Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

A summary of property, plant and equipment is shown below (in thousands):



	Estimated Life	December 31, 2013			December 31, 2012
	(in years)
Land	—	$	35,585		$	36,824
Buildings	40	191,348			181,269
Central office equipment	7 – 10	559,304			524,545
Outside communications plant	15 – 35	1,091,238			1,050,662
Furniture, vehicles and other work equipment ⁽¹⁾	5 – 15	197,439			178,931
Plant under construction	—	93,734			90,766
Other ⁽¹⁾	—	18,881			17,403
Total property, plant and equipment		2,187,529			2,080,400
Less: Accumulated depreciation		(886,237		)	(642,091		)
Net property, plant and equipment		$	1,301,292		$	1,438,309

(1) The Company has reclassified certain network software assets from "Other" to "Furniture, vehicles and other work equipment" as of December 31, 2012 in the above table to be consistent with current period presentation.

Depreciation expense, excluding amortization of intangible assets, for the year ended December 31, 2013, the year ended December 31, 2012, the 341 days ended December 31, 2011 and the 24 days ended January 24, 2011 was $271.3 million, $365.5 million, $326.5 million and $20.1 million respectively. Depreciation expense includes amortization of assets recorded under capital leases.

The Company recorded $3.7 million of asset retirement obligations during the year ended December 31, 2013. Accretion expense, revisions in cash flow estimates and liability settlements were insignificant during the year. The Company's asset retirement obligations are included as a component of other accrued liabilities or other long-term liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets based on the expected timing of the obligation. As of December 31, 2013, the Company's asset retirement liability of $4.3 million consisted of $1.1 million in other accrued liabilities and $3.2 million in other long-term liabilities. As of December 31, 2012, the Company's asset retirement liability of $0.6 million consisted of $0.1 million in other accrued liabilities and $0.5 million in other long-term liabilities.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets that are used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services and not intended for resale. Examples include land, buildings, machinery and equipment, and other types of furniture and equipment including, but not limited to, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, and computer equipment and software. This disclosure may include property plant and equipment accounting policies and methodology, a schedule of property, plant and equipment gross, additions, deletions, transfers and other changes, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, net, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense and useful lives, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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