We believe that the customer’s  experience with us is more important than the products we sell. We posted an all-in churn rate  this past year of 1.8 percent, one of the best in the business. And the postpay churn rate – the rate that applies to 97 per cent of our customer base – is even lower at 1.5 percent. Low churn is key to our strategy, because it is one measur e of cus- tomer satisfaction – it measures the disconnection rate. A low churn rate is a good indicator of satisfied and loyal customers, w hich validates the success of U.S. Cellular’ s strategy. We’re always measuring customer satisfaction, always checking to see  if our customers ar e pleased with our products, our service , our network coverage and r eliability , our pricing and all the other elements that make up their experience with us. We also devote re sour ces to train our associates well. That training includes heavy emphasis on such “soft” skills as courtesy, listening , communicating clearly and responding quickly to  customer concerns. U.S. Cellular is committed to improv- ing customer satisfaction for another reason. In November, the wireless industry implemented wireless local number portability–alegislative mandate – commonly referred to as WNP. We support this legislation, because we know that wireless  consumers want the freedom to change service providers and keep their existing numbers. During the year, our associates across the company in customer service, information systems and engineering made sure that our infrastructure was prepared to handle all that WNP entails. We were ready. Our emphasis on customer satisfaction has made a difference. So far, we have benefited from WNP, with more customers coming to U.S. Cellular. 12 Increasing  Customer Satisfaction