Turkcell boosted by net adds in 3Q08

The ever-essential Global Mobile Daily just popped up in my inbox, pointing out encouraging numbers for one of the companies that we always like to involve in our annual Eurasia Com conference in Istanbul.

Turkcell has reported a subscription base of 36.3 million, up 4.3% from 34.8 million for the same
period a year earlier. Of these postpaid subscriptions increased 14.3% to 7.2 million in 3Q08 up from 6.9 million in 3Q07, while prepaid subscriptions increased to 29.1 million in 3Q08 up 2.1% from the same period a year earlier. ARPU increased to US$17.3 from US$15.3 for the same period a year earlier, of which US$11.2 was prepaid, up 12% from US$10.0 at end-3Q07, while postpaid came in at US$41.9, up 6.1% from US$39.5 at end-3Q07, while churn increased to 6.2% up from 5.7% at end-3Q07.

The operator had total revenues of US$2.48 billion at end-3Q08 up from US$2.18 billion
at end-3Q07.

Already represented by the Deputy GM of its Northern Cyprus subsidiary, we expect the Turkcell presence to be strong once again at the next Eurasia Com, which we will be hosting March 31 and April 1 at Istanbul's Movenpick Hotel.

Mobinil to speak at GSM>3G Middle East; Zain presence increased

I are pleased to announce two very welcome additions to the panel of speakers at GSM>3G Middle East, taking place December 15-16 in Dubai. Khaled Khorshid is Regional COO at Zain Sudan. Operators in Sudan face challenging market conditions, as evidenced by the fact that mobile penetration in the country, has not yet reached the 25% mark. Low GDP per capita is a major growth inhibitor, both in terms of overall market size and in terms of ARPU. Khaled Khorshid's presentation will focus on how to address these challenges and boost ARPU and MoU.

Also joining the panel will be Guillaume van Gaver, VP Commercial at Mobinil of Egypt. Mr van Gaver will be speaking on the theme of boosting consumer acceptance of mobile value-added services.

Delegate and exhibition visitor bookings are tracking well ahead of last year's numbers, so we are looking forward to a great show.