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Property, Plant and Equipment (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Property, Plant and Equipment
Land	$ 36	$ 35
Buildings	297	297
Leasehold and land improvements	1,178	1,153
Cell site equipment	3,411	3,383
Switching equipment	988	976
Office furniture and equipment	389	420
Other operating assets and equipment	57	53
System development	1,060	1,217
Work in process	212	178
Property, plant and equipment, gross	7,628	7,712
Accumulated depreciation and amortization	(5,308)	(5,242)
Property, plant and equipment, net	2,320	2,470
Depreciation and amortization expense	604	607	$ 596
(Gain) loss on asset disposals, net	$ 17	$ 22	$ 16
Buildings
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	20 years
Leasehold and land improvements | Minimum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	1 year
Leasehold and land improvements | Maximum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	30 years
Cell site equipment | Minimum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	7 years
Cell site equipment | Maximum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	25 years
Switching equipment | Minimum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	5 years
Switching equipment | Maximum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	8 years
Office furniture and equipment | Minimum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	3 years
Office furniture and equipment | Maximum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	5 years
Other operating assets and equipment | Minimum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	3 years
Other operating assets and equipment | Maximum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	5 years
System development | Minimum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	1 year
System development | Maximum
Property, Plant and Equipment
Useful life	7 years

X

- Definition

Amount of accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization for physical assets used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services.

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Amount before accumulated depreciation of building structures held for productive use including addition, improvement, or renovation to the structure, including, but not limited to, interior masonry, interior flooring, electrical, and plumbing.

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Amount before accumulated amortization of capitalized costs for computer software, including but not limited to, acquired and internally developed computer software.

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Amount of structure or a modification to a structure under construction. Includes recently completed structures or modifications to structures that have not been placed into service.

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Amount before accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization of other physical assets used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services and not intended for resale.

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Useful life of long lived, physical assets used in the normal conduct of business and not intended for resale, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days. Examples include, but not limited to, land, buildings, machinery and equipment, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, and computer equipment.

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Premises equipment which performs the function of establishing and releasing connections on a per call basis between two or more circuts, services or communications systems.

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