Property, Plant, and Equipment

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment

Property, Plant and Equipment

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

	September 30, 2021		December 31, 2020
	(Dollars in millions)
Land	$	305	320
Fiber conduit and other outside plant (1)	5,495		6,186
Central office and other network electronics (2)	3,185		3,388
Support assets (3)	2,480		2,722
Construction-in-progress (4)	544		720
Gross property, plant and equipment	12,009		13,336
Accumulated depreciation	(2,998)		(2,818)
Net property, plant and equipment	$	9,011	10,518

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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, data centers, computers and other administrative and support equipment.

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

As of September 30, 2021, we classified certain property, plant and equipment as held for sale and discontinued recording depreciation on the disposal group. See Note 2—Planned Divestiture of the Latin American Business for more information.

We recorded depreciation expense of $221 million and $667 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and $219 million and $624 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020.