U.S.-based incumbent telecom provider Connect Holding II LLC (d/b/a Brightspeed) significantly underperformed our expectations in 2023 and we do not expect it will materially improve its performance in 2024. We expect the company will generate a large free operating cash flow (FOCF) deficit of about $1.7 billion in 2024, which follows the $800 million deficit it reported in 2023. Given our expectation it will likely exhaust its liquidity by the end of 2024, we view the risk of a default or restructuring as elevated. We lowered our issuer credit rating on Brightspeed to 'CCC' from 'B-'. At the same time, we lowered our issue-level rating on its senior secured debt to 'CCC' from 'B-' and our issue-level rating on the
