Analysts said financial markets have soured on many carriers because they have not performed as well as expected, their plans were too ambitious or their management has been weak.
Telecommunications companies account for about one-quarter of that.
In vestors, a Boston venture capital fund operator. At a minimum, five of them will default, and perhaps as many as 10. Defaults on high-yield bonds are up. The default rate could rise to almost 6 percent this year or next from 2 percent in the middle 1990s, said New York University professor Edward Altman, a recognized authority on junk bonds, in a recent report. Moody's said the default rate could rise to 8.4 percent by next June.