Turkish Network Nears Milestone

Turkey's Turkcell has announced that its subscriber base climbed to 19.0 million as of December 31, 2003 from 15.7 million as of December 31, 2002, an increase of 21%.

In the last quarter of 2003, Turkcell's net new subscribers amounted to 810,801, raising its total number of mobile subscribers to 19.0 million as of December 31, 2003 from 18.2 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter. Postpaid subscribers increased to 4.8 million and the number of prepaid subscribers reached 14.2 million, a 6% quarter-on-quarter rise. New gross subscribers acquired in 2003 consisted of 91% prepaid and 9% postpaid subscribers.

Mr. Muzaffer Akpinar, CEO, noted that Turkcell's emphasis on customer relationship management and churn prevention efforts, together with improved consumer sentiment, fueled the Company's subscriber growth in 2003. Although the improvement in Turkcell's subscriber base is moderate in comparison to the previous year's growth of 29%, in line with macroeconomic developments in Turkey, the expansion of Turkcell's subscriber base in 2003 exceeded expectations, Mr. Akpinar added."

Posted to the site on 21st January 2004