Having entered the role in September, Rahman is responsible for consolidation and optimisation of wholesale business across Axiata’s footprint in Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & Cambodia.
With approximately 24 years’ experience in the industry, Rahman has held a range of roles across the telecoms space. He most recently served as the Group Head for Wholesale and International at Ooredoo Group.
Prior to his he had also held the roles of chief commercial officer and Head of Strategy for Ooredoo Global Services, the Wholesale division of Ooredoo Group. In addition, Rahman has held senior roles at Cable and Wireless Group UK, Cable & Wireless Caribbean & Americas and various Orascom Telecom Group Operating Companies (now Veon).
Speaking exclusively to Capacity, Rahman shared his vision for the Axiata’s wholesale division, saying: “Axiata has set up a business unit within the group called Axiata Wholesale, primarily to drive synergies internally but also to position Axiata as a key regional wholesale player going forward, which is where I come in.”
On his plans for the roadmap for this new unit, he said:
“We have a pretty comprehensive regional portfolio across six markets: Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & Cambodia. My strategy is to bring in some intergroup synergies be it on roaming or voice products etc.and there is a big piece of work that can be done regionally and beyond.”
“Once we’re done with this, then we intend on positioning ourselves as a regional wholesale player, not just taking care of our own needs but also on the reseller side of things particularly in data and capacity space. We have the needed presence in these key markets and we can take advantage of that.”
Other than this, Rahman has his eyes firmly set on the opportunities of data and capacity side of things rather than legacy business and is assessing the impact and opportunities caused by Covid-19.
