Property, Plant And Equipment

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Property, Plant And Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant And Equipment

(5)   Property, Plant and Equipment:

Property, plant and equipment, net is as follows:

($ in millions)	September 30, 2016		December 31, 2015
Property, plant and equipment	$	25,186	$	17,801
Less:  Accumulated depreciation		(10,287)		(9,308)
Property, plant and equipment, net	$	14,899	$	8,493

Depreciation expense is principally based on the composite group method. Depreciation expense was as follows:

	For the three months ended September 30,				For the nine months ended September 30,
($ in millions)	2016		2015		2016		2015
Depreciation expense	$	323	$	245	$	1,009	$	741

We adopted new estimated remaining useful lives for certain plant assets as of October 1, 2015, as a result of an annual independent study of the estimated remaining useful lives of our plant assets, with an insignificant impact to depreciation expense. In addition, the estimated useful lives for assets acquired in the Verizon Acquisition were adopted for such assets based on this same study effective April 1, 2016.