Stock-Based Compensation - TDS excluding UScellular, Deferred Stock Compensation Units (Details) - Deferred Compensation Stock Units - TDS - Common Shares	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award [Line Items]
Percent of match up to 50% from annual bonus	25.00%
Percent of match above 50% from annual bonus	33.00%
Award vesting period	3 years

Defined Contribution Plan, Employer Matching Contribution, Percent of Match above 50% from Annual Bonus

No definition available.

Name:	tds_DefinedContributionPlanEmployerMatchingContributionPercentofMatchabove50fromAnnualBonus
Namespace Prefix:	tds_
Data Type:	dtr-types:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Defined Contribution Plan, Employer Matching Contribution, Percent of Match up to 50% from Annual Bonus

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	tds_DefinedContributionPlanEmployerMatchingContributionPercentofMatchupto50fromAnnualBonus
Namespace Prefix:	tds_
Data Type:	dtr-types:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Period over which grantee's right to exercise award under share-based payment arrangement is no longer contingent on satisfaction of service or performance condition, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days. Includes, but is not limited to, combination of market, performance or service condition.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 718
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=120381028&loc=d3e5070-113901

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardAwardVestingPeriod1
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:durationItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	tds_ScheduleOfShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardTypeAxis=us-gaap_DeferredCompensationShareBasedPaymentsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	srt_ConsolidatedEntitiesAxis=srt_ParentCompanyMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_StatementClassOfStockAxis=us-gaap_CommonClassBMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: