Long-Term Debt, Financing and Capital Lease Obligations (Narrative) (Details) (USD $) Share data in Millions, unless otherwise specified	0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Jan. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2011 years site	Sep. 30, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011 years market mHZ gHZ site	Sep. 30, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011 Letter Of Credit Required By The FCCs Report And Order [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Clearwire [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Clearwire Class B Voting [Member]	Jun. 01, 2011 Clearwire Class B Voting [Member]	May 31, 2011 Clearwire Class B Voting [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Clearwire Class B Non Voting [Member]	May 21, 2010 New Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility [Member]
Principal of debt outstanding, including the credit facilities		$ 4,300,000,000		$ 4,300,000,000
Long-term debt issued by subsidiaries and is guaranteed by the parent		13,500,000,000		13,500,000,000
Long-term debt fully and unconditionally guaranteed		8,700,000,000		8,700,000,000
Interest Costs, Capitalized During Period		103,000,000	3,000,000	304,000,000	10,000,000
Cash interest payments				804,000,000	1,200,000,000
Redeemable notes		16,800,000,000		16,800,000,000
Repayments of Long-term Debt	1,650,000,000
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage	7.625%
Letters of Credit Outstanding, Amount						1,100,000,000
Long-term Line of Credit												2,100,000,000
Borrowing capacity available under revolving bank credit facility		$ 1,000,000,000		$ 1,000,000,000
Number of cell sites leased back		3,000		3,000
Term in years for cell sites leased back renewal options		20		20
Sprint share in percentage of non-controlling interest in Clearwire								49.70%		53.70%	54.00%
Percentage of voting rights to be below to eliminate Clearwire being considered a subsidiary							50.00%
Equity Method Investment, Shares Surrendered									78
Ratio of total indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA, numerator		2.5		2.5
Ratio of total indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA, denominator		1		1