Turkish mobile market and forecasts

Turkish market background
#1 Turkcell = 36.6 million connections in 2Q09 (57 percent market share)
#2 Vodafone Turkey = 15 million (23 percent)
#3 Turk Telecom's Avea = 12.4 million (19 percent)
However, the market has been volatile in recent quarters following the introduction of mobile number portability in Q408.

The three mobile operators won WCDMA licenses in a government auction last November. All three bids surpassed the government's reserve price for the licenses, though a fourth license was cancelled due to lack of interest. Note that an earlier auction two years previously had been boycotted by Vodafone and Avea and cancelled.

The delay in obtaining the spectrum has meant the operators have had sufficient time to build-out their new networks to large swathes of the country. Turkey's new high-speed networks have recently switched on by all three incumbents. (approx. 8 months lead-time after licenses granted)

All three players have hinted recently that they are in favour of network sharing as a way to keep down costs during rollout of the new networks.

3G forecasts
New data from Wireless Intelligence forecasts that combined WCDMA and WCDMA-HSPA connections in Turkey will reach nearly 30 million by the end of 2013, accounting for over a third of the country's total mobile connections by this point.

source: Wireless Intelligence