellular as having highest in wireless call quality performance . the north central region il in mi oh wi has received the award from 2006 2011 . 5 6 in consumer reports 2010 annual survey of wireless service providers the company received the best score out of all of the national carriers . 7 network edit cdma 3g network edit originally u.s. cellular used analog then digital amps tdma cell phones in most markets but the company started shifting over to 1xrtt cdma technology in 2003 . after the switch u.s. cellular has discontinued all analog and tdma services . in 2009 u.s. cellular started converting its network to evdo which offers 3g speeds . u.s. cellular is currently implementing use of lte for its 4g network . 8 the company offers national 3g coverage through roaming agreements . native coverage is mainly in the pacific northwest midwest parts of the east and new england . although headquartered in chicago u.s. cellular did not offer service in the chicago metropolitan area until it acquired territories from primeco communications between 2002 and 2003 after the formation of verizon wireless . 9 4g lte network edit u.s. cellular announced that it would start offering 4g coverage to customers beginning in the first quarter of 2012 . just like the other larger wireless competitors the company decided to go with lte for its 4g coverage . the rollout was planned for selected cities in iowa wisconsin maine north carolina texas and oklahoma . these include some of u.s. cellular s leading markets such as milwaukee madison and racine wis. ; des moines cedar rapids and davenport iowa ; portland bangor and houlton maine ; and greenville n.c. 10 as of november 14 2012 u.s. cellular has added additional 4g lte markets including southern oregon roseburg grants pass and medford areas . us cellular s lte network is primarily built upon two low frequency lte bands ; 12 and 5 . 11 through the agreement with kingstreet wireless 12 us cellular has access to the lower 700mhz a b and c blocks across most of their operating markets . spectrum bandwidth on lte includes 5 5 or 10 10mhz on band 12 700mhz 5 5mhz on band 5 850mhz 5 5 or 10 10mhz on band 4 aws 1 supplementary spectrum in the band 2 1900 pcs and band 4 2100 1700 aws 1 and 3 bands can be deployed across us cellular s lte network for additional capacity in the future . furthermore additional 850mhz cellular spectrum could be refarmed from 1x cdma to create a wider 10 10mhz channel allocated for lte . 13 us cellular has made plans to launch their first market with volte during the first quarter of 2017 . the company has begun volte trials during 2016 and will continue upgrading equipment in select markets to allow the trial process to continue following the services official launch . 14 timeline edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message in 2003 u.s. cellular acquired naming rights to the baseball stadium used by the chicago white sox . formerly known as comiskey park the stadium is officially renamed u.s. cellular field . u.s. cellular and at & t mobility formerly cingular exchange wireless assets . u.s. cellular receives new spectrum in markets next to or overlapping existing operations in 13 states in exchange for its georgia and northern florida licenses . u.s. cellular builds and launches 12 new markets from the transaction s assets over the next two years including oklahoma city and st. louis . u.s. cellular launches easyedge its suite of wireless data services . 15 in 2004 u.s. cellular divests its south texas markets . in 2005 u.s. cellular enters the st. louis market . st. louis becomes the second largest market u.s. cellular serves after chicago . u.s. cellular introduces speedtalk its walkie talkie like service . in 2006 u.s. cellular acquires the rest of eastern tennessee s tn rsa 3 formerly known as eloqui wireless . already owning a 1 6 stake in the venture u.s. cellular purchased the remaining 5 6ths of the shares . in 2007 u.s. cellular purchases ia rsa 15 in northwest iowa . as of q3 2007 average monthly revenue per user is at 52.71 as of q4 2007 368 million in data revenues . average monthly revenue per unit is at 51.13 . they had a retail postpay churn rate of 1.4 % . have 6 383 total cell sites have invested 566 million in the cell sites as well as the infrastructure . as of q2 2008 preparing to roll out 3g evdo revision a to select markets . as of oct. 28 2008 u.s. cellular launched mobile broadband a service allowing customers to access data on their cell phones 10 times faster than before . it brings dsl like service and