Telefonica on Thursday named Rene Schuster, the former Vodafone manager as the head of its German operations, starting June this year.

Schuster, who comes with an extensive experience in the field of telecom and IT, has served leading positions at leading international companies like- Vodafone, Compaq and Hewlett Packard.

Meanwhile, the company’s CEO Jamie Smith has been called back to the parent company in Madrid to helm the alliances with Telecom Italia or China Unicom.

Smith took on the position in June 2007, succeeding Rudi Groeger and is responsible for the transformation of the company’s Czech business.

O2, the smallest of the four mobile operations in the country, competes with other dominant players- Deutsche Telekom''s T-Mobile and Vodafone.