Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

NOTE 8 PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

Property, plant and equipment in service and under construction, and related accumulated depreciation and amortization, as of December 31, 2013 and 2012 were as follows:

December 31,	Useful Lives (Years)	2013		2012
(Dollars in thousands)
Land	N/A	$	36,266	$	33,947
Buildings	20		304,272		341,852
Leasehold and land improvements	1-30		1,197,520		1,188,720
Cell site equipment	6-25		3,306,575		3,100,916
Switching equipment	1-8		1,161,976		1,155,114
Office furniture and equipment	3-5		539,248		535,656
Other operating assets and equipment	5-25		92,456		128,290
System development	3-7		962,698		631,184
Work in process	N/A		116,501		362,749
			7,717,512		7,478,428
Accumulated depreciation and amortization			(4,860,992)		(4,455,840)
		$	2,856,520	$	3,022,588

Depreciation and amortization expense totaled $791.1 million, $597.7 million and $565.1 million in 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. As a result of the Divestiture Transaction, U.S. Cellular recognized incremental depreciation and amortization in 2012 and 2013. See Note 5 — Acquisitions, Divestitures and Exchanges for additional information.

In 2013, 2012 and 2011, (Gain) loss on asset disposals, net included charges of $30.6 million, $18.1 million and $9.9 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.

- 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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