Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

CenturyLink accounted for its indirect acquisition of us under the acquisition method of accounting, which requires the assignment of the purchase price to the assets acquired based on their fair values at the acquisition date.

Net property, plant and equipment is composed of the following:



		Successor
	Depreciable Lives	December 31, 2013			December 31, 2012
		(Dollars in millions)
Property, plant and equipment:
Land	N/A	$	356		356
Fiber, conduit and other outside plant⁽¹⁾	15-45 years	4,033			3,475
Central office and other network electronics⁽²⁾	4-10 years	3,026			2,611
Support assets⁽³⁾	5-30 years	2,470			2,428
Construction in progress⁽⁴⁾	N/A	308			372
Gross property, plant and equipment		10,193			9,242
Accumulated depreciation		(2,985		)	(2,011	)
Net property, plant and equipment		$	7,208		7,231

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⁽¹⁾	Fiber, conduit and other outside plant consists of fiber and metallic cable, conduit, poles and other supporting structures.


⁽²⁾	Central office and other network electronics consists of circuit and packet switches, routers, transmission electronics and electronics providing service to customers.


⁽³⁾	Support assets consist of buildings, computers and other administrative and support equipment.


⁽⁴⁾	Construction in progress includes inventory held for construction and property of the aforementioned categories that has not been placed in service as it is still under construction.

We recorded depreciation expense of $1.099 billion, $1.175 billion, $914 million, and $393 million for the successor years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, the successor nine months ended December 31, 2011, and the predecessor three months ended March 31, 2011, respectively.

On April 2, 2012, we sold an office building for net proceeds of $133 million. As part of the transaction, we agreed to lease a portion of the building from the new owner. As a result, the $16 million gain from the sale was deferred and will be recognized as a reduction to rent expense over the 10 year lease term.

- 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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