AT&T Eagerly Reclaims Wireless Name

The company called AT&T Wireless (AWE Quote) will soon vanish, but its name will live on thanks to former parent Ma Bell.

AT&T (T Quote) struck a deal Monday to reclaim the valuable brand name from a struggling wireless company due to be gobbled up by year-end by a deep-pocketed competitor.

The deal comes as the cell-phone industry landscape is about to be radically remade by Cingular's pending purchase of AT&T Wireless. The companies are due to merge by the end of the year in a $41 billion deal that would create the nation's biggest mobile-phone service provider, supplanting current No. 1 Verizon Wireless.

Cingular, a wireless venture of SBC (SBC Quote) and BellSouth (BLS Quote), says it will use its own brand following its acquisition of AT&T Wireless. Cingular will drop the AT&T brand after a six-month transition period.

AT&T is eager to take back the AT&T Wireless name because the cell-phone industry continues to produce the rapid growth that has eluded AT&T elsewhere.

And in what appears to be a warming of relations between telco titans, Cingular extended its service agreement with AT&T and committed to buy up to $100 million worth of long distance and other communications services from the New Jersey shop. The deal extends an earlier agreement between AT&T and AT&T Wireless.

AT&T says it plans to resell wireless services and is expected to do so under the AT&T Wireless brand. AT&T has already lined up Sprint (FON Quote) as one of its wireless service wholesalers. AT&T is expected to seek similar wholesale partnerships with other telcos, including Cingular.