Going postal? PTT enters mobile market as PTTcell

Turkey’s Postal and Telecommunications General Directorate (PTT) is poised to launch as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) under the ‘PTTcell’ moniker. From May 2013, PTTcell will sell pre-paid services via roughly 200 PTT branches, and the sales network will gradually be extended to include all retail outlets across Turkey. The initiative, which will see the new company piggyback on the network of Turk Telekom’s Avea mobile unit, is being partially funded by the government’s Universal Service Fund (USF), with a view to enhancing rural uptake.

PTT general director, Osman Tural, commented: ‘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’ –‘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’. The MVNO hopes to acquire 1.5 million subscribers in its first year of operation, increasing to five million after two years.