S&P Global Ratings on Dec. 13 lowered its ratings on Sprint Corp. unit Sprint Communications Inc.'s 3.3 billion senior unsecured revolving credit facility due 2018, the $1 billion of 7% guaranteed notes due 2020 and the $3 billion of 9% guaranteed notes due 2018, to B+ from BB-.

The rating agency also removed the "under criteria observation," or UCO, designation from the ratings on all the recovery and issue-level ratings on Sprint.

According to S&P, "These ratings actions stem solely from the application of [its] revised recovery criteria and do not reflect any change in [the rating agency's] assessment of the corporate credit rating or overall performance of the company."

S&P Global Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.