[gazzae]

We are changing our service's name in the UK. Starting October 19, 2005, all new accounts will have @googlemail.com addresses. Don't worry, though †“ all messages are being sent and delivered as before

4. What if I'm a UK user who already has a Gmail address? Will that address ever change?
Unfortunately, we don't know. We would love to say that your address will always remain the same. But the trademark issue is still unsettled, and unfortunately, we cannot predict what the other party or the courts might do here. You can always use your same username with an @googlemail.com address to avoid this issue later on. But trust that we will do the best we can to make sure your email address won't ever have to change.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/int...ooglemail.html