Property, Plant And Equipment

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Property, Plant And Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant And Equipment

(5) Property, Plant and Equipment:

Property, plant and equipment, net is as follows:

($ in millions)	March 31, 2020			December 31, 2019
Property, plant and equipment	$	26,788		$	26,552
Less: Accumulated depreciation		(13,898)			(13,589)
Property, plant and equipment, net	$	12,890	(1)	$	12,963

⁽¹⁾Amounts exclude $1,075 million and $1,049 million reclassified as Held for Sale as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. Refer to Note 7.

In connection with the adoption of ASU No. 2016 – 02, “Leases (Topic 842)”, the $15 million ($11 million net of tax) of unamortized deferred gains that had resulted from certain sale leaseback transactions were recognized directly to opening accumulated deficit as of January 1, 2019.

In January 2019, we closed the sale of certain wireless towers for approximately $76 million. The aggregate carrying value of the towers was approximately $1 million, resulting in a gain on sale of $75 million which was recognized against “Accumulated Depreciation” in our consolidated balance sheet during the three months ended March 31, 2019.

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

	For the three months ended March 31,
($ in millions)	2020		2019
Depreciation expense	$	316	$	353

We revised the estimated remaining useful lives for certain plant assets as of October 1, 2019, 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.