Telkom has chosen a youthful engineer to lead its new mobile network, 8ta.

Amith Maharaj, just 36 years old, joined Telkom from Vodacom in 2008 to spearhead the traditionally fixed-line operator’s move into the mobile market.

Hiring a relative youngster to run the business may pay off for Telkom given that the operator wants to target the youth market with 8ta.

Maharaj was part of the team that launched Vodacom Business, now a fast-growing division for the mobile operator.

Maharaj was also intimately involved in Vodacom’s launch of mobile data services. During his nine-year career at Vodacom he held several management roles.

He also served on the board of Telkom’s Swiftnet (now FastNet), a transmission services company, as a nonexecutive director.

He began his telecoms career at Telkom. He joined the company in 1998 after completing an engineering degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has an MBA from the same institution.

“I have been working towards the launch of 8ta for two years. We worked hard and put a lot of effort into our plans to bring 8ta to the consumer,” he told TechCentral in an interview on Friday morning.

Maharaj says Telkom wants a fresh more youthful approach to the market in its mobile strategy. “I really feel that 8ta has a young and exciting feel,” he says. — Candice Jones, TechCentral