Laid off from US Cellular.
The wireless business that employed about 4,100 people went to T-Mobile on August 1, 2025, and what stayed behind was a tower company with roughly sixty. A majority of the people cut had a T-Mobile offer written into the same letter that ended their jobs.
At a glance
What's known about US Cellular severance and layoffs
- 16, covering 8,945 jobs · WARN filings since 2025, our tracker
- 21 · All-time US Cellular filings, our tracker
- None · Filings in 2026, our tracker
- 4,100 jobs · Georgia notice, June 2025
- 4,100 jobs · Nebraska notice, March 2025
- About 4,100 · Associates reported, end of 2024
- About 60 · Associates reported, end of 2025
- No terms on record · 2025 severance terms
Recent US Cellular layoffs
US Cellular's successor reported about 60 associates for the end of 2025
Array Digital Infrastructure, the company US Cellular became after the sale, reported approximately 60 full-time and part-time associates as of December 31, 2025 in its annual filing for that year, against approximately 4,100 a year earlier. That's a drop of roughly 4,040 by the filings' own arithmetic, covering both the people who moved to T-Mobile and the people who left. Our tracker holds no filings at all for this company in 2026.
Previous rounds
US Cellular layoff history
If you were let go by US Cellular, the employer you knew doesn't exist in that form anymore. Losing a job is hard on its own, and having the company disappear at the same time makes the practical parts harder too. The wireless operations, the customers and the stores went to T-Mobile on August 1, 2025, and the entity that had been United States Cellular Corporation renamed itself Array Digital Infrastructure and kept its towers. None of that happened quickly. The boards of the company and its parent began exploring strategic alternatives in August 2023, and the sale closed almost two years after they started.
The reduction reached almost the entire reported workforce. A national WARN letter dated March 26, 2025 put it at about 4,100 positions, against the roughly 4,100 full-time and part-time associates the company had reported for the end of 2024. Separations for remote employees and for people working at corporate-owned stores were planned to commence on June 2, 2025, or within 14 days after that. The letter reached nineteen states along with remote workers, and it covered store staff around the country, the Chicago headquarters, and other corporate offices including a smaller one in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Our tracker holds 21 all-time US Cellular filings, and 16 covering 8,945 jobs across 13 states since the start of 2025, with none at all in 2026. That job total counts filings rather than people. The same national 4,100 figure went into more than one state system, which is why a June 2025 Georgia notice and a March 2025 Nebraska notice both carry 4,100. The smaller state notices do line up with real local groups. Tennessee's notice, filed April 17, 2025, covered 286 workers across Alcoa, Farragut, Knoxville, Madisonville and Sevierville. An Iowa filing listed 497 people at 32 locations, 183 of them at a single Cedar Rapids facility.
The company said there was severance. What was in it never became public. In April 2025 its communications manager said US Cellular was committed to working with every associate on a smooth transition, and that this included severance packages and job support, and that's as specific as the record gets. No amount, no length-of-service formula and no eligibility rule appears in the filings or in the reporting we track. The annual filing for 2025 lists employee compensation and severance among the obligations the closing triggered, alongside advisory fees and restructuring expenses, and prices none of them separately. The one term that was written down covers the T-Mobile offers instead, and it says a majority of affected employees would be offered work at a salary or wage rate and benefits that, taken as a whole, were no less favorable than their current pay and benefits. Taken as a whole is doing real work in that sentence, because it binds the package and not each line inside it.
Two things are worth checking against your own paperwork. The first is whether what you were offered, or not offered, matches that no less favorable language, because the wording was written for a group, while your own letter records what was actually put in front of you. The second is your actual separation date against the June 2 window, since the notice described a commencement window rather than a fixed date for any individual. If you took a T-Mobile role, the history is worth knowing. T-Mobile said it wouldn't cut jobs when it acquired Sprint in 2020, then explained afterward that its job-creating pledge referred to the combined headcount at the end of 2022 rather than at the close of the merger. The Communications Workers of America made a related argument to the FCC about this deal, warning that it would further entrench T-Mobile's position in many local labor markets for retail wireless workers. Every filing behind these numbers sits in our tracker with its date and its job count, if you need the dated public record.
Reporting on previous US Cellular layoff rounds
June 2025, the wireless business sold to T-Mobile · A national WARN letter dated March 26, 2025 put the reduction at about 4,100 positions across nineteen states plus remote workers, with separations planned to commence on June 2, 2025 or within 14 days after. Store employees around the country, the Chicago headquarters and other corporate offices including a smaller one in Schaumburg, Illinois were all in scope.
Terms not published. A company communications manager said in April 2025 that US Cellular was committed to working with every associate on a smooth transition, including severance packages and job support. The notice said a majority of affected employees would be offered T-Mobile work at pay and benefits that, taken as a whole, were no less favorable than their current pay and benefits.
