Top rival losing blood, claims Avea executive

ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s largest mobile operator has lost nearly 1 million users, says Kanafani (R). Company photo

Avea, the mobile unit of Turkey’s biggest phone operator Türk Telekom, claimed Turkey’s biggest and first mobile phone operator Turkcell lost nearly 1 million users last year, according to the top executive of Avea yesterday.

“They are losing blood,” said Erkan Akdemir, the chief executive of Avea, at a press meeting in Istanbul.
He claimed Turkey’s biggest mobile operator lost 961,000 users last year while Vodafone and Avea gained 335,000 and 626,000 new users respectively. Akdemir said the firm’s revenues in data transfers rose to 220 million Turkish Liras last year from 89 million liras the previous year.

“Nearly 40 percent of the revenue increase of the Türk Telekom comes from Avea,” said Hakam Kanafani, chief executive of Türk Telekom Group.

Akdemir said the total income of Avea rose by 16 percent to 3.81 billion liras last year, noting the firm made 800 million liras of investment in 2011.