Commitments and Contingencies, purchase commitments (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2013
BOSS Installation
Long-term Purchase Commitment [Line Items]
Purchase commitment agreement description	As previously disclosed, on August 17, 2010, U.S. Cellular and Amdocs Software Systems Limited (“Amdocs”) entered into a Software License and Maintenance Agreement (“SLMA”) and a Master Service Agreement (“MSA”) (collectively, the “Amdocs Agreements”) to develop a Billing and Operational Support System (“B/OSS”).  Pursuant to an updated Statement of Work dated June 29, 2012, the implementation of B/OSS is expected to take until the end of 2013 to complete and total payments to Amdocs are estimated to be approximately $179.0 million (subject to certain potential adjustments) over the period from commencement of the SLMA in 2010 through the second half of 2013.  As of March 31, 2013, $114.0 million had been paid to Amdocs.
Purchase commitment required payments	$ 179,000,000
Purchase commitment required payments made	114,000,000
Apple Products
Long-term Purchase Commitment [Line Items]
Purchase commitment agreement description	In March 2013, U.S. Cellular entered into an agreement with Apple to purchase an estimated $1.2 billion of Apple iPhone products over a three-year period beginning later in 2013.
Purchase commitment period	three-year
Purchase commitment estimated payments	$ 1,200,000,000