Turkcell

Red Hat raises its cloud game

Open-source software vendor Red Hat has launched a bunch of arcane products and initiatives so baffling they must be doing something clever.

OpenRAN enthusiasm spreads to Turkey

Mavenir has announced Turkcell as its latest customer, with the pair planning to deploy OpenRAN vRAN technologies in the telcos domestic market.

Turkcell accuses MTN of bribery in Iran

Turkish operator Turkcell is seeking damages from African operator group MTN for alleged illegal acts relating to its GSM licence in Iran. The Turkish firm said it has filed a lawsuit against MTN before the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

Turkcell using Big Data to track faults

Turkcell has rolled out a Big Data application to help it recover from network failures by correlating information from different sources in real time to identify the root cause of failure.

NFC still on the cards, says research firm

Near field communication (NFC) mobile wallet services are finally gaining momentum, according to research from Berg Insight. The firm reported that there were mobile wallet services commercially live in 13 countries worldwide at the end of 1Q13, up from just six countries at the end of 2011.

Mobile money to transform Turkish transport and US retail

Turkish operator Turkcell and SIM card and mobile security solutions provider Gemalto have each found themselves at the hearts of two mobile payment projects that promise to transform the transport and retail sectors in Turkey and the USA respectively.

Turkcell provides football fans with tickets via mobile

Turkish mobile operator Turkcell has teamed up with the country’s football association to sell tickets to its subscribers to watch the national team play. More than 2,000 ticket transactions were processed using Turkcell’s Smart Ticket application.

Turkcell puts mobile wallet in SIM

Turkish operator Turkcell has launched a SIM-based mobile wallet that works on smartphones, using a native application, as well as feature phones. It also supports contactless payment on NFC-enabled phones.

Turkcell taps HP for cloud services

Turkish operator Turkcell has enlisted HP to deliver a cloud services platform, so the carrier can sell on ‘as a service’ offerings to its business customers.

TeliaSonera to increase presence in Kazakhstan

Nordic operator TeliaSonera has announced that it is to increase its ownership in GSM Kazakhstan, which operates under the brand Kcell, and lead an IPO for the carrier in 2012. Kcell is the clear leader in the central Asian market, with 10.1 million customers at the end of 3Q11, according to Informa’s WCIS Plus service.

Polish media mogul buys Polkomtel

Poland’s second largest carrier, Polkomtel, has been sold to media mogul and Forbes rich-list regular Zygmunt Solorz-Zak for a reported €4.5bn. The sale brings an end to what’s been a fairly lengthy saga; the telco’s multiple shareholders have been looking to sell the company for several years but opportunities for a clean sale were regularly marred by in-fighting and disagreement over how the sale should proceed.

Turkcell to launch services in Germany in April

Europe’s third-largest operator in subscriber terms, Turkcell, has announced its intention to expand into the European market, starting with Germany in April this year. As part of the newly formed subsidiary Turkcell Europe, the German venture will involve the launch of 1200 retail locations and will initially target Turkish citizens living and travelling in Germany with pre-and-postpaid offerings.

Speculation mounts regarding Polkomtel bidders

Nordic carriers TeliaSonera and Telenor and Turkish operator Turkcell are among the shortlisted bidders for Polish operator Polokomtel, according to reports in the Polish media. Also said to be on the shortlist is a bid from Polish media mogul and Forbes rich-list regular, Zygmunt Solorz-Zak.

Turkcell joins FreeMove Alliance

Turkish operator Turkcell has joined the FreeMove Alliance, the mobile alliance between Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile, Orange/France Telecom, TeliaSonera and TIM (Telecom Italia Group).

Turkcell merges LBS offering with Windows Live

Turkish operator Turkcell has become the first operator in the world to integrate its own location-based mobile application to Windows Live Messenger. The application is “Gezenzi”, a location-based Web 2.0 micro-blogging platform.
Gezenzi is a permission-based service enabling members to use a Gezenzi map to exchange information about places.

Turkcell to launch German MVNO

Turkish operator Turkcell has announced a five-year wholesale agreement with German incumbent Deutsche Telekom to offer mobile services in the market. Turkcell has set up a subsidiary called Turkcell Europe and plans to offer services in Germany from early 2011, focusing on the Turkish population living in the country.

TeliaSonera, Altimo merge Turkish, Russian assets

Nordic operator TeliaSonera and Russian conglomerate Altimo (formerly known as the Alfa Group) were playing happy families this week, agreeing to combine their telecoms assets in Turkey and Russia.