First quarter 2023, a reduction in workforce · No headcount on record. The company's annual accounts book this round as an expense and never give a number of people.
Terms not published. Operating expenses for 2023 included $9 million of severance and related expenses associated with the reduction.
What to do after being laid off from US Cellular
- File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. US Cellular's biggest hubs: Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
- Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what US Cellular's hub states run: Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and every other state is here.
- Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
- Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
- Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.
US Cellular layoff and severance questions
Did US Cellular pay severance in the 2025 layoffs?
The company said severance packages would be part of it. In April 2025 its communications manager said US Cellular was committed to working with every associate on a smooth transition, and that this included severance packages and job support. What those packages held, and what any individual actually received, isn't on record. No amount, no formula tied to length of service and no eligibility rule appears in the company's filings or in the reporting we track. The annual filing for 2025 lists employee compensation and severance among the obligations the closing triggered, next to advisory fees and restructuring expenses, and puts no figure against any of them. Your own separation paperwork is where the terms you were given are written down.
How many people did US Cellular lay off?
The national WARN letter dated March 26, 2025 put it at about 4,100 positions, which was close to the company's entire reported associate count for the end of 2024. Read state filing totals carefully, though. That one national figure was filed into more than one state system, so our tracker carries a 4,100-job notice in Georgia in June 2025 and another 4,100-job notice in Nebraska that March. Those are the same national number arriving twice rather than 8,200 separate people, which is why the job totals in any WARN tracker, ours included, overstate this company.
Did US Cellular employees get jobs at T-Mobile?
A majority were offered them, according to the notice, which said affected employees would be offered employment with T-Mobile at a salary or wage rate and benefits that, taken as a whole, were no less favorable than their current pay and benefits. Reporting on the deal said T-Mobile was committed to retaining more than half of the 4,100. Two qualifiers are worth reading closely. Taken as a whole binds the package rather than each line inside it, and in April 2025 a company representative said T-Mobile hadn't yet made final employment decisions. When the sale closed, the parent company's chief executive thanked the workforce, naming those staying with the tower company, those transitioning to T-Mobile, and those moving on to their next chapter.
Does US Cellular still exist?
Not as a wireless carrier. The wireless operations, the customers and the stores went to T-Mobile on August 1, 2025, and the company that had been United States Cellular Corporation renamed itself Array Digital Infrastructure. It kept roughly 4,400 owned towers, its noncontrolling investment interests and its remaining spectrum, and it describes that tower portfolio as the fifth largest in the country. Total consideration for the sale came to $4,293.8 million after adjustments, and the seller booked a loss of $242.2 million on the transaction. The surviving company reported about 60 associates at the end of 2025, so the employer on your resume is now a tower business with a headcount in the dozens.
Why are there no US Cellular WARN filings in 2026?
Because the wind-down finished. Our tracker holds 21 all-time filings and 16 covering 8,945 jobs across 13 states since the start of 2025, and none at all in 2026. For a company still trading, a quiet year can mean cuts that stayed under the notice thresholds. Here the operations changed hands in August 2025 and what remains runs on about sixty people, so there's very little left to file about. Treat the 2026 zero as the end of something rather than as a gap in the record.
Where do I file for unemployment after being laid off from US Cellular?
In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. US Cellular's biggest U.S. hubs are Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska. Severance usually doesn't block you from filing, and benefits run from your filing date, so file the same week.
Is it OK to file for unemployment after a layoff at US Cellular?
Yes. Unemployment insurance is funded by payroll taxes employers pay on wages, the claim never appears on credit reports or background checks, and future employers cannot see it. If the hesitation itself is the obstacle, whether filing is OK has its own article.
What happens to my health insurance after a layoff at US Cellular?
Your plan sets the end date rather than the law, so the separation packet is where that date actually lives, and it is often the last day of the month rather than your last day of work. After coverage ends, COBRA lets you keep the identical plan by paying the whole premium yourself, up to 102 percent of what the plan really costs, which lands as several times the payroll deduction you were used to. You get 60 days to elect, counted from the later of coverage ending or the election notice arriving, and electing reaches the coverage back to the day the old plan stopped so no gap exists. How continuation coverage works walks the timing, and whether to take it rather than a marketplace plan is a separate decision.
Should I sign the severance agreement right away?
First pin down how much review time you actually have. If you're 40 or older, federal law gives you 21 days to consider an agreement that waives age claims, 45 in a group layoff, and a waiver signed under a shorter deadline can be invalid. If you're under 40, no federal window applies and the deadline in your packet may be real, so confirm it in writing and ask for more time if you need it. Use whatever window you have to read the release terms, especially non-disparagement and no-lawsuit clauses, and don't stall past a real deadline, because offers can be withdrawn.
Can I collect unemployment if I got severance from US Cellular?
Usually yes, though some states delay benefits until severance pay periods end, and lump sums are treated differently than salary continuation. Check your state's rules on our state benefit pages, and file immediately either way so your claim date is locked in.