NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 29, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its 'AA-' long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings and its 'A-1+' short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings on SBC Communications Inc. and its subsidiaries. At the same time, Standard&Poor's revised its outlook on the company to negative from stable. As of Dec. 31, 2002, the San Antonio, Texas-based diversified telecommunications carrier had total debt outstanding of $22 billion. "The revised outlook reflects a higher degree of uncertainty regarding SBC's business prospects in 2003. This uncertainty is exacerbated by the significant level of retail lines lost to competitors utilizing SBC's unbundled network element platform (UNE-P) facilities in the fourth
