Some 1.5 million Turkish mobile phone subscribers have terminated their connections in 2001, the effect of a sharp economic downturn, the official Anatolia news agency quoted Turkish Transportation Minister Oktay Vural as stating.
Turkey’s three private cell phone operators— Turkcell, Telsim and Aria—and the state-owned Aycell raised prices and cut capital expenditures in a bid to offset their losses.
While subscriber uptake was substantially lower than in 2000, it remains strong considering the circumstances, and will likely rebound in 2002 and 2003, asserted a recent Pyramid Research report.
With a population of 65 million, Turkey is the fastest growing and one of the largest cellular markets in Europe. At the end of 2000, the fixed-line penetration was at 29 percent while mobile penetration was 24 percent. By the first half of 2001, the mobile subscriber base topped 18 million, 12 million of which were Turkcell customers, 6,4 million Telsim’s and the remaining Aria subscribers.
The Turkish parliament approved a tight national budget for the year 2002 in early December, in line with the country’s reform pledges to the IMF. Nearly half of the budget’s $67-billion expenditures will be directed to interest payments. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
