Esat Digifone has changed its name to Digifone to show the company is no longer part of the Esat Group.
The announcement comes on the same day that Digifone's owner British Telecom rebrands its entire wireless division under the name O2.
Digifone chief executive Danuta Grey said that from the beginning of 2002 the group would consider the change from Digifone to O2, but said there was no firm date for the change. She said that the end of 2002 was a 'reasonable time line' within which to complete the move to the new global identity.
Digifone, which has almost 1,000 employees in Ireland, and which BT bought last year for $2.5bn, was formerly known as Esat Digifone.
Danuta Grey said that there would be no job losses from the integration into BT Wireless, although some Digifone employees would become more involved in international projects.
The new Digifone logo will commence its roll out from the end of September, and has been created by the Irish design agency, Neworld Design.
Derek Handley, Digifone's marketing director said: 'The change of name is a great help in ending the confusion many people had between Digifone and other Esat companies.'
BT Wireless, now known as O2, is the mobile division of BT Plc, which will be demerged from its parent later this year.
The holding company name will be changed to mmO2 Plc, effective immediately, and on demerger from BT the ordinary shares will be listed under this name, BT Wireless said.
The companies in the mmO2 group - Digifone, BT Cellnet, Viag Interkom, Telfort, Manx Telecom and Genie - will ultimately share the common brand name O2.
