BRITISH TELECOM has appointed Ray Smith as its regional director for the North-East.

Mr Smith, 46, a married father of two, has been with the company for 14 years, and is currently managing director of the commercial division of BT retail.

As regional director for the North-East he will head a forum of senior managers to deliver a regional focus for the company, and support the region's aims for economic growth.

He said: "Together with colleagues at BT, I will be engaging with key regional players including the regional development agency One NorthEast, the North-East Regional Assembly, local authorities, business and community organsiations to support and accelerate the development of the knowledge economy.

"We want to see the region make the most of the opportunities for growth through the use of communications technology, and I believe BT can be a catalyst for such growth."

Mr Smith joined BT in 1987 as head of residential calls and line marketing, before going on to manage BT's Public Switched Telephony from 1988 to 1992. He was chief operating officer at BTCellnet from 1996 to 1999.

Mr Smith, born and brought up on Teesside, was marketing and product manager with CPC (UK) Ltd, owners of Knorr and Hellmans Foods before joining BT, .

His appointment comes as BT is considering whether to call time on its mobile phone brand BT Cellnet.

It is considering the move in line with plans to rename its BT Wireless mobile phone business.

BT is spinning off the business, which contains BT Cellnet and its German, Dutch and Irish mobile phone subsidiaries, later this year, to cut billions from its debt.

A spokesman said it was likely the rebranding process would simply see the BT Wireless brand scrapped in favour of a new badge.

BT Cellnet is the UK's second largest mobile phone company, ahead of Orange but trailing Vodafone, and claims to have 11.2 million subscribers.