Goodwill and Intangible Assets (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended			3 Months Ended				3 Months Ended		3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2012 years	Mar. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2011	Mar. 31, 2012 Amortization expense, 2012 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Amortization expense, 2013 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Other Intangible Assets [Member] years	Dec. 31, 2011 Other Intangible Assets [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Site Rental Contracts and Customer Relationships [Member] years	Dec. 31, 2011 Site Rental Contracts and Customer Relationships [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Depreciation, Amortization and Accretion [Member]	Mar. 31, 2011 Depreciation, Amortization and Accretion [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Site Rental Costs of Operations [Member]	Mar. 31, 2011 Site Rental Costs of Operations [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Amortization expense, 2014 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Amortization expense, 2015 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Amortization expense, 2016 [Member]	Jan. 31, 2012 Wireless Capital Partners, LLC [Member]
Acquired Finite-Lived Intangible Assets [Line Items]
Finite-lived intangible assets, gross	$ 3,081,804,000		$ 2,976,207,000			$ 152,235,000	$ 152,375,000	$ 2,929,569,000	$ 2,823,832,000
Finite-lived intangible assets, future amortization expense				119,473,000	156,673,000									154,383,000	145,473,000	145,466,000
Business acquisition, purchase price allocation, goodwill amount																	76,900,000
Amortization of intangible assets	40,980,000	40,691,000								40,172,000	39,571,000	808,000	1,120,000
Acquired finite-lived intangible assets, amount	106,075,000					573,000		105,502,000
Amortization of other intangible assets	(838,415,000)		(798,025,000)			(52,661,000)	(49,175,000)	(785,754,000)	(748,850,000)
Finite-lived intangible assets, net	2,243,389,000		2,178,182,000					2,143,815,000	2,074,982,000
Acquired finite-lived intangible asset, weighted average useful life	29.4					10.8		29.5
Other intangible assets, net						99,574,000	103,200,000
Goodwill not expected to be deductible for tax purposes																	$ 62,900,000