Long-Term Debt, Financing and Capital Lease Obligations (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended							1 Months Ended								0 Months Ended				3 Months Ended
	Oct. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2011 mHZ years site	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2009	Nov. 09, 2011 Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Letter Of Credit Required By The FCCs Report And Order [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Financing Obligation [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Financing Obligation [Member]	Oct. 31, 2011 New Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 New Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Sprint Nextel Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Nov. 09, 2011 Sprint Nextel Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Sprint Nextel Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Sprint Nextel Corporation Guaranteed Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Nov. 09, 2011 Sprint Nextel Corporation Guaranteed Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Sprint Nextel Corporation Guaranteed Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 29, 2011 Sprint Capital Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Jan. 31, 2011 Sprint Capital Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Sprint Capital Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Sprint Capital Corporation Senior Notes [Member] Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Export Development Canada Credit Facilities Sprint Nextel Corporation [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Export Development Canada Credit Facilities Sprint Nextel Corporation [Member]
Principal of debt outstanding, including the credit facilities		$ 8,000,000,000
Long-term debt issued by subsidiary and is guaranteed by the parent		11,500,000,000
Long-term debt fully and unconditionally guaranteed		6,700,000,000
Secured Debt		1,200,000,000
Secured Debt Collateral, Net		793,000,000
Secured Debt Collateral, Gross		1,200,000,000
Interest Costs, Capitalized During Period		413,000,000	13,000,000	12,000,000
Cash interest payments		1,000,000,000	1,500,000,000	1,400,000,000
Redeemable notes		18,800,000,000
Debt Instrument, Face Amount							698,000,000	698,000,000			4,500,000,000	1,000,000,000	3,500,000,000	3,000,000,000	3,000,000,000	0			6,204,000,000	9,854,000,000	500,000,000	750,000,000
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage												11.50%			9.00%		8.375%	7.625%
Percentage of principal amount required to repurchase notes on change of control					101.00%
Repayments of Long-term Debt		750,000,000															2,000,000,000	1,650,000,000
Gains (Losses) on Extinguishment of Debt																	33,000,000
Senior Notes weighted average effective interest rate		7.00%	6.90%
Threshold used to calculate quarterly equipment net subsidy to be excluded in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA in any of the six consecutive fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2013	1,100,000,000
Maximum equipment net subsidy that can be added back in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA in any four consecutive fiscal quarters	1,750,000,000
Maximum equipment net subsidy that can be added back in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA for the six consecutive fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2013	2,700,000,000
Line of Credit Facility, Increase, Additional Borrowings									150,000,000
Unsecured revolving credit facility										2,200,000,000
Letters of Credit Outstanding, Amount		1,100,000,000				1,000,000,000
MHz licenses utilized in iDEN network		800
Borrowing capacity available under revolving bank credit facility		1,100,000,000
Repayments of Lines of Credit																					$ 250,000,000
Number of cell sites leased back		3,000
Term in years for cell sites leased back renewal options		20
Ratio of total indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA, numerator		2.5
Ratio of total indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA, denominator		1