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Turkey - Market Intelligence Report
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Market Intelligence Reports provide an invaluable mix of vital market data and background information, including telecoms regulation. Although Turkey's incumbent state-owned telecommunications operator Türk Telekomünikasyon AS (Türk Telekom) had its monopoly on domestic and international voice telephony and network services removed at the end of 2003, very few alternative operators have been able to make headway in the market, largely due to a general reluctance on the part of Telekom to sign interconnection agreements with competitors and to open its network to new players, as well as a seeming inability for the national regulator, the Telecommunications Authority (TA) to put important new legislation into effect that will assist new players in competing with the incumbent. After more than a decade of discussion and political prevarication, Türk Telekom was finally privatised in the summer of 2005, with its new owners (a group led by Saudi Oger, backed up by Telecom Italia) taking control of the company in November that year. The new owners have put an increased emphasis on the development of the nascent broadband network, increasing the reach of digital subscriber line (DSL) services to a large number of Turkish cities and serving 2.8 million customers by the end of 2006. The company has also bought Telecom Italia's stake in cellular operator, Avea, taking its ownership to 81% and clarifying the third-placed operator's future direction (although Avea has some way to go before it can match second-placed Vodafone Turkey and seemingly will never draw close to the market leader, Turkcell). At the time of writing, there were 45 companies licensed to provide long-distance telephony services, most of which appear to be targeting the large business and corporate sectors of the market. In addition, the first three operators charged with competing with Telekom in the fixed-line infrastructure market (including local services) were only licensed in March 2006; tellingly, one of these is a subsidiary of Turkcell, indicating that the market-leading cellular operator also has hopes of exploiting the fixed-line field. At least nine more fixed-line infrastructure operators have been licensed in the intervening period. At the time of writing, the regulator is (still) working to introduce a blanket Electronic Communications Law, similar to that adopted in all European Union states. The new law should clarify the regulatory regime in favour of new entrants and give the authority greater powers to force Telekom to open up its network and services. However, the proposed law remains in draft form and could yet be diluted significantly (the government retains a 45% stake in Telekom, so has a vested interest in delaying liberalisation where possible). According to the TA, revenues from public telecommunications services totalled US$12,730 million in 2005, up from US$11,500 million in 2004 and US$8,020 million in 2003. The greatest proportion of revenues was generated by the mobile communications sector in 2005: at US$6,430 million, this represented an annual increase of US$1,660 million and marked the first time that mobile revenues had overtaken fixed-line revenues. More recent data were not forthcoming from the TA at the time of writing.
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