British Telecom began the demerger of mobile division BT Wireless today by rebranding it O2 and appointing a chief executive to turn around its German mobile operation.
The listed company name BT Wireless will change to mmO2 Plc immediately, and divisions Cellnet in Britain, Viag Interkom in Germany, Telfort in The Netherlands and Digifone in Ireland will adopt the O2 brand from spring next year.
BT also looks likely to spin off the company in November with debt below the upper end of the range it had announced of zero to £2 billion.
The rebranding under the chemical symbol for oxygen is the first step in the separation of Europe's sixth-largest mobile group from BT's fixed-line business.
Viag Interkom is also getting a new chief executive - Mr Rudolf Groeger. Rival Deutsche Telekom said Mr Groeger was stepping down as head of its information technology services unit to take on the job of turning around Germany's smallest mobile operator.
The precise date of the demerger will also be announced on Wednesday. BT Wireless chief executive Mr Peter Erskine said November 19th was certainly one of the dates pencilled in.
He said the O2 brand was modern and universal and symbolises commitment. BT said the mm in the group name did not stand for anything specific but could be taken to mean multimedia or 2000.
Vodafone, which owns Eircell, and Deutsche Telekom's TMobile are also rebranding subsidiaries to establish strong corporate identities as they line up to compete in the market for third-generation services.