Variable Interest Entities VIEs (Details) (USD $)	9 Months Ended				9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2014	Dec. 31, 2013	Sep. 30, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012	Sep. 30, 2014 Variable Interest Entities (VIE's)	Dec. 31, 2013 Variable Interest Entities (VIE's)	Oct. 31, 2014 Variable Interest Entities (VIE's) Subsequent event
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents	$ 573,067,000	$ 830,014,000	$ 711,089,000	$ 740,481,000	$ 2,791,000	$ 2,076,000
Other current assets	31,884,000	35,151,000			145,000	1,184,000
Licenses	1,400,808,000	1,423,779,000			311,852,000	310,475,000
Property, plant and equipment, net	3,836,468,000	3,878,144,000			13,652,000	18,600,000
Other assets and deferred charges	214,826,000	164,482,000			(8,000)	511,000
Total assets					328,432,000	332,846,000
Liabilities
Current liabilities	1,157,507,000	1,191,756,000			61,000	46,000
Deferred liabilities and credits					1,722,000	3,139,000
Total liabilities					1,783,000	3,185,000
Capital contributions, loans or advances					$ 900,000		$ 58,800,000
Subsequent Events
Subsequent event, description	In October 2014, TDS made additional capital contributions, loans or advances of $58.8 million to its VIEs.