Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Principles of consolidation	The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Shenandoah Telecommunications Company and all of its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany accounts and transactions for continuing operations have been eliminated in consolidation.
Use of estimates	The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or the U.S., requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making estimates, actual results to be reported in future periods could differ from our estimates.
Cash and cash equivalents	Cash equivalents include all investments with an original maturity of three months or less. The Company places its temporary cash investments with high credit quality financial institutions. Generally, such investments are in excess of FDIC or SIPC insurance limits.
Property, plant and equipment	Property, plant and equipment is stated at cost less accumulated depreciation. The Company capitalizes all costs associated with the purchase, deployment and installation of property, plant and equipment, including interest costs and internal labor costs on major capital projects during the period of their construction. Maintenance expense is recognized as incurred when repairs are performed that do not extend the life of property, plant and equipment. Expenses for major renewals and improvements, which significantly extend the useful lives of existing property and equipment, are capitalized and depreciated. Depreciation is calculated on the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets. Labor costs associated with customer installation activities at existing service locations are expensed as incurred under industry specific guidance. Leasehold improvements are depreciated over the lesser of their useful lives or respective lease terms. Land is not depreciated. Refer to Note 6, Property, Plant and Equipment, for additional information.
Indefinite-lived Intangible Assets	Goodwill represents the excess of acquisition costs over the fair value of tangible net assets and identifiable intangible assets of the businesses acquired. Cable franchise rights provide us with the non-exclusive right to provide video services in a specified area. Spectrum licenses are issued by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and provide us with either an exclusive or priority access right to utilize designated radio frequency spectrum within specific geographic service areas to provide wireless communication services. While some cable franchises and spectrum licenses are issued for a fixed time (generally ten years and up to fifteen years, respectively), renewals have been granted routinely and at nominal costs. The Company believes it will be able to meet all requirements necessary to secure renewal of its cable franchise rights and spectrum licenses. Moreover, the Company has determined that there are currently no legal, regulatory, contractual, competitive, economic or other factors that limit the useful lives of our cable franchises or spectrum licenses and as a result, we account for cable franchise rights and spectrum licenses as indefinite-lived intangible assets.Indefinite-lived intangible assets are not amortized, but rather, are subject to impairment testing annually, in the fourth quarter, or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be fully recoverable. These assets are evaluated for impairment based on the identification of reporting units. Our reporting units align with our reporting segments. We evaluated our reporting units for impairment during the fourth quarter of 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, on the basis of qualitative factors. Our consideration of qualitative factors included but was not limited to macroeconomic conditions, industry and market conditions, company specific events, changes in circumstances, after tax cash flows and market capitalization trends.
Long-lived Assets	Finite-lived intangible assets, property, plant, and equipment, and other long-lived assets are amortized or depreciated over their estimated useful lives, as summarized in the respective notes below. These assets are evaluated for impairment based on the identification of asset groups. Our asset groups align with our reportable segments. We evaluated our asset groups for impairment during the fourth quarter of 2021.
Advertising Costs	Advertising Costs: The Company expenses advertising costs and marketing production costs as incurred and includes such costs within selling, general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations.
Retirement plans	The pension plan is a frozen defined benefit plan. Benefits under the plan vested after five years of plan service and were based on years of service and an average of the five highest consecutive years of compensation subject to certain reductions if the employee elects to receive the benefit prior to age 65. This plan was amended on December 31, 2012, to freeze future benefit plan accruals for participants.
New Accounting Standards	New Accounting Standards In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04 “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting.” This accounting update provides optional accounting relief to entities with contracts, hedge accounting relationships or other transactions that reference London Interbank Offering Rate (LIBOR) or other interest rate benchmarks for which the referenced rate is expected to be discontinued or replaced. This optional relief generally allows for contract modifications solely related to the replacement of the reference rate to be accounted for as a continuation of the existing contract instead of as an extinguishment of the contract, and therefore would not require reassessment of a previous accounting determination. The Company's Credit Agreement has LIBOR as a reference rate. We plan to apply the accounting relief as any relevant contract modifications are made to our Credit Agreement during the course of the reference rate reform transition period. The optional relief can be applied beginning January 1, 2020, and ending December 31, 2022. We adopted ASU No. 2018-02-Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income, ("ASC 220"), as of January 1, 2019. We elected not to reclassify stranded income tax effects from accumulated other comprehensive income (OCI) to retained earnings. We utilize the portfolio approach as our policy to release the income tax effects from accumulated OCI as the entire portfolio is liquidated, sold, or extinguished. In November 2021, the FASB issued ASU 2021-10, “Government Assistance (Topic 832), Disclosures by Business Entities About Government Assistance,” which requires entities to provide disclosures on material government assistance transactions for annual reporting periods. The disclosures include information about the nature of the assistance, the related accounting policies used to account for government assistance, the effect of government assistance on the entity’s financial statements and any significant terms and conditions of the agreements, including commitments and contingencies. The new standard is effective for the Corporation on January 1, 2022 and only impacts annual financial statement disclosures. The adoption is not expected to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.
Investment	SERP Investments at fair value: The Company holds the SERP investments in a rabbi trust as a source of funding for future payments under the plan. The SERP’s investments were designated as trading securities and will be liquidated and paid out to the participants six months after retirement. The benefit obligation to participants is always equal to the value of the SERP assets under ASC 710, Compensation. Cost Method Investments: Our investment in CoBank’s Class A common stock, derived from the CoBank patronage program, represented substantially all of our cost method investments with a balance of $10.3 million and $9.8 million at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. We recognized approximately $2.0 million, $4.2 million and $4.2 million of patronage income in Other income (expense) in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Historically, approximately 75% of the patronage distributions were collected in cash and 25% in equity. Equity Method Investments: At December 31, 2021, the Company had a 20.0% ownership interest in Valley Network Partnership (“ValleyNet”). The Company and ValleyNet purchase capacity on one another’s fiber network. We recognized revenue of $0.7 million, $0.9 million, and $1.0 million from providing service to ValleyNet during 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively. We recognized cost of service of $1.2 million, $2.7 million, and $3.0 million for the use of ValleyNet’s network during 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Shenandoah Telecommunications Company and all of its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany accounts and transactions for continuing operations have been eliminated in consolidation.

