MADRID (Standard&Poor's) April 21, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlooks on telecommunication operators France Telecom S.A. (FT; A-/Stable/A-2) and TeliaSonera AB (A-/Stable/A-2) remain unaffected, at this stage, by FT's announcement that the two companies have initiated exploratory steps regarding a potential combination in the context of the privatization process of TeliaSonera. FT has said that no negotiations have been initiated so far and that, if an offer was to be made, it would comply with the group's commitment regarding its medium-term ratio of debt to gross operating margin and its cash dividend policy. If the explanatory phase progresses to a more formal stage of negotiations, Standard&Poor's will assess the credit
