Veteran networking and communications technologist C.S. Rao has joined India’s number two telecom operator Reliance Communications to head its Corporate affairs and regulatory divisions.

The Hindu BusinessLine reports, that he has also been elected President of the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India ( AUSPI), the industry body representing CDMA and dual technology players, like Reliance, Tata Telecom. MTS and HFCL.

Rao has been the public face of WiMAX in India, since 2008, when he became the (honorary) Chairman of the industry-led, not-for-profit WiMAX Forum in India even while he was Managing Director of the WiMAX Programme at Intel for India, South Asia and Middle East. The Forum has aggressively promoted WiMAX as the broadband wireless technology of the future for India – particularly against the background of the recent auction of BWA spectrum. Shyam Kausal, regional director, India, Wimax Forum, has been reported saying Rao will continue to work for the Forum since this is an honorary post. He has however left Intel.

A B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Madras, Rao has been Managing Director of Tellabs India for a decade ( 1994- 2004), President and CEO of Lucent India ( 2004-06) and CEO-Chairman of the US-based Quadgen Wireless Solutions ( 2007)
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Sep 26 2010