Property and Equipment

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property and Equipment and Intangible Assets

8.Property and Equipment

Property and equipment consisted of the following:

	Depreciable			As of
	Life			September 30,		December 31,
	(In Years)			2021		2020
				(In thousands)
Equipment leased to customers	2	-	5	$	1,590,620	$	1,736,660
Satellites	4	-	15		1,734,024		1,734,024
Satellites acquired under finance lease agreements	10	-	15		888,940		888,940
Furniture, fixtures, equipment and other	2	-	20		2,179,298		2,091,271
Buildings and improvements	5	-	40		373,749		370,941
Land		-			17,513		17,810
Construction in progress		-			858,782		126,303
Total property and equipment					7,642,926		6,965,949
Accumulated depreciation					(4,909,124)		(4,783,616)
Property and equipment, net				$	2,733,802	$	2,182,333

Construction in progress consisted of the following:

	As of
	September 30,		December 31,
	2021		2020
	(In thousands)
Pay-TV	$	37,449	$	53,486
Wireless		821,333		72,817
Total construction in progress	$	858,782	$	126,303

Depreciation and amortization expense consisted of the following:

	For the Three Months Ended				For the Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
	2021		2020		2021		2020
	(In thousands)
Equipment leased to customers	$	60,616	$	71,568	$	188,405	$	220,797
Satellites		47,833		50,193		146,645		152,530
Buildings, furniture, fixtures, equipment and other		32,176		32,303		92,418		97,679
Intangible assets (1)		36,666		45,019		126,598		47,021
Total depreciation and amortization	$	177,291	$	199,083	$	554,066	$	518,027

(1) The increase resulted from the Boost Mobile Acquisition, the Ting Mobile Acquisition and the Republic Wireless Acquisition. See Note 5 for further information.

Cost of sales and operating expense categories included in our accompanying Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) do not include depreciation expense related to satellites or equipment leased to customers.

Satellites

Pay-TV Satellites. We currently utilize 13 satellites in geostationary orbit approximately 22,300 miles above the equator, eight of which we own and depreciate over their estimated useful life. We currently utilize certain capacity on one satellite that we lease from EchoStar, which is accounted for as an operating lease. We also lease four satellites from third parties: Ciel II, which is accounted for as an operating lease, and Anik F3, Nimiq 5 and QuetzSat-1, which are accounted for as financing leases and are each depreciated over their economic life.

As of September 30, 2021, our pay-TV satellite fleet consisted of the following:

		Degree	Lease
	Launch	Orbital	Termination
Satellites	Date	Location	Date
Owned:
EchoStar VII	February 2002	119	N/A
EchoStar X	February 2006	110	N/A
EchoStar XI	July 2008	110	N/A
EchoStar XIV	March 2010	119	N/A
EchoStar XV	July 2010	61.5	N/A
EchoStar XVI	November 2012	61.5	N/A
EchoStar XVIII	June 2016	61.5	N/A
EchoStar XXIII	March 2017	67.9	N/A
Leased from EchoStar (1):
EchoStar IX	August 2003	121	Month to month
Leased from Other Third Party:
Anik F3	April 2007	118.7	April 2022
Ciel II	December 2008	129	January 2022
Nimiq 5	September 2009	72.7	September 2024
QuetzSat-1	September 2011	77	November 2021

(1) See Note 14 for further information on our Related Party Transactions with EchoStar.