The change will be consistent with US stores which underwent the name change on Monday November 15, according to Carmen Forsman, head of head of business development at AT&T Wireless.

"The AT&T licence is now a Cingular licence," she told the Business Observer yesterday, from her US office.  Cingular, the US-based corporation officially acquired AT&T Wireless last month for US$41 billion making it the largest cell phone company in the US with over 46 million subscribers.

AT&T Wireless paid the Jamaican government US$6 million for its cell licence earlier this year, saying that its approach for entry into the local market will be as a provider of roaming service to its American customers who visit the island as tourists.  It will later venture into service to Jamaicans.

Forsman told this newspaper that AT&T/Cingular would still press ahead with its planned J$1-billion investment in the island as "nothing has changed with the acquisition" except for the name.

The company is yet to erect a single cell tower in Jamaica, but Forsman says that it will be operational before mid-2005.  This is because "the land is already secured in the north for the sites".

Additionally she said that the company "is still in the process of acquiring its microwave frequency and its duty-free concessions from the [Jamaican] government".

Jamaica is one of several Caribbean islands in which AT&T acquired licence to operate, and in which the name will be converted to Cingular.  The others include, Curacao, St Kitts, Anguilla, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St Martin and St Bart's.

Cingular is now acquiring licences to operate in Trinidad & Tobago and Turks and Caicos, according to the Associated Press.

Cingular currently operates in Antigua, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent.

Cingular is a joint venture between BellSouth Corp and SBC Communications Inc.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20041116T190000-0500_69697_OBS_AT_T_TO_BEGIN_JA_CELL_SERVICE_IN_MARCH_UNDER_CINGULAR_NAME.asp