capabilities to customers through evdo evolution data optimized technology commonly referred to as 3g . the service launched in chicago and rockford illinois ; northwestern indiana ; tulsa oklahoma ; des moines iowa and southern wisconsin with more cities to follow in early 2009 . as of may 1 2009 u.s. cellular launched mobile broadband in most of iowa except for western iowa . in addition to iowa parts of tennessee are now part of u.s. cellular s mobile broadband coverage area . as of june 30 2009 u.s. cellular expanded its mobile broadband coverage in most of wisconsin central and northern illinois with more to follow . mobile broadband launched in summer 2009 in parts of maine and new hampshire as well as areas surrounding tulsa . 16 jay ellison the company s executive vp of operations retired at the end of 2009 . on may 31 2010 ceo jack rooney retired from the company . on june 1 2010 mary n. dillon assumed the position of ceo . as of july 16 2010 u.s. cellular launched nationwide 3g data roaming covering 98 % of its customer base . u.s. cellular corporation exercised a right to expand by 20 000 square feet 1 900 m2 at citicorp plaza in chicago illinois which will increase the size of its lease to 232 000 square feet 21 600 m2 . u.s. cellular recently when renewed its lease through october 31 2017 . on october 1 2010 u.s. cellular unveiled the belief project . on may 6 2011 u.s. cellular announced that it will offer 4g lte by the end of 2011 . on june 13 2011 u.s. cellular launched the company s first windows phone 7 which is the htc 7 pro . on june 22 2011 u.s. cellular launched the motorola xoom an android 3.1 honeycomb tablet . on november 7 2012 u.s. cellular announced the sale of several markets customers and spectrum to sprint nextel . this included their home market of chicago . 17 on june 8 2016 google announced that they have partnered with u.s. cellular as part of their project fi mvno service . u.s. cellular joined t mobile us and sprint corporation as partners with google on project fi and contributed their network and lte service to the network of networks . 18 phones edit the company offers phones manufactured by samsung motorola htc lg rim huawei alcatel pantech and apple . citation needed on december 5 2011 u.s. cellular stated it was waiting for an lte version of apple s iphone before selling the phone . 19 it was announced on may 3 2013 that u.s. cellular would offer the iphone sometime during the year . on july 12 2012 u.s. cellular began shipping preorders of the samsung galaxy s iii . 20 on october 23 2013 u.s. cellular s web site began advertising that the iphone 5s will be available november 8th 2013 . on november 8 2013 u.s. cellular began offering apple iphone 5s 5c and 4s . on september 19 2014 u.s. cellular was a tier 1 provider of the iphone 6 and iphone 6 plus . on september 25 2015 u.s. cellular was a tier 1 provider of the iphone 6s and iphone 6s plus . 21 tablet pcs edit u.s. cellular launched the samsung galaxy i800 tablet pc in november 2010 . u.s. cellular launched the motorola xoom tablet pc in june 2011 . u.s. cellular launched the apple ipad air and ipad mini on november 8 2013 . belief project edit on october 1 2010 u.s. cellular unveiled its customer reward program as the belief project . 22 on september 1 2015 u.s. cellular shuttered the rewards program . 23 belief plans edit all belief plans are nationwide with no additional roaming charges in the united states . these plans all include at no additional charge incoming calls nights & weekends starting at 7pm and mobile to mobile calls between u.s. cellular customers . at the beginning of the belief project customers were only required to fulfill one twenty four month agreement per line one and done contracts . after the first initial contract customers no longer had to sign contracts and could continue to buy new phones at promotional prices when eligible . however as of q3 2013 the one and done contract provision was discontinued on all plans and as of january 8 2015 customers can no longer receive a device subsidy on most belief plans when eligible . instead they have to purchase devices at full cost without contract or purchase devices on no interest 24 month installment plans added to their monthly bills see shared data plans below . customers on belief plans earned points each month as part of the belief rewards program and they could also be earned by referring customers or participating in other promotional activities . these points could be redeemed for early upgrades free accessories phones overage forgiveness and