On Oct. 7,2004, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'A-1' short-term ratings on regional Bell operating company (RBOC) SBC Communications Inc. following the upsizing of the company's commercial paper program to $12 billion from $8 billion. Proceeds are expected to be used for general corporate purposes, including potential funding of SBC's portion of the acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services (AWE) by Cingular Wireless LLC (Cingular). The affirmation assumes that the company will obtain committed facilities to fully cover any issuances under this upsized commercial paper program, in accordance with Standard&Poor's policy. Currently, the company has $4.25 billion of committed bank facilities as commercial paper backup, which expire on Oct, 19, 2004. Standard&Poor's expects SBC to
