Wireless Licenses, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2024

Goodwill and Intangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

Wireless Licenses, Goodwill, and Other Intangible Assets


Note 4. Wireless Licenses, Goodwill, and Other Intangible Assets

Wireless Licenses

The carrying amounts of our Wireless licenses are as follows:


	At September 30,		At December 31,
(dollars in millions)	2024		2023
Wireless licenses	$	156,481	$	155,667

During the nine months ended September 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023, we made payments of $269 million and $578 million, respectively, for obligations related to clearing costs and accelerated clearing incentives for wireless licenses in connection with Auction 107. See Note 3 for additional information.

At September 30, 2024 and 2023, approximately $11.3 billion and $22.1 billion, respectively, of wireless licenses were under development for commercial service for which we were capitalizing interest costs. We recorded $485 million and $1.2 billion of capitalized interest on wireless licenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2024, we renewed various wireless licenses in accordance with FCC regulations. The average renewal period for these licenses was 10 years.

Goodwill

Changes in the carrying amount of Goodwill are as follows:


(dollars in millions)	Consumer		Business		Total
Balance at January 1, 2024(1)	$	21,177	$	1,666	$	22,843

Reclassifications, adjustments and other	—		1		1
Balance at September 30, 2024	$	21,177	$	1,667	$	22,844

(1) Goodwill is net of accumulated impairment charges of $5.8 billion related to our Business reporting unit.

Other Intangible Assets

The following table displays the composition of Other intangible assets, net as well as the respective amortization periods:


	At September 30, 2024						At December 31, 2023
(dollars in millions)	Gross Amount		Accumulated Amortization		Net Amount		Gross Amount		Accumulated Amortization		Net Amount
Customer lists (5 to 13 years)	$	4,242	$	(2,503)	$	1,739	$	4,335	$	(2,193)	$	2,142
Non-network internal-use software (3 to 7 years)	26,989		(19,240)		7,749		25,524		(17,949)		7,575
Other (4 to 25 years)	2,663		(1,477)		1,186		2,656		(1,316)		1,340
Total	$	33,894	$	(23,220)	$	10,674	$	32,515	$	(21,458)	$	11,057

The amortization expense for Other intangible assets was as follows:


	Three Months Ended		Nine Months Ended
(dollars in millions)	September 30,		September 30,
2024	$	676	$	2,080
2023	690		1,990

The estimated future amortization expense for Other intangible assets for the remainder of the current year and next 5 years is as follows:


Years	(dollars in millions)
Remainder of 2024	$	685
2025	2,606
2026	2,384
2027	1,815
2028	1,435
2029	769