State-run PTT starts up ‘cheap’ operator

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım addresses the audience at an Ankara press meeting to launch PTTCell, the fourth mobile phone operator in the country. AA photo

PTTcell, Turkey’s fourth mobile operator, founded by the General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT), has been established, claiming to provide cheaper service.

The new operator will be the cheapest in Turkey, the general director of PTT, Osman Tural, said yesterday during a publicity meeting. “PTT has tossed its hat into the ring in this business with 4,500 PTT points at which citizens can benefit from this mobile service. One of PTT’s ‘T’s’ - referring to ‘telephone’ - was lost in 1995 with the name change, but now we are bringing the telephone back to the PTT structure with the introduction of this system,” Tural said.

Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım lauded the service and said the scope of the network would be expanded to cover the rural areas of the country within two years. 
He said the project was not for-profit, but rather was a public service project that was initiated through the Universal Service Fund.

Avea, the mobile operator also run by state, is the provider of technical infrastructure and the mobile network for the new server.

The operator eyes reaching 1.5 million subscribers in the first year, multiplying to 5
million by the end of the second year.