Avea, Turkey’s youngest and fastest growing mobile communications company, was established in 2004. The company offers innovative and qualitative services to its customers with its advanced infrastructure and technology investments. By mid-2011 the company had 12.2 million subscribers, a market share in Turkey of 20.3 percent, and international roaming agreements with 649 operators in 199 countries.
The company is a majority-owned subsidiary of Türk Telekom: 81.37 percent of Avea’s shares are owned by Türk Telekomünikasyon AS, and the remaining 18.63 percent belong to the Bankası Group.
Avea’s revenues for 2010-11 grew six percent over the previous financial year to TL 2.6bn. Revenues even grew in the typically negative fourth quarter, and despite increasing competition. A key driver for growth was 3G data revenue, which increased 164 percent compared to the prior financial year.
Avea, which aims to become the “most favoured and preferred” mobile communication company of Turkey, continues to work as a mobile partner of life, easing and pleasing its customers by providing the most innovative technological solutions.
The company closed 2010 with an EBITDA of TL 332m, an increase of 508 percent over the previous year (EBITDA margin: 14.1 percent). Year on year growth was also seen in ARPU, which increased 11 percent to TL 18.5.
Investing in R&D
Avea has started a new era by launching its near field communication (NFC) technology in association with Garanti Bankasi. The company’s new NFC-enabled SIM cards allow Avea subscribers to make contactless payments with their mobile phones without the expense of upgrading their handset. The joint project won a Best Innovation award from Best Business Awards and the Best New Product award from the Telecoms World Conference.
The company is also working with Nokia Siemens Networks to implement Long Term Evolution (LTE) high-speed data technology, currently using commercial base stations and user equipment to realise the LTE standard at the Avea R&D Centre.
It has aimed to differentiate significantly from its competitors with solutions for corporate customers and SMEs – offered under the brand AveaBiz – to instantly meet the changing needs of its customers and increase the quality level of its service.
Avea Incubation Centre in AveaLabs, which was launched in March, provides office space to entrepreneur companies which are intent on expanding their businesses. In the Incubation Centre companies can benefit from Avea’s infrastructure and test laboratories and its consultancy services.
Social responsibilities
‘My Homeland is Anatolia, My Profession is Technology,’ is a project initiated by Avea in the disadvantaged and underdeveloped regions of Anatolia with the goal of developing new mobile applications. The project creates a new entrepreneurship platform, enabling young entrepreneurs to develop innovative business ideas, and giving them an opportunity to make their dreams come true. Since May 2011, 144 developers have applied for the project.
‘Avea Extraordinary Music’ is an annual programme of concerts, now in its third successive year. More than 305,000 people have attended the 90 concerts so far, with performances by more than 50 artists and music groups. Avea also continues to host giants of electronic music in Turkey as the main sponsor of the ‘Escape to Music’ concert series.
The ‘We Produce In Spite Of Our Handicap’ project, which Avea has been running for 50 years in association with the Foundation of Physical Handicapped, helps handicapped people find a job. Within the frame of the project, 2,782 handicapped citizens have been employed by a number of different companies.
Stars of the World
In order to contribute to the physical and mental health of young people in Turkey while supporting the education of future star football players, Avea initiated a new social responsibility project in cooperation with FC Barcelona. As part of the ‘FCB Avea Camp – Children of Turkey, Stars of the World’ project, elementary school students from all over Turkey are given the chance to be trained by FC Barcelona’s training staff at FCB’s facilities.
Potential stars are selected through a series of football matches, organised by the General Directorate of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education and the Turkish Football Federation. The project is also supported by the Turkish School Sports Federation and prominent sports clubs.
Elementary school students aged 13-14 who attend the Star Boys Football Turkey Championships are evaluated according to their performance by experts. The 18 best performing children are then selected to train at Barcelona Nou Camp.
Awards success
Avea has recently been achieving repeated success at the prestigious Stevie Awards, which are given to international companies that are successful in areas such as as management, product development, creativity, customer services, human resources and marketing.
The company has received the major award in the category of Human Resources Department of the Year and the award of honour for the categories Best Human Resources Team of the Year and Customer Relations of the Year. Elsewhere Avea received the 2010 Oracle Interim Software Integration Innovation Award, and in 2011 was awarded Golden Brand of the Year by TTKD, the Association of Protection of all Consumers.
