Call it VoiceStream now and T-Mobile very soon

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VoiceStream Wireless, the Bellevue-based wireless subsidiary of German company Deutsche Telekom, plans to shed the VoiceStream name and become known as T-Mobile before the year's end.

"We're getting everyone under a global brand name and offering to become a trans-Atlantic provider," said Kim Thompson, spokeswoman for VoiceStream. "Our whole business proposition of 'Get more' (used in advertising) — that's not changing. In fact, the other (T-Mobile) properties are going to that strategy."

In changing its name, VoiceStream is following many U.S. wireless carriers that have done so to build an identity as a national or global wireless-services provider.

The joint venture between SBC Communications and Bell South markets its wireless services under the Cingular Wireless name. The name Verizon was born of the merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE in 2000, and the venture's various brands, plus AirTouch, became Verizon Wireless.

Nextel Communications and AT&T Wireless have begun building international brands; in Canada, AT&T Wireless' affiliate is Rogers AT&T and Nextel has a subsidiary called Nextel International.

The name change will affect the international subsidiaries of T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom that includes all of the parent's wireless holdings. In addition to Deutsche Telekom's German wireless operations, T-Mobile owns VoiceStream Wireless, U.K. wireless carrier One 2 One, max.mobile in Austria, RadioMobil in the Czech Republic and majority stakes in other Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia wireless carriers.

Deutsche Telekom is rebranding the companies to prepare for a public offering of T-Mobile shares later this year.

While VoiceStream rebranded all the companies it acquired in the U.S. — Ariel, Powertel and Ominpoint — with the VoiceStream name, this is the first time the company has undergone one itself.

Originally a part of rural wireless carrier Western Wireless, VoiceStream was spun out as an independent company in 1999. Its brand quickly became synonymous with actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who appears in most of the company's ad campaign. Curtis will remain advertising spokeswoman.

"If you want to have a global phone that works everywhere, you have to have a consistent brand," said Jeff Kagan, an industry analyst.

"Even if nobody in the U.S. might know what T-Mobile means yet, if they spend enough money promoting it, they will."

Separately, the company also said its purchase of MobileStar's assets was approved by bankruptcy court on Jan. 22.

MobileStar, based in Richardson, Texas, built and offered service over so-called Wi-Fi wireless networks in hotels, airports and Starbucks stores.

It filed for bankruptcy protection in November.

Sharon Pian Chan can be reached at 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com.