For 2021, FierceWireless has compiled a young and accomplished slate of up-and-coming wireless executives. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. These are all folks to keep an eye on as they make a mark in wireless, working in diverse areas of telecommunications.
Ahmed Abdelaziz wasn’t sure he wanted to work in the wireless industry until he watched a video about LTE and how it was going to help connect the world.
“I thought that was very cool because I knew there were so many people around the world without a connection,” he said.
As the head of customer experience operations at Rakuten Mobile Abdelaziz works with his team to provide the bridge between the network operations team and the customer experience team to make sure that Rakuten customers get the highest level of service. “We bridge the gap with how the customer handles the network and how the network provides the best service to the customer,” he said.
This can be a tough job, especially when customers aren’t happy with the network. Abdelaziz said that often these issues can be resolved when the customer understands why it is happening, such as there is an outage or another issue that is being resolved. “Transparency allows the customer to feel like they are part of the network team and can rely on them to solve issues,” he said.
Related: Rakuten Mobile shows high-speed processing in 5G core trial with NEC, Intel
In his tenure at Rakuten, Abdelaziz has learned a lot about how to navigate job challenges by watching other Rakuten leaders such as Tareq Amin, Rakuten’s Group CTO. “Leaders like Tareq help me because I watch them and see how they strategize and work,” he said.
But Abdelaziz is also looking to the future and that’s why he is involved in the company’s autonomous network vision. He and his team are also working on using artificial intelligence and automation to improve customer service and create a more predictable experience.
Although Abdelaziz works long hours, he still finds time to have fun. He and his wife are avid salsa dancers and have been dancing for 15 years.