Ericsson has appointed Randeep Raina as head of its Customer Unit Vodafone Idea (Vi), a role that puts him in charge of Ericsson’s engagement with one of India’s key telecom operators. Raina will be based in Mumbai, report to Andres Vicente, CEO of Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, and join the regional leadership team. He succeeds Krishna Patil, who has been named executive advisor to Vicente.
Andres Vicente, CEO of Market Area Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, says ” It’s a pleasure to welcome Randeep on board as we collaborate with Vi to build a future ready network and accelerate its digital transformation journey. With his extensive leadership experience, strategic vision and customer-first mindset, I am confident Randeep will play a pivotal role in further deepening our partnership with Vi and support its network evolution ambitions.”
Randeep Raina will lead its engagement with Vi and work with the operator on network evolution and next-generation connectivity solutions.
Who is Randeep Raina
Raina brings more than 27 years of experience across technology, sales, strategy and business development. Before joining Ericsson, he was Head of Telco and Strategic Relations at Google India. He also previously served as Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Nokia Networks India, giving him experience on both the operator-facing and vendor-side sides of the telecom business.
That background is relevant to the Vodafone Idea account. India’s telecom market has been under pressure from heavy network investment, intense competition and a rapid shift toward 5G-era services. Ericsson is betting that a leader with experience across Google India and Nokia Networks India can help it manage both the commercial relationship and the technology roadmap more closely.
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Ericsson linked the appointment to its ongoing work with Vodafone Idea. The company said Ericsson and Vi have a long-standing strategic partnership focused on digital connectivity, and that Vi recently expanded the relationship by selecting Ericsson’s cloud-native Charging solution for postpaid services. The two companies continue to strengthen Vi’s 4G and 5G coverage through network augmentation, capacity expansion and AI-driven operations.
Ericsson said Randeep Raina will lead the company’s engagement with Vi, support network evolution and accelerate the delivery of next-generation connectivity solutions.
For telecom vendors, customer-unit heads are not just account managers in the narrow sense. They usually coordinate the vendor’s engineering, commercial and services teams around one operator customer. In this case, the account is Vodafone Idea, one of India’s most closely watched telecom relationships because of the operator’s ongoing push to modernize its network and expand 5G.
