Building the Future with Digital Services: Turkcell Celebrates its 25th Year
At Turkcell’s 25th year special event, Turkcell Chairman Ahmet Akca and Turkcell CEO Kaan Terzioglu hosted former CEOs Cuneyt Turktan, Muzaffer Akpinar and Sureyya Ciliv, and Osman Berkmen and Murat Vargi, architects of Turkcell’s quarter-century long success story. (Photo: Turkcell)
Ahmet Akca: “We will continue to serve our country”
“Here, we gathered with many businessmen and friends, and among them are the ones that brought ‘GSM’ to Turkey,” said Turkcell Chairman Ahmet Akca in his speech. “I would like to thank Osman Berkmen, Murat Vargi, Mehmet Emin Karamehmet and all CEOs, our colleagues, founders and shareholders who have worked relentlessly for Turkcell’s success.”
Continuing his words with Turkcell’s role in tackling inflation, Akca said: “We undertook a leading role in ‘all-out fight’ against inflation. Turkcell has successfully decreased unit costs on a constant as a technology producing company. The headline inflation in Turkey, for example, is 11.5% where the rate in our industry it is only 3.9%. This shows Turkcell’s positive role in fighting against inflation.”
“We have invested 26 billion liras in the last five years, and the total outcome of our tax and legal responsibility contributions to the Treasury surpassed 35 billion liras. We succeeded in our efforts to obtain a long-term financial loan from abroad and provided an inflow of 3.3 billion dollars to our country,” Akca said.
In his speech, Akca shared his industrial foresight, “1000 engineers in Turkcell are dedicated to work for our R&D efforts. Proceeding further with determination for 5G, we will continue to serve our country in different industries with integrated communication services. In this sense, we have to use 5G-enabled technology and services efficiently.”
Underpinning the importance of joint progress towards 5G-era, Turkcell chairman added: “We initiated a mutual approach and signed a protocol for ‘Joint Infrastructure Alliance’ with an understanding that 5G requires a strong fiber infrastructure, and this initiative must start working immediately. With this approach, investments for the 5G network infrastructure and towers should be joint as well. These three practices would clearly save Turkey 10 billion dollars.”
“As a strategic industry, telecommunication should be managed with a national and local perspective. Turkcell’s statement that ‘Turkey’s data should stay in Turkey’ should be totally realized. The data of our citizens, who use the digital services of international companies that operate in Turkey, should remain in Turkey. Regulatory interventions should be made and precautions in this manner should be taken. Established last year, Turkcell Foundation supports the training and education of scientists whose efforts will lead Turkey to become a technology producing country. Our foundation develop projects that produce economic, social and cultural values,” he said.
“Last of all, I wish our company’s 25th year to be prosperous.”
Kaan Terzioglu: “DO1440 strategy led Turkcell to become world’s fastest growing company”
Emphasizing Turkcell’s transition from an infrastructure provider to a digital experience provider that exports digital services and solutions in 25 years, Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of Turkcell, said: “Today, we had the chance to celebrate Turkcell’s 25th year with our renowned founders and former CEOs, and listened how Turkcell came to where it is now. Undoubtedly, Turkcell came to these days with huge amounts of effort. The company has implemented DO1440 strategy and transformed itself from an infrastructure provider to a digital experience provider with digital services and solutions ranging from instant-messaging to digital publishing, music streaming, and personal cloud apps, used by millions globally.”
“We have taken confident steps into Turkcell’s digital transformation, and we have designed digital services with features that were copied by their global rivals,” says Terzioglu. “Today, 9 operators in 39 countries offer our digital services to their customers – and we are in talks with many telecom operators worldwide. This success story led Turkcell to become the world’s fastest growing digital operator for 3 consecutive years and DO1440 has been a major success story for the company. It not only delivers results for today, but also ensures a sustainable success as we move forward. Turkcell’s next 25 years will be built on digital services we offer to our customers.”
Thanking all former managers who contributed to Turkcell’s successful digital journey, Terzioglu stated that their customers’ support played an important role in Turkcell’s achievements and emphasized that the company will continue to create value for Turkey as it has been for 25 years.