Use of estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or the U.S., requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making estimates, actual results to be reported in future periods could differ from our estimates.

Cash and cash equivalents

Cash equivalents include all investments with an original maturity of three months or less. The Company places its temporary cash investments with high credit quality financial institutions. Generally, such investments are in excess of FDIC or SIPC insurance limits.

Property, plant and equipment

Property, plant and equipment is stated at cost less accumulated depreciation. The Company capitalizes all costs associated with the purchase, deployment and installation of property, plant and equipment, including interest costs and internal labor costs on major capital projects during the period of their construction. Maintenance expense is recognized as incurred when repairs are performed that do not extend the life of property, plant and equipment. Expenses for major renewals and improvements, which significantly extend the useful lives of existing property and equipment, are capitalized and depreciated. Depreciation is calculated on the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets. Labor costs associated with customer installation activities at existing service locations are expensed as incurred under industry specific guidance. Leasehold improvements are depreciated over the lesser of their useful lives or respective lease terms. Land is not depreciated. Refer to Note 6, Property, Plant and Equipment, for additional information.

Indefinite-lived Intangible Assets

Goodwill represents the excess of acquisition costs over the fair value of tangible net assets and identifiable intangible assets of the businesses acquired. Cable franchise rights provide us with the non-exclusive right to provide video services in a specified area. Spectrum licenses are issued by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) and provide us with either an exclusive or priority access right to utilize designated radio frequency spectrum within specific geographic service areas to provide wireless communication services. While some cable franchises and spectrum licenses are issued for a fixed time (generally ten years and up to fifteen years, respectively), renewals have been granted routinely and at nominal costs. The Company believes it will be able to meet all requirements necessary to secure renewal of its cable franchise rights and spectrum licenses. Moreover, the Company has determined that there are currently no legal, regulatory, contractual, competitive, economic or other factors that limit the useful lives of our cable franchises or spectrum licenses and as a result, we account for cable franchise rights and spectrum licenses as indefinite-lived intangible assets.Indefinite-lived intangible assets are not amortized, but rather, are subject to impairment testing annually, in the fourth quarter, or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be fully recoverable. These assets are evaluated for impairment based on the identification of reporting units. Our reporting units align with our reporting segments. We evaluated our reporting units for impairment during the fourth quarter of 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, on the basis of qualitative factors. Our consideration of qualitative factors included but was not limited to macroeconomic conditions, industry and market conditions, company specific events, changes in circumstances, after tax cash flows and market capitalization trends.

