Mallik Rao, who is widely seen a tech visionary, has gained more responsibilities as his CTIO tenure is extended for another four years
The Supervisory Board of Telefónica Deutschland Holding has extended CTIO Mallik Rao’s tenure as by four years and expanded his responsibilities. He will now oversee the German operator’s B2B or enterprise division as well as a proposed unit to combine data platforms and centralised AI activities.
Rao (picture above courtesy of O2 Telefónica) became a member of the company’s Management Board as Chief Technology & Information Officer in October 2019. He has already been involved in some B2B services as part of running the Technology division, including private 5G networks and SD-WAN.
O2 Telefónica, Telefónica Deutschland’s brand name in Germany, has more than 45 million mobile customers and nearly 2.5 million fixed broadband subscribers, and generates annual revenues of around €8.2 billion.
Trailblazer
Rao has earned a reputation for innovation and as a technology trailblazer. For example, O2 Telefónica was the first established operator to move subscribers to a public-cloud based network, In May it started by moving 1 million 5G customers onto AWS’ cloud.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that Rao’s tenure was extended before it expired. It was due to finish at the end of 2025 but now will run to 4 November 2028. He has a new job title, Chief Technology & Enterprise Officer and his new duties begin immediately.
Rao said in a statement, translated from German, “I am looking forward to continuing the successful development of O2 Telefónica’s business customer division together with our powerful team and further expanding its digital solution offering for companies.
“With our combined expertise in technology, business customer services and sales as well as data and AI, we want to be the best contact for small, medium and large companies when it comes to digital communication and state-of-the-art connectivity solutions.”
Tough gig
Responsibility for the B2B side of the business might be seen as a dubious honour, given the struggles some other operators are having with their corresponding divisions. For example, in the first half of this financial year, BT Business’ revenue is down 5.7% to £3.9 billion compared with the same period in 2023 and continues an established trajectory.
Likewise, Orange Business gained a new CEO in 2022 to turn the division around in after several quarters’ poor performance. In September 2024, Orange Business reported that in the previous quarter, revenues fell by 2.6% or €50 million.
Markus Haas, CEO, O2 Telefónica, commented, “I am very pleased that Mallik Rao will take over responsibility for all three areas as Chief Technology & Enterprise Officer. He has shown how he and his team have made a significant contribution to the growth of our company with their performance in the technology division.
“I am very confident that Mallik Rao will also unlock the full potential of the business customer division as well as the data platforms and central AI activities for our company.”
New division
The data platforms and centralised AI tools unit is being created to expand the technologies’ use within the operator. O2 Telefónica (the German operations’ brand name) already uses more than 50 AI applications which it says has delivered additional value in “triple-digit millions [of euros] per year” from more efficient and faster processes.
Haas added, “In our increasingly digitalized world, the demands on digital products and services are constantly growing and digital projects, especially for business customers, are becoming more complex. It is therefore a logical conclusion to bring our technology division closer to the business customer division and to our expertise in data and artificial intelligence.
Previously Rao held senior management positions at the Indian mobile provider Aircel and was CTIO at Vodafone Netherlands and Vodafone Turkey, after working for TATA Telecom.