Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. () is a state-owned Turkish
telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
company. Türk Telekom was separated from
Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995.
Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wideband Internet. The Türk Telekom Group companies had 16.8 million PSTN customers, 6 million ADSL customers and 12.1 million GSM customers in September 2009. With its network substructure covering the whole country, the group's companies offer a wide range of services to personal and corporate customers. Türk Telekom, which owns 99.9% of the shares of the companies TTNET,
Argela,
Innova,
Sebit A.Ş. and
AssisTT, is also the owner of 81% of the shares of Avea, which is one of the three GSM operators in Turkey. Türk Telekom also supports
Albania
Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
's
Albtelecom. 61.5% of the shares of Türk Telekom belong to Turkey Wealth Fund, while 30% of the shares belong to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance (Turkey). The remaining 15% of shares have been offered to the public in
Borsa Istanbul.
In July 2018, in the course of the
Turkish currency and debt crisis, Turkish and international banks took control of Türk Telekom due to billions of dollars in unpaid debt. Creditors set up a special purpose vehicle to acquire the company as they try to resolve Turkey's biggest-ever debt default.
Between 2011 and 2021, the company was holding the
naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
to
Ali Sami Yen Complex, home to the
Galatasaray S.K.
History
*1994, February 23, Turkey met with GSM technology. GSM was put into service firstly for its subscribers in
Ankara
Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
,
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, and
İzmir
İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...
.
*1995, April 24, By separating the telecommunication and postal services in PTT from each other, Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. was founded.
*1998, April 27, GSM network was transferred to the firms
Turkcell and
Telsim for 25 years by giving license.
*1999, June,
asymmetric digital subscriber line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide ...
(ADSL) was put into service to provide high-speed voice and image communication
*2000, Cable Internet applications were started on cable TV.
*2001
**January 8, Aycell Haberlesme ve Pazarlama Hizmetleri A.S. was founded.
**March 21, Iş-TIM Telekomünikasyon Services Inc. started to operate with the commercial name of ARIA
*2004
**February 19, TT&TIM Communication Services Inc., established by the merger of Türk Telekom's GSM Operator Aycell and İŞ-TİM, was officially founded.
**October 15, The commercial name of “TT&TIM Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.” was changed to “Avea Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.”
**July 22, Türksat A.Ş. was established and started operating separately from Türk Telekom.
*2005, November 14, Türk Telekom's privatization was complete and 55% shares of Türk Telekom was sold to
Oger Telecom's Joint Venture Group.
*2006, September 15, Türk Telekom acquired İŞ-TİM's 40.56% share in Avea for $500 million and Türk Telekom's share in Avea increased to 81.12%.
*2008, May 15, The
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
for 15% of Türk Telekom shares was completed, and the shares started trading on the
Istanbul Stock Exchange.
*2009, July, Avea launches
3G services.
*2018, December 22, Oger Telekom's creditors take control of Türk Telekom due to billions of dollars in unpaid debt.
*2022 Turkish Wealth Fund bought %55 of the company, taken back from Oger Telekom.
Subsidiaries
TTNET
TTNET is a turkish
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
. The 2013 Annual Report states that TTNET has 6.3 million subscribers, 620,000 fiber subscribers, and 1.8 million TV subscribers.
It provides ADSL, dial-up, Wi-Fi, G.SHDSL, ATM,
Frame Relay
Frame Relay (FR) is a standardized wide area network (WAN) technology that specifies the Physical layer, physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology.
Frame Relay was originally devel ...
, and Metro Ethernet Internet access services to corporate and personal customers in 81 cities in Turkey. TTNET became the first Turkish company to be accepted into the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
' "Business Call to Action (BCtA)" program, which seeks to encourage companies to "develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for both commercial success and development impact", for its "Internet 4All initiative".
Innova IT Solutions
Innova Bilişim Çözümleri A.Ş. delivers "solutions" to the institutions in every area, including distribution, finance, and telecommunications. With its services independent of the product and the brand, iNNOVA includes the entire consultancy-design-application development-integration-maintenance value chain.
AssisTT
AssisTT is a customer service and
call center
A call centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American English, American spelling; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a managed capability th ...
company that also provides sales and marketing data.
[ Türk Telekom holds a 100% interest in AssisTT, which was established in November 2007. According to the 2013 Annual Report, as of the end of 2013, there were 115 million incoming calls (an 11% annual increase), which generated 360 million minutes of service time (a 13% annual increase).
AssisTT is Turkey's largest call center and provides its services to other corporations and institutions in addition to its parent company Türk Telekom.
]
Argela
Argela Software and Information Technologies sells technologies and services for the telecom operators. 100% of the shares of the company, which had started its activities in 2004, belong to Turk Telekomunikasyon A.S..
AVEA
AVEA, the sole GSM-1800 mobile operator of Turkey, was founded in 2004. Avea, the youngest operator of Turkey, has a nationwide customer base of more than 12.5 million. Offering services to 95.4% of Turkey's population through its network,
Sebit
The activities of SEBIT Eğitim ve Bilgi Teknolojileri A.Ş. had started in 1988, in a multimedia laboratory founded within Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK). The lab was privatized in 1996 and the production of computer supported education contents towards K-12 level. After the product “Akademedia” produced in 1998, Educational software
Educational software is a term used for any computer software that is made for an educational purpose. It encompasses different ranges from language learning software to classroom management software to reference software. The purpose of all th ...
with the brand “Vitamin” had been introduced. In the following years, “KidsPlus” products had joined the series. The company has a place in Chinese, Malaysian, American, and British markets.
It has been conducting the only integrated R&D project in the education area of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
’s 6th Framework Program. Active in corporate education, it has developed e-learning solutions for the institutions such as IES, Union of Banks of Turkey, Secretariat of Defense Industries, Public Procurement Agency, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
, Migros, Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
, and TTNET.
CETEL was incorporated by Çalık Enerji and Türk Telekom having 80% and 20% shares, respectively, on 1 June 2007. CETEL purchased the 76% shares of Albtelecom on 1 October 2007. Albtelecom is the incumbent fixed-line operator in Albania, which also has a GSM license. Cetel was incorporated as a special-purpose entity
A special-purpose entity (SPE), also called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) or a financial vehicle corporation (FVC), is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited partnership) created to fulfill narrow, speci ...
to acquire the 76% shares of Albtecom Sh.A, which is located in Albania and operates in the telecommunication industry.
Controversies
Spyware injection
Citizen Lab has found out that a series of middleboxes on Türk Telekom’s network were being used to redirect hundreds of users attempting to download certain legitimate programs to versions of those programs bundled with spyware
Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy, endangering their device's securit ...
. The spyware Citizen Lab found bundled by operators was similar to that used in the StrongPity APT attacks. Before switching to the StrongPity spyware, the operators of the Turkey injection used the FinFisher “lawful intercept” spyware, which FinFisher asserts is sold only to government entities.
See also
* Telephone services in Turkey
* Türk Telekom Stadium
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turk Telekom
Telecommunications companies of Turkey
Telecommunications companies established in 1995
Companies based in Ankara
Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (Turkey)
Turkish companies established in 1995
Companies in the BIST 100