Significant Acquisitions and Other Transactions - (Details) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended	12 Months Ended						0 Months Ended		0 Months Ended		12 Months Ended		12 Months Ended			0 Months Ended	12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended	0 Months Ended	12 Months Ended			0 Months Ended
	Nov. 30, 2011	Jun. 30, 2011	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2012 STX Wireless Acquisition [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 STX Wireless Acquisition [Member]	Jan. 03, 2011 Pocket Customer Call Center [Member]	Oct. 01, 2012 Savary Island Acquisition [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Savary Island Acquisition [Member]	Oct. 01, 2012 T-Mobile and Affiliates [Member]	Nov. 30, 2011 T-Mobile and Affiliates [Member] MHz	Dec. 31, 2012 STX Wireless [Member]	Nov. 30, 2011 Cricket Communications [Member] MHz	Dec. 31, 2012 Savary Island [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Savary Island Credit Agreement [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Savary Island Credit Agreement [Member]	Jul. 12, 2012 Pocket Wireless [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Pocket Wireless [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Pocket Wireless [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Pocket Wireless [Member] STX Wireless Acquisition [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Pocket Wireless [Member] STX Wireless [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Pocket Wireless [Member] Loan and Security Agreement With Pocket [Member] STX Wireless Acquisition [Member]	Jul. 12, 2012 Cricket Communications [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Cricket Communications [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Cricket Communications [Member]	Oct. 01, 2012 Pheonix, Houston and other Texas markets [Member] T-Mobile and Affiliates [Member] MHz	Aug. 28, 2012 Chicago, IL [Member] Verizon Wireless [Member] MHz	Aug. 28, 2012 Various markets across the U.S. [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Assets held for sale			$ 136,222,000	$ 204,256,000
Additional wireless spectrum received in exchange (in MHz)														10													10
License agreement, non-monetary net gain	20,500,000										106,400,000
Capacity of purchase agreement (in MHz)																												12
Spectrum capacity (in MHz)																												700
Purchase agreement, value																												204,000,000
Sales of excess capacity																													360,000,000
Net gain on transaction																												130,400,000
Unused wireless spectrum assigned												10
Dividends received from equity investee		18,200,000
Dividends received, operating activities				6,600,000
Dividends received, investing activities				11,600,000
Controlling membership percentage													75.75%
Non-controlling membership percentage																						24.25%
Cash									5,300,000												40,700,000
Non-controlling interest, fair value of business																					51,500,000
Debt instrument, stated interest rate																	9.50%						8.00%
Noncontrolling interest, buyout minimum in cash						25,000,000
Noncontrolling interest buyout subsequent ownership percentage threshold						9.90%
Accretion of redeemable non-controlling interests, before tax			28,000	(7,844,000)		(700,000)	(8,900,000)
Noncontrolling interest, pro-rata distributions received																		16,200,000	3,000,000	1,700,000				50,700,000	9,100,000	5,700,000
Aggregate principal amount of loans, maximum																							30,000,000
Outstanding borrowings, due to related party			8,255,000	0																			8,300,000
Estimated redemption value			64,517,000	95,910,000	104,788,000	64,500,000	90,700,000			5,300,000
Business acquisition, purchase price								850,000
Integration costs			0	26,393,000	0
Variable interest entity - ownership percentage															85.00%
Remaining controlling interest acquired									15.00%
Business combination debt assumed										211,600,000
Line of credit facility additional borrowing capacity for working capital needs																5,000,000
Converted debt to equity									$ 12,500,000