Property and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]


	Property and Equipment

The major classes of property and equipment are as follows:



	Estimated Useful Lives	December 31,
	Estimated Useful Lives	2013			2012
Land^(a)	—	$	1,305,942		$	1,119,592
Buildings	40 years	70,497			56,883
Towers and small cells	1-20 years	11,717,453			9,589,282
Information technology assets and other	2-7 years	185,699			160,670
Construction in process	—	401,042			240,287
Total gross property and equipment		13,680,633			11,166,714
Less: accumulated depreciation		(4,732,956		)	(4,249,183		)
Total property and equipment, net		$	8,947,677		$	6,917,531


(a)	Includes land owned in fee and perpetual easements.

Depreciation expense for the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 was $562.1 million, $438.9 million and $387.8 million, respectively. Capital leases and associated leasehold improvements related to gross property and equipment and accumulated depreciation was $4.5 billion and $590.5 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2013. See note 1 and 2.

- 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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