Variable Interest Entities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions		1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
		Mar. 31, 2015	Jun. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014	Dec. 31, 2015
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents				$ 865	$ 985	$ 865	$ 472	$ 985
Accounts receivable					725			705
Other current assets					34			30
Licenses					1,876			1,844
Property, plant and equipment, net					3,549			3,764
Other assets and deferred charges					392			197
Liabilities
Current liabilities					887			944
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Federal Communications Commission deposit			$ 143		143
Capital contributions, loans or advances					100	281
Investments in unconsolidated entities				386	$ 459	386		402
King Street Wireless Out Of Period Adjustment [Member]
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Out-of-period adjustment description					During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015, TDS recorded out-of-period adjustments attributable to the third quarter of 2013 through the second quarter of 2015 related to an agreement with King Street Wireless. TDS determined that these adjustments were not material to the quarterly periods or the annual results for 2015. These out-of-period adjustments had the impact of reducing Net income by $3 million for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015, and Net income attributable to TDS shareholders by $4 million and $3 million, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015, respectively.
Net income | King Street Wireless Out Of Period Adjustment [Member]
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Out-of-period adjustment				3		3
Net income attributable to TDS shareholders | King Street Wireless Out Of Period Adjustment [Member]
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Out-of-period adjustment				4		3
U.S. Cellular
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Investments in unconsolidated entities				$ 348	$ 420	$ 348
Consolidated Variable Interest Entities
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents	[1]				2			1
Accounts receivable	[1]				38
Other current assets	[1]				6
Licenses	[1],[2]				649			649
Property, plant and equipment, net	[1]				96			8
Other assets and deferred charges	[1]				14
Total assets	[1]				805			658
Liabilities
Current liabilities	[1]				19
Deferred liabilities and credits	[1]				11			1
Total liabilities	[1]				30			1
Unconsolidated Variable Interest Entities
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Investments in unconsolidated entities					$ 6			$ 5
Advantage Spectrum L.P. | U.S. Cellular
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Federal Communications Commission deposit							$ 60
Licenses won		124
Total winning bid		$ 338
Designated entity auction discount		25.00%
Other auction charges		$ 2
King Street Wireless L.P.
Variable Interest Entities, Other Disclosures
Cash distributions paid		60
King Street Wireless, L.P. distribution paid to U.S. Cellular		54
King Street Wireless, L.P. distribution paid to King Street Wireless, Inc.		$ 6

[1] The increase in amounts from December 31, 2015 are primarily due to the adoption of ASU 2015-02 as disclosed above. ASU 2015-02 was adopted on a modified retrospective basis and, accordingly, prior year amounts have not been revised to reflect the change in guidance.

[2] As disclosed above, payments totaling $338 million were made by Advantage Spectrum to the FCC relating to Auction 97. These licenses were granted and issued as of September 30, 2016. Although the licenses had not yet been granted as of December 31, 2015, the payments to the FCC were classified as Licenses at such date.