TDS is redeeming $225 million of its 6.875% Senior Notes and $300 million of its 7% Senior Notes and UScellular is redeeming $275 million of its 7.25% Senior Notes for a total of $800 million.
In March, TDS issued $420 million in perpetual preferred stock, which will be used primarily for funding fiber deployments and the repayment of debt.
TDS purchased $3 million worth and UScellular purchased $2 million worth of shares.
We have 5G available to some degree in 18 states today.
This exceeds our results from last year where we achieved a distance of five kilometers with average speeds of 100 Megabits per second.
We saw connected device gross additions decrease by 3,000 year-over-year.
Wrapping up this slide, total smartphone connections increased by 13,000 during the quarter and a 56,000 over the course of the past 12 months.
That helps to drive more service revenue given that smartphone ARPU is by $20 higher than feature phone ARPU.
Postpaid handset churn depicted by the blue bars was 0.92% down from 0.95% a year ago.
Total postpaid churn combining handsets and connected devices was 1.12% in the first quarter of 2021 also, lower than a year ago.
Total operating revenues for the first quarter were $1.023 billion, an increase of $60 million or 6% year-over-year.
Retail service revenues increased by $40 million to $685 million, the increase is primarily due to a higher average revenue per user, which I will discuss in a moment as well as an increase in average postpaid subscribers.
Inbound roaming revenue was $28 million that was a decrease of $9 million year-over-year driven by the decrease in data volume.
Other service revenues were $58 million, an increase of $4 million year-over-year, including a 9% increase in tower rental revenues.
Finally, equipment sales revenues increased by $51 million year-over-year due to an increase in units sold, an increase in sales of higher-priced units as well as an increase in accessory sales as a result of higher volume.
Average revenue per user or connection was $87.65 for the first quarter, up $0.42 or approximately 1% year-over-year.
On a per account basis average revenue grew by $2.33 or 2% year-over-year.
As I mentioned first quarter tower rental revenues increased by 9% year-over-year.
As shown at the bottom of the slide, adjusted operating income was $258 million, an increase of 12% year-over-year.
As I commented earlier, total operating revenues were $1.023 billion, a 6% increase year-over-year.
Total cash expenses were $765 million, increasing $33 million or 5% year-over-year.
Total system operations expense increased 3% year-over-year.
Excluding roaming expense, system operations expense increased by 2% due to higher service costs.
Roaming expense increased $1 million or 4% year-over-year resulting from an 80% increase in off-net data volume, that was largely offset by a decrease in rates.
Cost of equipment sold increased $58 million or 26% year-over-year due to an increase in units sold, an increase in sales of higher-priced smartphones, as well as higher accessory sales volume.
Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased $30 million or 9% year-over-year, driven primarily by a decrease in bad debt expense.
Bad debt expense decreased $26 million due to lower write-offs driven by fewer non-paying customers as a result of a better credit mix and improved customer payment behavior.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $302 million, an increase of $21 million or 8% year-over-year.
Equity in earnings of unconsolidated entities decreased by $3 million or 7%.
Next, I want to cover our guidance for the full year 2021.
Total service revenues, we have increased our midpoint by $25 million to a range of $3.05 billion to $3.15 billion.
We have raised the midpoint of our adjusted operating income and adjusted EBITDA ranges by $25 million by increasing low end of the ranges, with no change to the high end of the ranges resulting in new ranges of $850 million to $950 million, and $1.025 billion to $1.125 billion respectively.
For capital expenditures, we are maintaining our guidance range of $775 million to $875 million and we have provided a breakdown by major category.
We added 13,000 fiber service addresses to our footprint, and continue to execute on our fiber strategy.
Overall, we grew our top line 4%.
Whether it is our markets where we have upgraded copper, or building fiber or provided DOCSIS 3.1 capability, we are striving to increase Internet speed to better serve our customers.
On a combined basis we are able to offer 1 gigabit speed to 55% of our total service addresses.
Total telecom broadband residential connections grew 9% in the quarter as we continue to fortify our network with fiber and expand into new markets.
Bolstered by this growth Wireline broadband residential connections grew 10% and Cable increased 8%.
Total broadband penetration continued to increase, up 100 basis points to 38%.
Overall, higher value product mix and price increases drove a 5% increase in average residential revenue per connection.
This quarter, we achieved a major milestone reaching 0.5 million total broadband subscribers.
Residential broadband revenues grew 16% in total in the quarter.
We are offering up to 1 Gigabit broadband speed in both our fiber and DOCSIS 3.1 market.
1 Gigabit product is an important tool that allows us to defend market and win over customers and new markets.
In areas where we offer 1Gig service we are seeing 17% of our new customers taking the superior product.
Wireline growth of 7%, driven by our expansion markets nearly offset losses in the Cable market.
This rollout of this product currently covers about 60% of our total operation.
As a result of this strategy over the last several years 321,000 or 38% of our wireline service addresses are now served by fiber, which is up from 32% a year ago.
This is driving revenue growth while also expanding the total wireline footprint 6% to 855,000 service addresses.
We have completed 321,000 fiber service addresses through the first quarter and are working to build out the footprint in these announced markets to 620,000 service addresses by 2024.
On slide 23, total revenues increased 4% to $249 million, largely driven by the strong growth in residential revenues, which increased 9% in total.
Incumbent wireline market also showed impressive growth of 6% due to increases in broadband and video connections as well as increases from within the broadband product mix.
This was partially offset by a 2% decrease in residential voice connection.
Cable residential revenues grew 9% due to an 8% increase in broadband connections.
Commercial revenues which continue to be impacted by C like decline, decreased 6% to $47 million in the quarter.
And wholesale revenues decreased 3% to $45 million, primarily due to reductions in special access in the incumbent wireline market.
Revenues increased 4% from the prior year as growth from our fiber expansions and increases in cable broadband subscribers exceeded the declines we experienced in our legacy business.
Cash expenses increased 5% due to additional employee and advertising expense related to our expansion market.
Adjusted EBITDA declined 1% to $81 million on lower interest income compared to last year.
Capital expenditures increased 30% from last year to $70 million as we continue to increase our investment in fiber deployment for the success base band for new customer installs.
We have presented guidance, which is unchanged from what we shared in February.

Summary:
Next, I want to cover our guidance for the full year 2021.
We have presented guidance, which is unchanged from what we shared in February.