Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

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



	Depreciable Lives	As of December 31,
	Depreciable Lives	2014			2013
		(Dollars in millions)
Property, plant and equipment:
Land	N/A	$	350		356
Fiber, conduit and other outside plant⁽¹⁾	15-45 years	4,640			4,033
Central office and other network electronics⁽²⁾	4-10 years	3,362			3,026
Support assets⁽³⁾	5-30 years	2,496			2,470
Construction in progress⁽⁴⁾	N/A	309			308
Gross property, plant and equipment		11,157			10,193
Accumulated depreciation		(3,956		)	(2,985	)
Net property, plant and equipment		$	7,201		7,208

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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, 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.

We recorded depreciation expense of $1.048 billion, $1.099 billion and $1.175 billion for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.

On April 2, 2012, we sold an office building for net proceeds of $133 million. As part of the transaction, we agreed to lease a portion of the building from the new owner. As a result, the $16 million gain from the sale was deferred and will be recognized as a reduction to rent expense over the 10 year lease term.

In 2014, we recorded an impairment charge of $17 million in connection with a sale-leaseback transaction involving an office building which closed in the fourth quarter of 2014. This impairment charge is included in selling, general and administrative expense in our consolidated statements of operations for the year ended December 31, 2014.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets used in the normal conduct of business and not intended for resale. Includes, but is not limited to, accounting policies and methodology, roll forwards, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, including composite depreciation, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, useful lives and method used, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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