On March 6, 2006, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said that the ratings of diversified telecommunications carriers AT&T Inc. (A/Watch Neg/A-1) and its related entities and BellSouth Corp. and its related entities (A/Watch Neg/A-1) remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, following the announced merger agreement between the two companies in a proposed all stock transaction. Pro forma for the merger and including Cingular Wireless, which is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth, the combined company had about $62 billion in total debt outstanding as of Dec. 31, 2005. The ratings for both companies were placed on CreditWatch with negative implications on Jan. 13, 2006. This action reflected our view that there is a higher level of uncertainty about the business
