On May 28, 2003, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on San Antonio, Texas-based regional Bell operating company (RBOC) SBC Communications Inc. and its subsidiaries to 'A+' from 'AA-'. The short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings were also lowered to 'A-1' from 'A-1+'. The ratings have been removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed on April 15. The outlook is stable. The downgrade primarily reflects heightened business risk experienced in the local telephone industry by RBOCs such as SBC. This risk has manifested itself in the form of increased retail access line losses, as well as total switched access line declines. In addition, the growth of unfunded pension and other post-retirement
