AT&T has placed in review its media planning and buying account as it seeks to consolidate media chores, now handled by five agencies, at one of them.

The decision had been expected after AT&T acquired Bell South and with it the rest of Cingular Wireless that AT&T had not already owned. The acquisition brought several agencies onto the AT&T roster in addition to those the company had already been working with.

The combined advertising spending last year for AT&T, Bell South and Cingular was estimated by Advertising Age at more than $3.3 billion. The company has said, however, that part of the savings it anticipates after the acquisition would come from advertising and marketing. For instance, the Cingular brand was discontinued in favor of the AT&T brand for wireless products and services.

AT&T said in a statement today that it would limit the review to the five incumbent media agencies. The company抯 creative assignments are not part of the review.

The incumbent media agencies are Digitas; GSD&M, part of the Omnicom Group; Initiative, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies; Mediaedge:cia, owned by the WPP Group; and OMD, also owned by Omnicom.

A decision in the review is expected by the end of the year, AT&T said. Media planning involves deciding where advertisements will appear, while media buying, as the term indicates, involves negotiating prices and rates for those ads.