ISTANBUL - One of the GSM operators in Turkey, Turkcell, has earned net profit of 1.8 billion Turkish liras (TL) (approx. 1.1 billion USD) in 2010, the company announced on Thursday.
Turkcell had earned net profit of 1.7 billion TL (approx. 1 billion USD) in 2009.
Speaking at a press conference on Turkcell’s operations in 2010, the company’s Director General Sureyya Ciliv said Turkcell had invested 18 billion TL in infrastructure in the last 17 years.
Ciliv noted that the number of Turkcell users had reached 33.5 million as of the end of 2010, moreover, the company’s average revenue per user had increased to 19.5 TL in 2010.
"We have made a 1.3 billion TL investment in the mobile communication infrastructure of Turkcell and Superonline in 2010. Our 3G coverage area has also increased to 82 percent thanks to our growing fiber backbone," he said.
Regarding Turkcell’s growth expectations for 2011, Ciliv said, "We estimate a 7-9 percent growth in 2011. We expect the growth in mobile internet to exceed 70 percent just like 2010".
Commenting on the latest developments in the Middle East as well, Ciliv said, "I believe new operators in numerous countries may be put on sale again due to the developments in the region. We will be assessing such opportunity".
During the press conference, the 17th anniversary of the first mobile phone conversation in Turkey was also celebrated.
"Turkcell has invested 18 billion TL in the infrastructure in the last 17 years. The population coverage area has reached 99.7 percent. We have 11,000 employees and we have created employment opportunities for 50,000 people thanks to our eco-system," Ciliv said.
Ciliv also noted that Turkcell users had talked on their mobile phones for 282 billion minutes, sent 220 million SMS and 525 million MMS messages, downloaded 25 million mobile applications and created a mobile data traffic of nearly 15 billion megabytes in the last 17 years.