We think competitive and price pressures in France Telecom's (FT) domestic mobile market will remain stiff in the next two years. Group EBITDA in 2013 will likely drop more sharply than we had previously assumed, and the restoration of stronger credit metrics by 2014 will consequently fall short of our previous expectations. We are therefore lowering our long-term and issue ratings on FT to 'BBB+' from 'A-', removing them from CreditWatch negative, and affirming the 'A-2' short-term rating. The outlook is stable, reflecting our anticipation that EBITDA will stabilize by 2015, and that FT will maintain its strong business risk profile and deleverage by reducing absolute debt. PARIS (Standard&Poor's) April 22, 2013--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said
