Revenue Recognition (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

Schedule of disaggregated revenue by service offering

The following tables provide disaggregation of revenue from contracts with customers based on service offerings for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018. It also shows the amount of revenue that is not subject to ASC 606, but is instead governed by other accounting standards.

	Year Ended December 31, 2020
	Total Revenue		Adjustments for Non-ASC 606 Revenue(7)	Total Revenue from Contracts with Customers
	(Dollars in millions)
IP and data services (1)	$	524	—	524
Transport and infrastructure (2)	2,604		(297)	2,307
Voice and collaboration (3)	1,517		—	1,517
IT and managed services (4)	2		—	2
Regulatory revenue (5)	179		(179)	—
Affiliate revenue (6)	2,487		(3)	2,484
Total revenue	$	7,313	(479)	6,834
Timing of revenue
Goods and services transferred at a point in time				$	46
Services performed over time				6,788
Total revenue from contracts with customers				$	6,834

	Year Ended December 31, 2019
	Total Revenue		Adjustments for Non-ASC 606 Revenue(7)	Total Revenue from Contracts with Customers
	(Dollars in millions)
IP and data services (1)	$	595	—	595
Transport and infrastructure (2)	2,773		(308)	2,465
Voice and collaboration (3)	1,618		—	1,618
IT and managed services (4)	4		—	4
Regulatory revenue (5)	189		(189)	—
Affiliate revenue (6)	2,873		—	2,873
Total revenue	$	8,052	(497)	7,555
Timing of revenue
Goods and services transferred at a point in time				$	54
Services performed over time				7,501
Total revenue from contracts with customers				$	7,555

	Year Ended December 31, 2018
	Total Revenue		Adjustments for Non-ASC 606 Revenue(7)	Total Revenue from Contracts with Customers
	(Dollars in millions)
IP and data services (1)	$	587	—	587
Transport and infrastructure (2)	2,870		(317)	2,553
Voice and collaboration (3)	1,783		—	1,783
IT and managed services (4)	6		—	6
Regulatory revenue (5)	214		(214)	—
Affiliate revenue (6)	2,935		—	2,935
Total revenue	$	8,395	(531)	7,864
Timing of revenue
Goods and services transferred at a point in time				$	69
Services performed over time				7,795
Total revenue from contracts with customers				$	7,864

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(1)	Includes primarily VPN data networks, Ethernet, IP and other ancillary services
(2)	Includes primarily broadband, private line (including business data services) and other ancillary services.
(3)	Includes local voice, including wholesale voice, and other ancillary services.
(4)	Includes IT services and managed services revenue.
(5)	Includes CAF II and federal and state USF support revenue.
(6)	Includes telecommunications and data services we bill to our affiliates.
(7)	Includes regulatory revenue and lease revenue not within the scope of ASC 606.

Schedule of customer receivables and contract balances

The following table provides balances of customer receivables, contract assets and contract liabilities as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019:

	December 31, 2020		December 31, 2019
	(Dollars in millions)
Customer receivables (1)	$	346	430
Contract assets	13		18
Contract liabilities	300		338

(1)Gross customer receivables, including gross affiliate receivables, of $396 million and $462 million, net of allowance for credit losses of $50 million and $32 million, at December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.

Schedule of contract costs

The following table provides changes in our contract acquisition costs and fulfillment costs:

	Year Ended December 31, 2020
	Acquisition Costs		Fulfillment Costs
	(Dollars in millions)
Beginning of period balance	$	86	64
Costs incurred	49		23
Amortization	(62)		(33)
End of period balance	$	73	54

	Year Ended December 31, 2019
	Acquisition Costs		Fulfillment Costs
	(Dollars in millions)
Beginning of period balance	$	90	57
Costs incurred	60		39
Amortization	(64)		(32)
End of period balance	$	86	64