Long-Term Debt, Financing and Capital Lease Obligations (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2012 site years	Mar. 31, 2011	Mar. 31, 2012 Notes [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Letter Of Credit Required By The FCCs Report And Order [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior Notes [Member] Sprint Nextel Corporation Senior Notes [Member]	Mar. 01, 2012 Senior Notes [Member] Sprint Nextel Corporation Senior Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Senior Notes [Member] Sprint Nextel Corporation Senior Notes [Member]	May 21, 2010 New Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Guaranteed notes [Member] Sprint Nextel Corporation Guaranteed Notes [Member]	Mar. 01, 2012 Guaranteed notes [Member] Sprint Nextel Corporation Guaranteed Notes [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Guaranteed notes [Member] Sprint Nextel Corporation Guaranteed Notes [Member]
Schedule of Capitalization, Long-term Debt [Line Items]
Principal of debt outstanding, including the credit facilities	$ 10,000,000,000
Long-term debt issued by subsidiaries and is guaranteed by the parent	11,500,000,000
Long-term debt fully and unconditionally guaranteed	6,700,000,000
Interest Costs, Capitalized During Period	115,000,000	99,000,000
Cash interest payments	179,000,000	341,000,000
Redeemable notes	20,800,000,000
Principal amount of notes with the right to require the Company to repurchase on change of control	7,300,000,000
Percentage of principal amount required to repurchase notes on change of control			101.00%
Debt Instrument, Face Amount					5,500,000,000	1,000,000,000	4,500,000,000		4,000,000,000	1,000,000,000	3,000,000,000
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage						9.125%				7.00%
Letters of Credit Outstanding, Amount	1,000,000,000			944,000,000
Long-term Line of Credit								2,200,000,000
Borrowing capacity available under revolving bank credit facility	$ 1,200,000,000
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	1.0