Acquisition of NTELOS Holdings Corp. and Exchange with Sprint - Schedule of Preliminary Purchase Price Allocation and Revisions Recorded (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended	5 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2016	May 06, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Business Combination, Recognized Identifiable Assets Acquired and Liabilities Assumed, Net [Abstract]
Goodwill	$ 145,413	$ 145,413		$ 10
NTELOS Holdings Corp. [Member]
Business Combination, Recognized Identifiable Assets Acquired and Liabilities Assumed, Net [Abstract]
Accounts receivable	49,521	49,521	$ 48,476
Inventory	3,810	3,810	3,810
Restricted cash	2,167	2,167	2,167
Investments	1,501	1,501	1,501
Prepaid expenses and other assets	14,835	14,835	14,835
Building held for sale	4,950	4,950	4,950
Property, plant and equipment	227,471	227,471	223,900
Goodwill	145,299	145,299	151,627
Other long term assets	10,843	10,843	10,288
Total assets acquired	872,959	872,959	868,954
Accounts payable	8,532	8,532	8,648
Advanced billings and customer deposits	12,477	12,477	12,477
Accrued expenses	25,230	25,230	25,230
Capital lease liability	418	418	418
Deferred tax liabilities	127,722	127,722	124,964
Retirement benefits	19,198	19,198	19,461
Other long-term liabilities	14,056	14,056	14,056
Total liabilities assumed	207,633	207,633	205,254
Net assets acquired	665,326	665,326	663,700
Business Combination, Provisional Information, Initial Accounting Incomplete, Adjustments [Abstract]
Accounts receivable, revisions		1,045
Property, plant and equipment, revisions		3,571
Goodwill, revisions		(6,328)
Other long term assets, revisions		555
Total assets acquired, revisions		4,005
Accounts payable, revisions		(116)
Deferred tax liabilities, revisions		2,758
Retirement benefits, revisions		(263)
Total liabilities assumed, revisions		2,379
Net assets acquired, revisions		1,626
NTELOS Holdings Corp. [Member] | Spectrum Licenses [Member]
Business Combination, Recognized Identifiable Assets Acquired and Liabilities Assumed, Net [Abstract]
Intangibles	198,200	198,200	198,200
NTELOS Holdings Corp. [Member] | Customer Based Contract Rights [Member]
Business Combination, Recognized Identifiable Assets Acquired and Liabilities Assumed, Net [Abstract]
Intangibles	203,362	203,362	198,200
Business Combination, Provisional Information, Initial Accounting Incomplete, Adjustments [Abstract]
Intangibles, revision	(24,500)	5,162
NTELOS Holdings Corp. [Member] | Contract Based Intangible Assets [Member]
Business Combination, Recognized Identifiable Assets Acquired and Liabilities Assumed, Net [Abstract]
Intangibles	$ 11,000	$ 11,000	$ 11,000