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Mobile wars heat up as firms announce results

In separate press conferences Friday, executives of Turkcell and Avea, both declared themselves the winner in gaining new subscribers.

İlker Koçak, deputy chief executive officer of Avea, Turkey’s third-largest mobile phone company, said the company has won "463,000 subscribers in total and 244,000 as net subscribers" since Nov. 9, 2008, when number portability came into effect. Nearly 1.1 million subscribers have changed their mobile phone operators since Nov. 9.

"As of Feb. 5, Avea is the biggest winner from number portability," Koçak said, adding that 7,750 companies carried 463,000 lines to Avea, thanks to the practice.

Meanwhile, Turkcell, the biggest company in the industry, said it added 650,000 customers in the fourth quarter, 43 percent of them on post-paid contracts. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Turkcell Deputy Chief Executive Officer Koray Öztürkler said the company had a total of 37 million subscribers at the end of 2008, an increase of 5 percent from a year earlier.

Turkcell is planning to double investment this year, including paying a license fee of 860 million Turkish Liras ($527 million) for high-speed wireless network, or 3G, Öztürkler said. He declined to say how much the company spent last year, Bloomberg reported.

Vodafone Group, the world’s largest mobile phone company, lost 643,000 customers in Turkey in the last three months of 2008, it said in a statement on Feb. 3. Vodafone Turkey had 16.7 million customers at the end of the year.