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Property, Plant and Equipment | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2015
Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract] |
Property, Plant and Equipment | Property, Plant and Equipment Net property, plant and equipment is composed of the following:
| Depreciable Lives |  | As of December 31,
|  | 2015 |  | 2014
|  |  | (Dollars in millions)
Property, plant and equipment: |  |  |  |  |
Land | N/A |  | $ | 349 |  |  | 350 |
Fiber, conduit and other outside plant(1) | 15-45 years |  | 5,362 |  |  | 4,640 |
Central office and other network electronics(2) | 4-10 years |  | 3,614 |  |  | 3,362 |
Support assets(3) | 5-30 years |  | 2,584 |  |  | 2,496 |
Construction in progress(4) | N/A |  | 273 |  |  | 309 |
Gross property, plant and equipment |  |  | 12,182 |  |  | 11,157 |
Accumulated depreciation |  |  | (4,808 | ) |  | (3,956 | )
Net property, plant and equipment |  |  | $ | 7,374 |  |  | 7,201 |
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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 $986 million, $1.048 billion and $1.099 billion for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. In 2014, we recorded an impairment charge of $17 million in connection with a sale-leaseback transaction involving an office building which closed in the fourth quarter of 2014. This impairment charge is included in selling, general and administrative expense in our consolidated statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2014.

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- 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. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 210 -SubTopic 10 -Section S99 -Paragraph 1 -Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.13-14) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 205 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51717284&loc=d3e1361-107760 Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 360 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51719941&loc=d3e2921-110230 Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 360 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6391035&loc=d3e2868-110229 + Details
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