NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 7, 2012—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Dallas-based telecommunications provider AT&T Inc. (A-/Stable/A-2) are not affected by the company's announcement that it plans to invest about $14 billion over the next three years to expand and upgrade its wireless and wireline networks to support the growing demand for data by consumers and businesses. As a result of these growth initiatives, management increased its target net leverage to 1.8x from 1.5x. We estimate that our adjusted leverage will rise to around 2.8x during this period from the mid-2x area, which is still supportive of an "intermediate" financial risk profile, albeit at the higher end of the maximum leverage
