Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

NOTE 10 PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

Property, plant and equipment in service and under construction, and related accumulated depreciation and amortization, as of December 31, 2012 and 2011 were as follows:

December 31,	Useful Lives (Years)	2012		2011
(Dollars in thousands)
Land	N/A	$	33,947	$	30,807
Buildings	20		341,852		330,925
Leasehold and land improvements	1-30		1,188,720		1,129,818
Cell site equipment	6-25		3,100,916		2,874,397
Switching equipment	1-8		1,155,114		1,113,780
Office furniture and equipment	3-5		535,656		570,776
Other operating assets and equipment	5-25		128,290		127,253
System development	3-7		631,184		545,193
Work in process	N/A		362,749		285,500
			7,478,428		7,008,449
Accumulated depreciation and amortization			(4,455,840)		(4,218,147)
		$	3,022,588	$	2,790,302

Depreciation and amortization expense totaled $597.7 million, $565.1 million and $559.0 million in 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively. As a result of the Divestiture Transaction, U.S. Cellular recognized incremental depreciation and amortization in 2012. See Note 7 — Acquisitions, Divestitures and Exchanges for additional information.

In 2012, 2011 and 2010, (Gain) loss on asset disposals and exchanges, net included charges of $18.1 million, $9.9 million and $10.7 million, respectively, related to disposals of assets, trade-ins of older assets for replacement assets and other retirements of assets from service in the normal course of business. The 2011 (Gain) loss on asset disposals and exchanges, net also included a gain on the exchange of licenses, as described in Note 7 — Acquisitions, Divestitures and Exchanges

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets that are used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services and not intended for resale. Examples include land, buildings, machinery and equipment, and other types of furniture and equipment including, but not limited to, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, and computer equipment and software. This disclosure may include property plant and equipment accounting policies and methodology, a schedule of property, plant and equipment gross, additions, deletions, transfers and other changes, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, net, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense and useful lives, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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