Long-lived Assets

Finite-lived intangible assets, property, plant, and equipment, and other long-lived assets are amortized or depreciated over their estimated useful lives, as summarized in the respective notes below. These assets are evaluated for impairment based on the identification of asset groups. Our asset groups align with our reportable segments. We evaluated our asset groups for impairment during the fourth quarter of 2021.

Advertising Costs

Advertising Costs: The Company expenses advertising costs and marketing production costs as incurred and includes such costs within selling, general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations.

Retirement plans

The pension plan is a frozen defined benefit plan. Benefits under the plan vested after five years of plan service and were based on years of service and an average of the five highest consecutive years of compensation subject to certain reductions if the employee elects to receive the benefit prior to age 65. This plan was amended on December 31, 2012, to freeze future benefit plan accruals for participants.

New Accounting Standards

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04 “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting.” This accounting update provides optional accounting relief to entities with contracts, hedge accounting relationships or other transactions that reference London Interbank Offering Rate (LIBOR) or other interest rate benchmarks for which the referenced rate is expected to be discontinued or replaced. This optional relief generally allows for contract modifications solely related to the replacement of the reference rate to be accounted for as a continuation of the existing contract instead of as an extinguishment of the contract, and therefore would not require reassessment of a previous accounting determination. The Company's Credit Agreement has LIBOR as a reference rate. We plan to apply the accounting relief as any relevant contract modifications are made to our Credit Agreement during the course of the reference rate reform transition period. The optional relief can be applied beginning January 1, 2020, and ending December 31, 2022.

We adopted ASU No. 2018-02-Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income, ("ASC 220"), as of January 1, 2019. We elected not to reclassify stranded income tax effects from accumulated other comprehensive income (OCI) to retained earnings. We utilize the portfolio approach as our policy to release the income tax effects from accumulated OCI as the entire portfolio is liquidated, sold, or extinguished.

In November 2021, the FASB issued ASU 2021-10, “Government Assistance (Topic 832), Disclosures by Business Entities About Government Assistance,” which requires entities to provide disclosures on material government assistance transactions for annual reporting periods. The disclosures include information about the nature of the assistance, the related accounting policies used to account for government assistance, the effect of government assistance on the entity’s financial statements and any significant terms and conditions of the agreements, including commitments and contingencies. The new standard is effective for the Corporation on January 1, 2022 and only impacts annual financial statement disclosures. The adoption is not expected to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Investment

SERP Investments at fair value: The Company holds the SERP investments in a rabbi trust as a source of funding for future payments under the plan. The SERP’s investments were designated as trading securities and will be liquidated and paid out to the participants six months after retirement. The benefit obligation to participants is always equal to the value of the SERP assets under ASC 710, Compensation.

Cost Method Investments: Our investment in CoBank’s Class A common stock, derived from the CoBank patronage program, represented substantially all of our cost method investments with a balance of $10.3 million and $9.8 million at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. We recognized approximately $2.0 million, $4.2 million and $4.2 million of patronage income in Other income (expense) in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Historically, approximately 75% of the patronage distributions were collected in cash and 25% in equity.

Equity Method Investments: At December 31, 2021, the Company had a 20.0% ownership interest in Valley Network Partnership (“ValleyNet”). The Company and ValleyNet purchase capacity on one another’s fiber network. We recognized revenue of $0.7 million, $0.9 million, and $1.0 million from providing service to ValleyNet during 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively. We recognized cost of service of $1.2 million, $2.7 million, and $3.0 million for the use of ValleyNet’s network during 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.