Debt - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	1 Months Ended					1 Months Ended					6 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2013	Jun. 30, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012	Jun. 30, 2013 Guarantee Of Debentures And First Mortgage Bonds Of Operating Telephone Company Subsidiaries	Jun. 30, 2013 Guarantee of Debt Obligations of GTE Corporation	Jun. 30, 2013 Verizon Communications Notes	Apr. 30, 2013 Verizon Communications Notes Debt Repayment	Jun. 30, 2013 Verizon New York Inc Debentures	May 31, 2013 Verizon New York Inc Debentures	Jun. 30, 2013 Verizon Maryland LLC Debentures	Jun. 30, 2013 Four Year Credit Facility
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Aggregate principal amount	$ 500,000,000
Debt instrument maturity date	2015
Cash proceeds from debt	500,000,000
Amount of notes repaid						500,000,000	1,250,000,000	100,000,000	100,000,000	250,000,000
Stated interest rate on debt instrument						4.375%	5.25%	7.00%	7.00%	7.15%
Redemption price of notes percentage										100.00%
Principal amount outstanding in connection with the guarantee of debt obligations		49,752,000,000	51,987,000,000	3,800,000,000	1,700,000,000
Credit facility, maturity date											Aug. 12, 2016
Amount of borrowing capacity on four-year credit facility											6,200,000,000
Amount of unused borrowing capacity on four-year credit facility											$ 6,100,000,000