OCTOBER 20, 2006

Great news for Williams

The news that Williams has signed a title sponsorship with American telecommunications giant AT&T is great news for the team, which has been struggling through difficult times in recent months. The team will be known as AT&T WilliamsF1 and we believe there will be a brand new Williams logo as the team moves into a new era. The deal is believed to be worth around $50m a year.

AT&T is a highly prestigious partner for Williams, as a global leader in communications and one of the pioneers of communication for more than 100 years. AT&T has been involved in F1 since 2000 when it started out as a sponsor of Jaguar Racing. The company moved to McLaren at the start of 2005 but the team's deal with Vodafone meant that there was no room for AT&T and the Americans decided that Williams was the best available option for the future.

The history of AT&T stretches back to 1875, with founder Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone. During the 19th century, AT&T became the parent company of the Bell System, the American telephone monopoly. The Bell System provided what was by all accounts the best telephone service in the world. The system was broken up into eight companies in 1984 by the US government but AT&T has emerged as the strongest of the "Baby Bells" and is now in the process of expanding into new consumer services through voice over IP systems. The San Antonio, Texas-based giant, which employs 182,000 people is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.