PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENTCosts incurred in the construction of the Company's cable systems, including line extensions to, and upgrade of, the Company's hybrid fiber/coaxial infrastructure and construction of the parallel fiber-to-the-home ("FTTH") infrastructure, are capitalized. This includes headend facilities and initial placement of the feeder cable to connect a customer that had not been previously connected. These costs consist of materials, subcontractor labor, direct consulting fees, and internal labor and related costs associated with the construction activities. The internal costs that are capitalized consist of salaries and benefits of the Company's employees and the portion of facility costs, including rent, taxes, insurance and utilities, that supports the construction activities. These costs are depreciated over the estimated life of the plant (10 to 25 years) and headend facilities (5 to 25 years). Costs of operating the plant and the technical facilities, including repairs and maintenance, are expensed as incurred.

Costs associated with the initial deployment of new customer premise equipment ("CPE") necessary to provide broadband, video and telephony services are also capitalized. These costs include materials, subcontractor labor, internal labor, and other related costs associated with the connection activities. The departmental activities supporting the connection process are tracked through specific metrics, and the portion of departmental costs that is capitalized is determined through a time weighted activity allocation of costs incurred based on time studies used to estimate the average time spent on each activity. These installation costs are amortized over the estimated useful lives of the CPE necessary to provide broadband, video and telephony services. The portion of departmental costs related to disconnecting services and removing CPE from a customer, costs related to connecting CPE that has been previously connected to the network, and repairs and maintenance are expensed as incurred.

The estimated useful lives assigned to our property, plant and equipment are reviewed on an annual basis or more frequently if circumstances warrant and such lives are revised to the extent necessary due to changing facts and circumstances. Any changes in estimated useful lives are reflected prospectively.

Property, plant and equipment (including equipment under finance leases) consist of the following assets, which are depreciated or amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives shown below:


	December 31,				Estimated Useful Lives
	2021		2020
Customer premise equipment	$	1,991,746	$	1,845,830	3 to 5 years
Headends and related equipment	2,325,852		2,158,704		5 to 25 years
Infrastructure	6,606,817		5,964,419		5 to 25 years
Equipment and software	1,364,560		1,237,057		3 to 10 years
Construction in progress (including materials and supplies)	291,611		174,610
Furniture and fixtures	74,481		65,724		5 to 8 years
Transportation equipment	145,531		150,974		5 to 10 years
Buildings and building improvements	506,363		481,693		10 to 40 years
Leasehold improvements	127,565		110,037		Term of lease
Land	48,793		48,791
	13,483,319		12,237,839
Less accumulated depreciation and amortization	(7,142,852)		(6,431,843)
	$	6,340,467	$	5,805,996

For the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, the Company capitalized certain costs aggregating $145,837, $134,857 and $132,966, respectively, related to the acquisition and development of internal use software, which are included in the table above.

Depreciation expense on property, plant and equipment (including finance leases) for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019 amounted to $1,145,316, $1,344,732 and $1,475,251, respectively.