Telecom Eireann's 11,000 staff have seen the company's new identity, but change will not be introduced until September, writes Sean Mac Carthaigh.

The switch from Telecom Eireann to Eircom will cost around £6 million (€7.62 million).

The logo has already been registered with patents offices in the Republic and in Britain.

Telecom brought in a Dublin-based firm, The Identity Business, to develop the new look and feel. It set about creating a strong "master brand" covering around 15 subsidiary companies and logos, and more than 100 products and services.

In surveys outside Ireland, the company found little recognition of its name. In the US, for example, some of those polled believed Telecom Eireann was the state telephone service of Iran.

The new identity involves not just the change of name, but also the livery for advertising, letterheads, flags, telephone kiosks, vans, phonecards, Internet presence and a new typeface designed for the company.

"We are not implementing the new identity until September," a spokeswoman for Telecom Eireann said last night. "While we are in the process of communicating the new identity to the staff at the moment, we will not be launching publicly because of the restrictions that apply during an IPO [initial public offering/flotation] process. However, we will launch a major public campaign in September when Telecom Eireann officially becomes Eircom."

Eircell, considered to be a strong brand in its own right, will be unaffected by the identity change for its parent company.