British Telecommunications' planned sale of up to $10bn (€ 11.1bn) worth of bonds in September appears to have been stopped in its tracks following Standard & Poor's decision to place the UK's leading telecoms company on review for possible downgrade.

BT had planned to sell bonds to finance the cost of buying third generation mobile phone licences across Continental Europe at the same time as acquiring a contolling stake in Germany's Viag Interkom. The company filed a shelf with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month allowing it to sell up to $10bn worth of bonds to North American investors. Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney were to have managed the sale.