Turkcell, Vodafone plan JV for broadband infrastructure

Mobile Internet users
Turkcell Superonline, Vodafone Turkey, TurkSAT and members of TELKODER (Telecommunication Operators Association) are planning a joint venture for future investments in the fixed broadband infrastructure of Turkey.

This initiative is open to all companies in Turkey. The strategy behind the joint venture is the optimal use of existing infrastructure, alongside maintaining the same for future investments to remove the need for duplicate infrastructure-building.

With better investment conditions and provision of broadband services, both the telecom sector and Turkish economy will be profited alongside ultrafast broadband penetration going up. Turkey, with a population of 79 million people, has 74 million subscribers in total.

Turkcell has been leading such moves in the fixed broadband sector investment with the current venture being announced by the company CEO in September last year, itself.

The alliance members constitute 55 percent of the Turkish telecommunications industry’s revenue.

“Our objective is to make sure that 21 million more households in Turkey reach a viable FTTH solution,” said Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of Turkcell.

The company previously revealed that an amount summing to $12.6 billion can be saved upon joint investment by the three major telecoms in the country.

Turkcell Superonline leads the ISP and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) market with 965,000 subscribers and offers 1 Gbps fiber internet speed. Turkcell Superonline, with 66.5 million subscribers in 9 countries, has 2.5 million fiber home passes and 39 percent take-up rate. It recently launched LTE services, with its LTE-Advanced and 3 carrier aggregation technologies spanning 81 cities currently.

Turkcell reported TRY 3.4 billion revenue in the quarter ending on June 30, 2016. The company also launched a couple of digital services, including BiP communication platform, downloaded in more than 180 countries with than 6 million users.

Turkcell expects 10 percent annual growth in Turkey in the next three years, with contribution to total revenue falling to 60 percent, owing to international acquisitions. Also, international sales will go up from 7 percent to 40 percent of the total revenue in 2016 with mobile operators face slowing growth in Turkey, at present.

The company plans investments on its operations in Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Georgia, in the near future, with the prelude to it being the major expansion of Telia Company AB, which owns 38 percent of Turkcell’s shares.

Vina Krishnan
[email protected]