Subsequent Events (Details) (USD $)				0 Months Ended		0 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2012 Business Combinations [Member]	Oct. 15, 2012 Business Combinations [Member] SoftBank [Member] years	Oct. 15, 2012 Business Combinations [Member] Sprint Nextel [Member]	Oct. 22, 2012 Business Combinations [Member] Sprint Nextel [Member]	Oct. 15, 2012 Business Combinations [Member] New Sprint [Member]	Oct. 17, 2012 Equity Method Investments [Member]	Nov. 07, 2012 Business Acquisition [Member] Customers	Sep. 30, 2012 Line of Credit Facility, Lender [Domain]	Sep. 30, 2012 Line of Credit Facility, Lender [Domain] Business Combinations [Member] Sprint Nextel [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility expires in 2013 [Member] Revolving Credit Facility [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility expires in 2013 [Member] Revolving Credit Facility [Member]	May 21, 2010 Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility expires in 2013 [Member] Revolving Credit Facility [Member]	May 21, 2010 Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility expires in 2013 [Member] Revolving Credit Facility [Member] Business Combinations [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility expires in 2013 [Member] Letter of Credit [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility expires in 2013 [Member] Letter of Credit [Member] Business Combinations [Member]	Oct. 17, 2012 Clearwire Class A Common Stock [Member] Equity Method Investments [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Clearwire Class B Voting [Member]	Oct. 17, 2012 Clearwire Class B Voting [Member] Equity Method Investments [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Clearwire Class B Non Voting [Member]	Oct. 17, 2012 Minimum [Member] Equity Method Investments [Member]	Nov. 07, 2012 Minimum [Member] Business Acquisition [Member]	Oct. 17, 2012 Maximum [Member] Equity Method Investments [Member]	Nov. 07, 2012 Maximum [Member] Business Acquisition [Member]
Subsequent Event [Line Items]
Business Acquisition, Cost of Acquired Entity, Purchase Price			$ 20,100,000,000
Business Acquisition, Percentage of Voting Interests Acquired			70.00%
Additional Capitalization, Long-term Debt and Equity						17,000,000,000
Business combination cost of acquired entity partial cash to be paid						4,900,000,000
Subsidiary or Equity Method Investee, Cumulative Percentage Ownership after All Transactions						100.00%
Noncontrolling Interest, Ownership Percentage by Noncontrolling Owners			30.00%
Business Combination, Termination Fee				600,000,000
Line of Credit Facility, Amount Outstanding									577,000,000	577,000,000	0	0
Proceeds from Convertible Debt				3,100,000,000
Debt Instrument, Interest Rate, Stated Percentage					1.00%
Stock Issued During Period, Shares, Conversion of Convertible Securities					590,476,190
Debt Instrument, Convertible, Conversion Price					$ 5.25
Percentage of ownership which will be converted from convertible debt					19.65%
Subsidiary or Equity Method Investee, Price-Per-Share						$ 5.25
Proceeds from Warrant Exercises						300,000,000
Amount of consideration to be distributed to stockholders				12,100,000,000
Sale of Stock, Price Per Share				$ 7.30
Exercise period for warrant			5
Class of Warrant or Right, Number of Securities Called by Warrants or Rights						54,579,924
Line of Credit Facility, Maximum Borrowing Capacity													2,200,000,000	2,200,000,000
Letters of Credit Outstanding, Amount															1,000,000,000	1,000,000,000
Principal amount of notes with the right to require the Company to repurchase on change of control	8,800,000,000	8,800,000,000
Percentage of principal amount required to repurchase notes on change of control	101.00%	101.00%
Additional shares of equity method investment intended to be purchased by the Company																	30,900,000		2,700,000
Payments to Acquire Equity Method Investments							100,000,000
Equity Method Investment, Ownership Percentage																		48.20%		48.20%	50.00%		50.50%
Threshold of voting security to eliminate the potential for the equity method investee to be considered a subsidiary							50.00%
Number of customers to be acquired								585,000
Business Acquisition, Cost Of Other Acquired Spectrum, Cash to Be Paid								480,000,000
Business Acquisition, Network Shutdown Costs to be paid by the Company																						130,000,000		150,000,000
Business Acquisition, Maximum Network Shutdown Costs to be paid by the Company on an undiscounted basis								$ 200,000,000