Type Anonim şirket Industry Telecommunications Parent organization Turkcell Holding AS | Traded as BİST: TCELLNYSE: TKC Area served Worldwide Founded 28 February 1994 | |
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Key people Ahmet Akça (Chairman)Kaan Terzioğlu (CEO) CEO Kaan Terzioğlu (1 Apr 2015–) Stock price TCELL (IST) TRY 12.10 0.00 (0.00%)24 Mar, 6:10 PM GMT+3 - Disclaimer Subsidiaries Kuzey Kıbrıs Turkcell, lifecell, life Belarus Founders Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, Murat Vargı Profiles | ||
Turkcell (BİST: TCELL, NYSE: TKC) is the leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, based in Istanbul. The company has 34.4 million subscribers as of September 30, 2011. In 2015, the company's number of subscribers climbed to 68.9 million, in nine countries
Contents
Three turkcell executives resign amid rising gov t interference in company
Company background
In February 1994, Turkcell started Turkey's first GSM network. In Q3 2012, it had a market share of 52,4%. Its competitors were Vodafone with a market share of 27,9% and Avea with a market share of 19,7%.
Turkcell is the first Turkish company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, where its shares have been traded since July 11, 2000 along with trading on the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
Turkcell's shareholder structure is as follows: 51% is held by Turkcell Holding A.Ş., 0.05% by Çukurova Holding A.Ş., 13.07% by Sonera Holding B.V., 1.18% by MV Holding A.Ş., and the free float is 34.7%. As of December 2011, Sonera Holding and Cukurova Group, directly and indirectly, own approximately 37.1% and 13.8%, respectively of Turkcell’s share capital. Çukurova Group agreed to sell a large stake to TeliaSonera in March 2005. They have since then been debating whether this agreement is binding. In August 2009 the International Chamber of Commerce issued an award stating that Çukurova must deliver all the remaining shares in Turkcell Holding to TeliaSonera.
Turkcell also provides GSM services internationally. It has 9.6 million subscribers via Fintur Holdings and its affiliates in partnership with TeliaSonera in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Moldova, as of September 30, 2007. Turkcell's Ukrainian wholly owned business Astelit has 13.6 million subscribers. In 2009 they were the first company to get 3G services for their customers in Turkey.
Coverage area
Turkcell provides coverage of an area that, as of March 31, 2007, includes 100% of the population living in cities of 3,000 or more people, 97.21% of the total population, and 80.44% of Turkey's land area. The company has a few blind spots, especially in mountainous areas in the Eastern region.
Northern Cyprus
Turkcell also operates overseas. Its Northern Cyprus brand is known as Kuzey Kıbrıs Turkcell (North Cyprus Turkcell) which operates in the Northern Cyprus only. KKTcell runs completely separately from Turkey's Turkcell, although the ownership of the network is the same. KKTcell is also the North's largest Network Provider at the moment, in terms of registered users and network coverage. KKTcell numbers can be distinguished from Mainland Turkey Turkcell numbers easily, as KKTcell numbers begin with 90 (533) 8XX-XXXX.
Roaming
Turkcell has international roaming agreements with 605 operators in 201 countries as of September, 2008. It claims to have more international GPRS roaming agreements than any other operator (356 operators in 143 countries as of August 31, 2008). It also applies discounted roaming costs when calling from a Turkcell mobile to a KKTurkcell number.
Sponsorship
Turkcell has been the "Official Communication Sponsor" of the national football and basketball teams since 2002. It also sponsors 14 of the 18 football teams in the Turkish Super League. The "Turkcell Football Awards" project was initiated in 2003 to encourage "fair play" by awarding athletes who show fairness, impartiality, and solidarity.
Turkcell also sponsors the Istanbul International Film Festival and co-sponsors the Istanbul International Jazz Festival. Since 1999, Turkcell has supported the restoration of the ancient city walls in Bodrum. The last phase of the project, the restoration of an ancient theater, was completed in June 2003.
Turkcell has also continued to sponsor the CeBIT Bilişim Eurasia event, one of the major information technology fairs in Europe, for the tenth time in 2007.
Turkcell's main educational project, "Modern Girls of Modern Turkey", which started in 2000, grants scholarships to 5,000 young women in less developed parts of the country. The project received international recognition in June 2001, when it won the UK "Institute of Public Relations Excellence Award" and the "Crystal Obelisk Award" from the Foundation of Women Executives in Public Relations in New York City in 2002.
MTN Group court case
In May 2013, Turkcell dropped its multibillion-dollar US lawsuit against MTN Group, citing a US Supreme Court ruling that hurt its case. The operator filed a $4.2 billion lawsuit in Washington in 2012 alleging the company used bribery to win a mobile license in Iran that was first awarded to Turkcell. The court delayed the case in October 2012 pending a US Supreme Court decision on the Alien Tort Statute, the U.S. human rights law on which Turkcell's suit is based.