MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Aug. 4, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had placed its 'A/A-1' ratings on Telecom Corp. of New Zealand (TCNZ) and its related entities and debt issues on Creditwatch with negative implications. This rating action followed TCNZ's announcement that it has submitted a proposal to Crown Fibre Holdings to structurally separate TCNZ's fixed-line access network from its remaining businesses. Crown Fibre Holdings (CFH) is a New Zealand government-owned entity, established to build a proposed 'Ultra Fast Broadband' fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network in New Zealand. The structural separation proposal would enable the demerged network company to participate in the FTTP process. "In May 2010, we assigned a negative outlook to the 'A' long-term rating on
