The rating reflects San Antonio, Texas-based AT&T Inc.'s strong position in the fast-growing wireless sector, healthy financial performance of its wireline business, and modest financial profile. AT&T is one of the largest communications companies in the U.S. and benefits from its scale as both a local telephone and wireless provider with a base of 65 million switched access lines and 62 million wireless subscribers. It has a substantial presence in the enterprise market through its acquisition of AT&T Corp. in late 2005. While the local telephone business has been losing access lines at about 6% a year, we expect such losses to moderate over the next few years as the company introduces its competitive video offerings to the markets most
