Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment

Property, Plant and Equipment

Net property, plant and equipment is composed of the following:

	Depreciable Lives	As of December 31,
		2022(5)		2021(5)
		(Dollars in millions)
Land	N/A	$	651	751
Fiber, conduit and other outside plant (1)	15-45 years	14,451		15,366
Central office and other network electronics(2)	3-10 years	15,077		15,394
Support assets(3)	3-30 years	6,863		7,181
Construction in progress(4)	N/A	2,010		1,474
Gross property, plant and equipment		39,052		40,166
Accumulated depreciation		(19,886)		(19,271)
Net property, plant and equipment		$	19,166	20,895

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(1)Fiber, conduit and other outside plant consists of fiber and metallic cable, conduit, poles and other supporting structures.

(2)Central office and other network electronics consists of circuit and packet switches, routers, transmission electronics and electronics providing service to customers.

(3)Support assets consist of buildings, cable landing stations, data centers, computers and other administrative and support equipment.

(4)Construction in progress includes inventory held for construction and property of the aforementioned categories that has not been placed in service as it is still under construction.

(5)These values exclude assets classified as held for sale.

At December 31, 2022, we classified $1.9 billion of certain property, plant and equipment, net related to our EMEA business as held for sale and discontinued recording depreciation on this disposal group as of November 2, 2022. At December 31, 2021, we had $5.1 billion of certain property, plant and equipment, net related to our Latin American and ILEC businesses sold on August 1, 2022 and October 3, 2022, respectively, classified as held for sale and discontinued recording depreciation on these disposal groups during their classification as assets held for sale. See Note 2—Divestitures of the Latin American and ILEC Businesses and Planned Divestiture of the EMEA Business for more information.

We recorded depreciation expense of $2.1 billion, $2.7 billion and $3.0 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Asset Retirement Obligations

As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, our asset retirement obligations balance was primarily related to estimated future costs of removing equipment from leased properties and estimated future costs of properly disposing of asbestos and other hazardous materials upon remodeling or demolishing buildings. Asset retirement obligations are included in other long-term liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets.

Our fair value estimates were determined using the discounted cash flow method.

The following table provides asset retirement obligation activity:

	Years Ended December 31,
	2022		2021
	(Dollars in millions)
Balance at beginning of year	$	182	199
Accretion expense	10		10
Liabilities settled	(10)		(13)
Change in estimate	4		(2)
Classified as held for sale(1)	(30)		(12)
Balance at end of year	$	156	182

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(1)Represents the amounts classified as held for sale related to our divestitures. See Note 2—Divestitures of the Latin American and ILEC Businesses and Planned Divestiture of the EMEA Business.

The changes in estimate referred to in the table above were offset against gross property, plant and equipment.