S&P upgrades Atlantic Broadband

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is feeling a little better about cable television operator Atlantic Broadband Finance LLC of Quincy.

The financial rating company revised its outlook for privately-held Atlantic Broadband to positive from negative.

"The outlook revision reflects an improved operating performance over the past few quarters," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Naveen Sarma. Annualized subscriber losses have moderated to less than 1% from the mid-single-digit percent level in 2005, and Atlantic has seen continued double-digit growth in high-speed data subscribers and the successful launch of telephony services in most of its markets.

Standard & Poor's predicted that major local telephone companies like Verizon Communications Inc. or AT&T Inc. will not roll out competing video offerings in most of Atlantic Broadband's service areas in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Florida and South Carolina.
(By Hiawatha Bray, Globe staff)