Wireless Federation

Aveo confirms that it will compete in the tender for Turkish 3G. Earlier the tender lacks competition where dominant operator Turkcell was the only applicant to submit a bid. Telsim, begs second position in terms of mobile subscribers and Avea, were gloomy of their chances of competing effectively in the Turkish 3G market, arguing that holding the tender before the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) unfairly benefited the market leader. The date for introducing MNP has since been brought forward to 13 November that will hopefully paved the for a fully competitive 3G auction.

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Turk Telekom, Turkey, has posted it’s Q2 earnings, wherein, its revenues and profit went up. Revenues rose to TRY 2.55 billion, in comparison to TRY 2.33 billion last year.

Operating profit rose to TRY 684.63 million, from TRY 664.75 million, while pretax profit totalled TRY 794.67 million from TRY 743.91 million. Net profit was TRY 638.56 million, compared with TRY 586.08 million last year. GSM revenues reached TRY 534.79 million, up from TRY 407.41 million. The mobile unit Avea added around half a million subscribers during the second quarter, for a total 11.0 million at the end of June. Turk Telekom said Avea’s market share rose to 17.2 percent from 15.4 a year ago. Mobile ARPU edged shooted upto TRY 16.0 from TRY 15.7 in Q1.

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Turk Telekom has announced it’s bidding in a tender to buy a 78% stake in Kyrgyztelecom after the completion of technical studies on the tender.
It was last month that Kyrgyzstan had planned to sell $45 million worth of stake.
According to Turk Telekom Chief Executive Paul Doany, “Turk Telekom completed technical studies yesterday for the Kyrgyz telecom tender, and it will bid”.

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According to a media report, Telecommunications Board Chairman Tayfun Acarer has said that Turkey is likely to award licences to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) before November. There are about 10 companies who have shown their interests in the licenses revealed Acarer. The number portability will come into effect in Turkey on 9 November, while Turk Telekom’s monopoly on short distance fixed lined services would be opened to competition within the next six months, Acarer added.

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Turkcell has reported a net profit of USD426.4 million at the end of Q2, showing a 56% rise. Revenues rose 16.7% to USD1.76 billion, while EBITDA rose 7.4% to USD641 million. Its subscribers base grew by 4.7% to 35.4 million, of which 6.9 million were post-paid. ARPU increased by 5.7% from a year earlier to USD14.9, while pre-paid ARPU grew by 8% to USD9.5.

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Turk Telecom, Turkish fixed line operator said that it is considering participation in a tender for the block sale of the national telecom operator of Kyrgystan, Kyrgyztelecom, as reported by Ihlas News Agency (IHA).

In June 2008, the Kyrgyzstan government said it was planning to sell a 78% stake of Kyrgyztelecom for a minimum amount of $45 million. In 2004, Germany’s Detecon won a tender for the stake with a bid of $16.2 million. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament subsequently canceled the deal, saying the price was too low.

Please note here that in 2005, Dubai-based Oger Telecom purchased a 55% stake of Turk Telekom for $6.55 billion in a privatization tender. In May, the government listed a further 15% stake in Turk Telekom on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, cutting its stake to 30%.

Turkish mobile operator Turkcell has chosen clearinghouse and directory services provider NeuStar to launch the Windows Live Messenger mobile instant messaging service to its over 35.1 million mobile subscribers.

Turkcell has been providing its own-community mobile IM service called Turkcell Messenger, powered by NeuStar’s Instant Messaging Service Centre. Now it will use NeuStar’s Mobile Messaging Gateway service to bring Windows Live Messenger to its subscribers.

Customers will be able to login, get instant access to their buddy lists and presence information, and access the functionality of Windows Live Messenger directly on their mobile phones.

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NeuStar, Inc.  today announced that it has partnered with Turkcell, the third largest mobile network operator in Europe, to launch the Windows Live Messenger mobile instant messaging (IM) service to Turkcell’s 35.1 million mobile subscribers.
A longtime NeuStar customer, Turkcell is now using NeuStar’s powerful Mobile Messaging Gateway (MMG) solution to bring Windows Live Messenger to its subscribers. Turkcell has been and will continue to offer its own-community mobile IM service (Turkcell Messenger), which is powered by NeuStar’s Instant Messaging Service Centre (IMSC).

With a simple login function and instant access to their buddy lists and presence information, Turkcell subscribers will be able to experience all the functionality of Windows Live Messenger on their mobile phones. The same familiar experience is available whether they are sitting at a PC or using their mobiles.

Burak Ertas, head of the Consumer Services Division at Turkcell, said: “At Turkcell, we like to bring the widest choice of services to our subscribers. Our business relationship with NeuStar has enabled us to offer two complementary mobile IM services. NeuStar built a close working relationship with our team from day one, and that has helped to shape our service. We are delighted to have partnered with NeuStar again to launch Windows Live Messenger, which gives our users further mobile IM choices.”

Allen Scott, general manager of NeuStar NGM, added: “Turkcell’s customers have roundly embraced the new opportunities for communication that IM brings to the mobile phone. Having worked on the original Turkcell Messenger service, NeuStar is pleased to have been responsible for the deployment of Windows Live Messenger, giving Turkcell’s subscribers further choice. As Turkcell strengthens its position as Turkey’s leading mobile communications provider and continues to innovate in this field, we have no doubts that mobile IM will prove to be increasingly important for them.”

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TeliaSonera posted a 12% increase in first-quarter net profit, driven by higher sales and strong contributions from its operations in Russia and Turkey, an Associated Press report said.

Net profit rose to 4.47 billion kronor (480 million euro; $752 million), from 3.98 billion kronor a year ago, beating analysts’ expectations of 4.08 billion kronor (euro438 million; $686 million), the report said.

Sales in the quarter rose 7% to 24.4 billion kronor (euro2.62 billion; $4.10 billion), from 22.72 billion kronor, topping expectations of 23.97 billion kronor (euro2.57 billion; $4.03 billion).

The Stockholm-based company reiterated previous guidance that net sales are expected to show stable growth in the financial year 2008 from the previous year, the report said.

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Turkey’s leading mobile phone operator Turkcell TCELL.IS said on Friday it has decided to bid for state-owned Belarussian mobile operator BeST as it seeks to expand its reach in the region.

“Our company has decided to begin works to make a bid to shareholders to buy a majority stake in Belarussian Telecommunication Network (BeST),” Turkcell said in a statement.

Last year Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said the government was ready to cede control of BeST for around $500 million.

In October, Belarus agreed to sell control of the country’s No. 2 mobile phone operator MDC, operating under the Velcom brand, to Telekom Austria for $1 billion.

Turkcell’s major shareholders are Nordic telecommunications company TeliaSonera AB, Russian private equity firm Altimo and unlisted Turkish conglomerate Cukurova.

Turkcell already has interests in mobile phone operations in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia and has repeatedly said it wants to expand in the regions around Turkey.

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