“Having Strong Rivals Has Been To Our Advantage”

Avea, which has kept its prices 30 percent lower than its rivals, is the operator which has profited the most from the ability to transfer numbers. It has gained 2,280,000 new subscribers and ranks first in the race to capture customers. Avea General Manager Cüneyt Türktan says that they will continue to grow this year. He says that they are targeting a rise of 20 percent in revenue and an increase of 15 percent in the number of subscribers. Türktan explained their growth plans to Capital.

- What kind of year was as 2008 for you? Did you complete your investments?
The first part of the year was good, the second half was difficult because of the global crisis. We achieved our growth target of 24.2 percent in terms of turnover. The total number of our subscribers reached 12,200,000. An important point is that we were the first in the sector with 2,280,000 new subscribers last year. We invested TL 465 million. This investment resulted in an increase in our market share of 2.3 percent. We reached 18.5 percent.

- How much investment are you planning this year?
In the last four years we have made investments of US$1.2 billion. This year in particular we are making investments of TL 450-600 million. In addition to strengthening and extending our existing investments, we shall investing in establishing 3G infrastructure in major cities.

- You are expecting to grow by 20 percent in real terms in 2009. Have there been any revisions to this expectation?
We have not revised our targets. The plans and budgets from October are still valid. We are expecting growth in revenue of 20 percent. We think that the growth in the number of our subscribers will be at least 15 percent.

- How many percentage points increase are you expecting in your market share this year?
When we look at the first month then we are leading in terms in the transfer of numbers. If we continue at this pace, we shall be able to increase our market share by a few points. Why shouldn’t we increase our market share to over 20 percent?

- Turkcell General Manager Süreyya Ciliv said that he had been unable to work out how you will make a profit on your unlimited calls anywhere for TL 55. Are you pursuing a policy of sacrificing profitability in order to gain more subscribers?
So why did they then introduce a similar tariff? In addition, every country now has tariffs with unlimited calls anywhere. If it would have caused us a loss we wouldn’t have done it. This TL 55 tariff is genuinely profitable in its own right. There are things which need to be managed in the meantime, because there are abuses and uses for commercial purposes. In the past, there may be hitches but in the end this tariff will generate profits for Avea.

Nilüfer Gözütok
[email protected]
Photo: Gökhan Çelebi