The rating on AT&T Inc. reflects an overall solid investment-grade business position and modest financial risk profile. However, the negative outlook indicates our view that current leverage is only marginally supportive of the rating. AT&T's strong overall business risk profile results from its status, along with Verizon Communications Inc., as one of the two dominant U.S. telecommunications providers. Both companies benefit from the diversity and scale of their extensive voice and data wireline operations, as well as their large national wireless businesses, and each has a developing pay TV businesses. At Sept. 30, 2009, AT&T's U-verse video service was marketed to over 70% of the 20 million homes with access to the service and had almost 1.8 million customers. But
