27 Depreciation, amortization and impairment losses

The following table provides a breakdown of depreciation, amortization and impairment losses:

Impairment losses break down as follows:

Depreciation, amortization and impairment losses on intangible assets, property, plant and equipment, and right-of-use assets increased by EUR 8.2 billion year-on-year to EUR 25.8 billion. Depreciation of property, plant and equipment increased by EUR 4.6 billion and amortization of intangible assets by EUR 1.7 billion. Depreciation of right-of-use assets increased by EUR 1.4 billion. These increases are all largely due to the completed business combination with Sprint. In the United States operating segment, a reduction in the useful life of leased network technology for cell sites following the business combination of T‑Mobile US and Sprint increased depreciation of the corresponding right-of-use assets by EUR 0.1 billion. Impairment losses increased year-on-year by EUR 0.4 billion to EUR 0.8 billion. Impairment losses on goodwill resulting from year-end impairment tests relate to the Montenegro cash-generating unit. EUR 0.5 billion of these impairment losses resulted from an ad hoc impairment test of assets assigned to the Systems Solutions cash-generating unit and relate to intangible assets and property, plant and equipment in the Systems Solutions operating segment and in the Group Headquarters & Group Services segment. EUR 0.2 billion of this is attributable to another ad hoc impairment test of the assets assigned to the Romania cash-generating unit. This also relates to intangible assets and property, plant and equipment. In 2019, these included impairment losses of EUR 0.3 billion in particular on property, plant and equipment in the Romania cash-generating unit on account of the ad hoc impairment test conducted at year-end.

For further information, please refer to Note 6 “Intangible assets,” Note 7 “Property, plant and equipment,” and Note 8 “Right-of-use assets – lessee relationships.”