Turkcell Picks Up Turkey's Only 3G License

Turkey's Turkcell has won, what has become the country's sole 3G license after other bidders withdrew from a televised auction. The company is paying US$440 million for the license, although that rises to about US$510 once you include taxes. The auction was due to have occurred earlier this year but was delayed for unspecified reasons, although that was widely believed to be due to the political difficulties pending the snap election held a couple of weeks ago.

Four licenses were available, but the other two incumbent operators chose not to bid - neither did France Telecom's Orange which had been widely tipped to be planning a bid. Vodafone (formerly Telsim) and Avea, the incumbent operators had opposed the 3G license auction occurring at all until the country had introduced mobile number portability (MNP), claiming that the license award would further entrench Turkcell's dominant position in the market.

"We want to spread this very important, very high-speed technology to the whole of Turkey in the quickest way possible," Turkcell CEO Sureyya Ciliv commented after the auction.

The government will be doubtless disappointed with the results, as it had hoped to raise upwards of US$2 billion from the auction.

Turkcell dominates the local market, controlling some 60% of customer base according to figures from the Mobile World analysts. Vodafone is second with 26% and Avea trails with just 14%. The country has nearly 54 million mobile phone users, which represents a market penetration level of 76%.

Posted to the site on 7th September 2007