PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

Costs incurred in the construction of our cable systems, including line extensions to, and upgrade of, our hybrid fiber/coaxial infrastructure and construction of the parallel fiber-to-the-home ("FTTH") infrastructure, are capitalized. This includes headend facilities and initial placement of the feeder cable to connect a customer that had not been previously connected. These costs consist of materials, subcontractor labor, direct consulting fees, and internal labor and related costs associated with the construction activities (including interest related to FTTH construction). Internal costs that are capitalized consist of salaries and benefits of our employees and a portion of facility costs that supports the construction activities. Such costs are depreciated over the estimated life of our infrastructure and our headend facilities and related equipment (5 to 25 years). Costs of operating the plant and the technical facilities, including repairs and maintenance, are expensed as incurred.

Costs associated with the initial deployment of new customer premise equipment ("CPE") necessary to provide services are also capitalized. These costs include materials, subcontractor labor, internal labor, and other related costs associated with the connection activities. Departmental activities supporting the connection process are capitalized based on time-weighted activity allocations of costs. These installation costs are amortized over the estimated useful lives of the CPE. The portion of departmental costs related to disconnecting services and removing CPE from a customer, costs related to connecting CPE that has been previously connected to the network, and repairs and maintenance are expensed as incurred.

The estimated useful lives assigned to our property, plant and equipment are reviewed on an annual basis or more frequently if circumstances warrant and such lives are revised to the extent necessary due to changing facts and circumstances. Any changes in estimated useful lives are reflected prospectively.

Property, plant and equipment (including equipment under finance leases) consist of the following assets, which are depreciated or amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives shown below:

	December 31,				Estimated Useful Lives
	2024		2023
Customer premise equipment	$	2,404,889	$	2,242,175	3 to 5 years
Headends and related equipment	2,475,499		2,506,665		5 to 25 years
Infrastructure	9,298,328		8,720,446		5 to 25 years
Equipment and software	1,607,236		1,436,010		3 to 10 years
Construction in progress (including materials and supplies)	328,033		360,551
Furniture and fixtures	82,150		80,585		5 to 8 years
Transportation equipment	139,627		123,193		5 to 10 years
Buildings and building improvements	592,421		574,162		10 to 40 years
Leasehold improvements	198,449		187,608		Term of lease
Land	50,014		48,804
	17,176,646		16,280,199
Less accumulated depreciation and amortization	(8,762,014)		(8,162,442)
	$	8,414,632	$	8,117,757

For the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, we capitalized certain costs aggregating $255,942, $147,267 and $138,845, respectively, related to the acquisition and development of internal use software, which are included in the table above. 

Depreciation expense on property, plant and equipment (including finance leases) for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022 amounted to $1,326,388, $1,252,919 and $1,218,365, respectively, including losses related to the disposal of plant and equipment and accelerated depreciation.