Mumbai: The mega-merger of three leading cellular telecom companies - Birla, AT&T and Tata Cellular - has been formally completed and the new merged entity has been named Birla Tata AT&T Ltd.

The change is effective 1 January 2001, and the existing companies will adopt the new company name. The new merged entity plans to put in place a new brand, which will be publicly disclosed sometime next year.

The unveiling of the new brand will be at the same time when the company will begin its cellular services in the New Delhi circle, where it has bagged the fourth operator license. Currently, all the three companies, being separate legal entities, operate under separate brands.

Thus Tata Cellular operates its services in Andhra Pradesh under the Tata brand. In Maharashtra, excluding Mumbai and in Goa, cellular services are being sold under the AT&T brand. In Gujarat, the cellforce brand is used, while in Madhya Pradesh the RPG brand name is being used.

In December 2000, the proposed merged entity acquired a 100-per cent stake in RPG Cellcom for Rs 400 crore, a 51:49 venture between the RPG Group and Vodafone, a UK-based telecom major. The combine first acquired a 51-per cent stake held by the RPG Group before acquiring the remaining 49-per cent stake held by the UK company.