Property, Plant And Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Property, Plant And Equipment [Abstract]

(5) Property, Plant and Equipment:

Property, plant and equipment, net at December 31, 2013 and 2012 are as follows:



($ in thousands)	Estimated Useful Lives	2013		2012

Land	N/A	$	126,483	$	126,483
Buildings and leasehold improvements	41 years		1,061,097		1,052,650
General support	5 to 17 years		977,941		988,707
Central office/electronic circuit equipment	5 to 11 years		5,222,928		4,965,099
Poles	49 years		549,322		507,922
Cable and wire	15 to 30 years		6,259,292		6,038,835
Conduit	60 years		359,974		354,777
Other	12 to 30 years		43,144		44,802
Construction work in progress			250,516		274,488
Property, plant and equipment			14,850,697		14,353,763
Less: Accumulated depreciation			(7,594,935)		(6,848,867)
Property, plant and equipment, net		$	7,255,762	$	7,504,896

Depreciation expense is principally based on the composite group method. Depreciation expense was $841.5 million, $844.6 million and $881.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. As a result of an independent study of the estimated remaining useful lives of our plant assets, we adopted new estimated remaining useful lives for certain plant assets as of October 1, 2013, with an immaterial impact to depreciation expense.

- 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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