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Basis of Presentation (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2016	Mar. 31, 2015
Basis of Presentation
Business segments, additional information	TDS’ business segments reflected in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2016 are U.S. Cellular, Wireline, Cable, and Hosted and Managed Services (“HMS”) operations. TDS’ non-reportable other business activities are presented as “Corporate, Eliminations and Other”, which includes the operations of TDS’ wholly-owned subsidiary Suttle-Straus, Inc. (“Suttle-Straus”).
Amounts recorded gross in revenues that are billed to customers and remitted to governmental authorities	$ 23	$ 26
U.S. Cellular
Basis of Presentation
TDS ownership of U.S. Cellular	84.00%

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- Definition

The total Universal Service Funds and other surcharges recorded gross in revenues that are billed to customers and remitted to governmental authorities.

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Additional information about the entity or its reportable segments that may contribute to an understanding of the enterprise.

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 280
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6374474&loc=d3e8352-108598

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