Turkcell confident of 3G success

The head of Turkey’s largest cellular operator says he expects the award of third-generation (3G) licences to take place later this year. Turkcell CEO Süreyya Civil is confident that his company will win one of the licences. Civil also told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet that he expects his firm to hold off the challenge from cellular rivals Telsim-Vodafone and Avea: ‘I am sure that we will keep our increasing share in the market,’ he said. Turkcell claimed 30.8 million subscribers and 60.5% of the market at the end of 2006, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.