IRIS Telecom Finds That Turkcell has the Highest Average Mobile Internet Speed Among Operators Tested in Turkey, France, Germany, and the UK

ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 7, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Turkcell (NYSE:TKC, ISE:TCELL), the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, today announced the results of a study of mobile internet speeds by IRIS Telecom, the independent measurement and wireless telecom company. Fifteen mobile operators, which provide services in at least one of Turkey, France, Germany and the UK were analyzed and Turkcell was ranked number 1 among these in terms of 'average mobile internet speed.'

The tests were conducted in April and May 2010 in Paris, Berlin, London, Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Trabzon. Both drive test and stationary measurements were carried out on urban roads and in shopping centers, tourist sites, airports, and other places where the operators offer their services. These tests confirmed that Turkcell's upload and download speeds were higher than the other 14 operators. For instance, IRIS found that during drive test measurements in Istanbul Turkcell's download speed was 2.53 times faster when compared to O2 UK in London, which had highest file download performance among the 12 European operators tested, and 1.55 times faster when compared to O2 Germany in Berlin, which had the highest file upload performance among the 12 European operators tested. Accordingly, Turkcell was certified by IRIS Telecom as having the Fastest Average Mobile Internet Speed among the operators tested in Turkey, France, the UK and Germany.

Johan Bruce, IRIS Telecom Chairman, noted that: "We compared the test results we had from Berlin, London and Paris with the test results we conducted in three cities of Turkey. As a result, we have found that Turkcell has the highest average data speed out of all the operators we analyzed. We congratulate Turkcell on its investment in its network, which has clearly been very effective and positions Turkcell favorably in a European context."

Ilter Terzioglu, Turkcell's Chief Network Operations Officer, noted that: "We are proud to deliver the fastest average mobile internet speed among the 15 operators tested. Our leadership in mobile internet speed in Turkey was recognised earlier in the year when an independent ranking and audit company conducted tests in Istanbul and confirmed that Turkcell's 3G speed reached 42.2 MBPS. These results demonstrate how fast our internet speed is on a wider European level."

Terzioglu also noted that Turkcell invested TRY2.2 billion in Turkey in 2009 and will continue to invest in its network to maintain its leadership and quality. "Our commitment to quality continues and our 3G subscriber base is growing significantly, up from 4.5 million at the end of 2009 to 5.2 million at the end of March 2010," he said.

ABOUT IRIS Telecom

IRIS is the largest wireless telecom engineering company in Turkey and its services cover Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa regions. For more than 10 years, IRIS has been rendering services to Mobile Operators and Equipment Suppliers. Its services include Radio and Transmission Design and Optimization, Turnkey Rollout, Installations and Benchmarking. IRIS as an independent company provides Benchmark testing and reporting services with the state-of-the-art measurement tools both in Turkey and abroad for mobile operators. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Iran, Belarus and Uzbekistan are among the countries where long term projects have been executed. Ukraine, Sweden, Moldova, Georgia, UAE, Tunisia, Sudan, Oman and Syria are the other countries where IRIS provided services to its customers. Currently, its services heavily involve turn-key network rollout services in Uzbekistan and Belarus, and Benchmarking, Optimization, Network Planning and Installation services in Turkey. IRIS has been certified by ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards in 2010.

ABOUT TURKCELL

Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey with 34.3 million postpaid and prepaid customers and a market share of approximately 56% as of March 31, 2010 (Source: Our estimations, operators' and Authority's announcements). Turkcell has a HSPA+ supported 3G network, providing Mobile Broadband data and high quality voice services to app. 75% of the Turkish population with its 3G network as of March 31, 2010. As a complementary technology to UMTS, Turkcell also supports EDGE technology in its total network. Turkcell reported TRY 2.2 billion ($ 1.5 billion) net revenue for the period ended March 31, 2010 and its total assets reached TRY 14.3 billion ($ 9.3 billion) as of March 31, 2010. Turkcell is the only Turkish operator among the global operators to have implemented HSDPA+ and has become one of the first operators in the world to reach to 42.2 Mbps speed with its 3G network, as of March 5th 2010. Turkcell has become one of the first operators in the world to have implemented HSPA+. Turkcell is also among the first operators in the world to reach 42.2 Mbps speed with HSPA multi carrier solution, as of March 5th, 2010. Turkcell is a leading regional player and has interests in international mobile operations in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Ukraine which, together with its Turkish operations, had approximately 62 million subscribers as of March 31, 2010. Turkcell has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000 and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey and is among the top 15% of companies listed on NYSE by its size. 51.00% of Turkcell's share capital is held by Turkcell Holding, 0.05% by Cukurova Group, 13.07% by Sonera Holding, 2.32% by M.V. Group and 0.08% by others while the remaining 33.48% is free float. Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr/en

    For further information please contact Turkcell

    Nihat Narin, Investor and International Media Relations
    Tel: +90-212-313-1244
    Email: [email protected]
    [email protected]
    http://www.turkcell.com.tr

SOURCE Turkcell