Turkcell's "People Without Boundaries" Initiative in Action

ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Turkcell (NYSE: TKC, ISE: TCELL), the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, has united all of its services and projects aimed at facilitating the lives of disabled citizens' and their participation in daily life under the "People Without Boundaries" roof in line with its vision of using technology to provide equal opportunities to all segments of society.  Turkcell's services without boundaries are categorized under 'employment', 'technological solutions', and 'social responsibility projects'.

Having introduced services for the disabled organized for the Week of the Disabled (May 10-16) at a press conference, Turkcell Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Koray Ozturkler commented that "In fact, obstacles exist only in the mind.  We witness our disabled citizens achieving great success if only given an equal opportunity. Today, the possibilities that mobile communication technologies offer remove many obstacles for the disabled in employment, the accessing of information, and participation in social life.  We are bringing forward their talents, aiming to increase their involvement in society, while making them feel included.  We not only meet their business and communication related needs, but also carry out projects taking their social lives into consideration."

Having employed 500 disabled people in its group companies and offered various solutions for the disabled such as "support packages" that include discounts, highly advantageous tariffs, SMS, and Internet, as well as voiced bill and video call center, all free of charge; among many others, Turkcell is working on the homeagent (home-office call center customer representative service) project in Karaman and Van-Ercis, where half of its employees are disabled.  Turkcell is also preparing to offer a service, namely "Turkcell Dream Partner" in collaboration with the Young Guru Academy (YGA) that will enable visually impaired people to listen to 4,000 audio books in the National Library of Turkey and 10,000 audio books in YGA's own Library.

Turkcell is also providing disabled citizens the opportunity of greater involvement in social life through its social responsibility projects. Young people studying at schools for the Visually Impaired in Tokat, Denizli, and İzmir, are being provided access to cycling-related sports for the visually impaired initiated by Turkcell in a first for Turkey within the context of the "Runners to the Future" project.  The target is for these athletes to represent Turkey at the London Paralympics Olympics in August.

ABOUT TURKCELL

Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, with 34.5 million subscribers and a market share of approximately 53% based on December 31, 2011 results (since the Authority has not disclosed subscriber market shares for Q1 2012). Turkcell is a leading regional player, with market leadership in five of the nine countries in which it operates with its approximately 65.3 million subscribers as of March 31, 2012. The company covers approximately 88% of the Turkish population through its 3G and 99.13% through its 2G technology supported network. It has become one of the first among the global operators to have implemented HSDPA+ and achieved a 43.2 Mbps speed using the HSPA multi carrier solution. Turkcell reported a TRY2.4 billion (US$1.3 billion) net revenue with total assets of TRY17.2 billion (US$9.7 billion) as of March 31, 2012. It has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr 

For further information please contact Turkcell
Nihat Narin
Division Head of Investor and International
Media Relations
Tel: +90-212-313-1244
Email: [email protected]

Banu Uzgur
International Media Relations Manager
Tel: +90-212-313-1506
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]

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SOURCE Turkcell