- 15 Months After Privatization of Turkish Telecom – 1
- Dr.Doany; Salaries Will Be Get An Increase In March – 2
- Dr.Doany : Oger Telecom Staff is Assisting TT Staff – 3
- Dr.Doany : 26,000 Job Applications Received for TT in a year – 4
- Dr.Doany : We Compliant With Our Concession Aggreement Obligations – 5
- Dr.Doany : 2007 Investment Plan is 1,3 Billion YTL – 6
- Dr.Doany: Wholesale Tariff is Waiting for Approval – 7
The rivals in Turkey and Telecom Sector Companies issues we are discussing in that part.
Question – 19 : Who are your competitors? What do you think about the Turkish mobile operators, long distance operators and ISPs?
Dr.Paul Doany : Turkey is following the EU regulatory framework, so the competition model follows from that.
We may group these in two forms: service-based competition and facilities-based competition.
in terms of service-based competition, there are a number of licenses, and these rely on the Turk Telekom facilities for provision of their services. Currently, the competition is in national long-distance traffic, international traffic and mobile calls, in addition to international termination.
Our traffic in national long distance area is much lower than European operators, and we hope to increase this traffic with the new tariffs however, based on our current situation, our market share loss shows a peak current total trend at around 55-60% for international and 25-30% for national (long-distance). Turk Telekom did not change any of its tariffs for some period of time – competitors benefited from this, and they managed to build market share very quickly. We expect further market share loss, particularly in the corporate market, and small business, where our competitors have good offerings, and strong sales force. In addition, they have other complementary offerings to such customers. We welcome this competition.
However, we hope to grow the overall market in terms of increased traffic, as our real competitor is mobile. You know very well the mobile substitution impact. We are basically competing with the convenience of mobility. We believe we offer better quality (due to cable, as opposed to radio), with no call drops and much reduced congestion (if any), and of course, much lower prices (as we have now rebalanced our tariffs). Our market research had shown that national long distance call charges were perceived to be high by our customers, and they were right, after all, competitors using our own network were undercutting us by 50%, and which they were able to do because of our unbalanced tariffs.
The second type of competition is facility-based, where the competitors build their own networks. We will see more competition in long distance networks – you would have seen recently Tellcom (a Turkcell company) win a tender from the electricity company, and we were very happy to lose to such a potentially strong competitor, as we very much hope that they will invest in their own networks, and compete with us. We expect to see such increasing trends. We have also read recently that they are considering building their own broadband cable network, and that would definitely be a move in the right direction, and would welcome this type of serious competiton, where they construct their own facilities. In addition, we expect to see wireless data networks (such as WiMax), and are glad to see several companies working in that domain as well. Competition gives customers choice, be that in terms of service quality, or price, and that is why we welcome it.
As to ADSL (and possibly even voice in the near future), we will see more competition coming from LLU.
In the longer term, there will be competition from cable (both wired and satellite), with increased convergence services.
Question – 20 : What is TT doing regarding LLU? When will it be ready?
Dr.Paul Doany : The LLU regulation has been recently issued by the Telecommunications Authority. The SLA will be ready in February 2007.
The service will first start at five telephone exchanges and then the number will increase rapidly.
I believe that several companies will be active in this area, and we have already entered into initial agreements with some.
Question – 21 : Another hot issue is the Right of Way charges. As we know, licensed telecom operators are obliged to pay a fee to different companies or municipalities for this right. How will TT handle this issue? Will TT be paying the same fees to such authorities? Can we assume that after the Supreme Court rejected the reservation clause, and TTs infrastructure belongs to the TA, TT wont pay these fees for Right of Way? What about other licensed operators; will they have to pay these fees? Should they pay and if yes, why?
Dr.Paul Doany : We are addressing this question, and consider that the company rights are very clear, in relation to right of way, in terms of its concession agreement, underlying legislation, and related regulations.
We should not confuse this matter with the infrastructure ownership matter, and what happens at the end of concession period. It should be noted that the concession agreement is subject to renewal, and we dont foresee any problems in that regard as well. I had jokingly stated that this matter will be addressed in 20 years, by someone younger and smarter than me. (In a way, I mean it).
At the following chapter, End User Issues will be follow.
Turkish translation of that part at Dr.Doany : Bizim Gerek Rakibimiz Mobil – 8
Whole interview as Turkish and English, will be reached at Paul Doany Interview file.
