Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

NOTE 9 PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

Property, plant and equipment in service and under construction, and related accumulated depreciation and amortization, as of December 31, 2014 and 2013 were as follows:

December 31,	Useful Lives (Years)	2014		2013
(Dollars in thousands)
Land	N/A	$	35,031	$	36,266
Buildings	20		296,502		304,272
Leasehold and land improvements	1-30		1,086,718		1,197,520
Cell site equipment	7-25		3,269,609		3,306,575
Switching equipment	5-8		960,377		1,161,976
Office furniture and equipment	3-5		553,630		539,248
Other operating assets and equipment	3-5		89,663		92,456
System development	1-7		1,042,195		962,698
Work in process	N/A		125,015		116,501
			7,458,740		7,717,512
Accumulated depreciation and amortization			(4,730,523)		(4,860,992)
		$	2,728,217	$	2,856,520

Depreciation and amortization expense totaled $593.2 million, $791.1 million and $597.7 million in 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. As a result of the Divestiture Transaction, U.S. Cellular recognized incremental depreciation and amortization in 2014, 2013 and 2012. See Note 6 — Acquisitions, Divestitures and Exchanges for additional information.

In 2014, 2013 and 2012, (Gain) loss on asset disposals, net included charges of $21.5 million, $30.6 million and $18.1 million, respectively, related to disposals of assets, trade-ins of older assets for replacement assets and other retirements of assets from service in the normal course of business.

- 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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