Turkcell Presents Project ALIPRO Results for Turkey to European Commission

ISTANBUL, Turkey, March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Turkcell , Turkey's leading mobile operator, today presented the results of the ALIPRO project outlines about Turkey to the European Commission.

Project ALIPRO is a project sponsored by EU Commission under the 6th Framework Program that aims to support the alignment of new and candidate EU member states' national and regional research programs on mobile technologies, applications, and services with the "European IST" (European Information Society Technologies) research. The objective of Project ALIPRO is to intensify the flow of information between countries, compare research programs on mobile technologies, contribute to the creation of national visions and roadmaps, and create a multilingual information platform on the Internet to further this international exchange of data on mobile technology. Project ALIPRO has now been completed and results were shared with EU Commission officials and country representatives in a meeting held in Brussels on March 24, 2006. The project was conducted by an ALIPRO consortium formed by 14 organizations from the EU's new member countries; from candidate countries Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey; and from Germany.

Giving a general introduction to Turkey and Turkcell at the meeting, Turkcell's Content Services and Partnering Management Division Head Cenk Bayrakdar presented the report of ALIPRO Turkey to support the proposal prepared under Project ALIPRO calling for the creation of a fund for supporting R&D activities in the field of mobile communications in EU member countries and candidates. The report, in which it is mentioned that even in a fast developing country like Turkey there are no funding for mobile communications research, proposed a fund to be established that will be used by companies conducting R&D on national mobile communications in 28 EU countries, including Turkey, and subsequently expanded across to all EU nations. Tubitak TEYDEB Vice President Ms Deniz Bayhan also presented the general information about the Turkish R&D support programs of TUBITAK mentioned at the ALIPRO report.

For the use of the fund in Turkey, the report highlighted that it would be managed in coordination with the Science and Technology Council of Turkey (TUB�°TAK) and the State Planning Organization (DPT). The report also emphasized that the development of the mobile sector in Turkey was directly related to development of R&D in the sector.

About Turkcell

Turkcell is the leading GSM operator in Turkey with 27.9 million post-paid and pre-paid customers as of December 31, 2005 operating in a three player market with a market share of approximately 64% as of year end 2005 (Source: Telecommunication Authority). In addition to the high-quality wireless telephone services, Turkcell currently offers General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) countrywide and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) in dense areas, which provide for both improved data and voice services. Turkcell provides roaming with 500 operators in 188 countries as of March 22, 2006. Serving a large subscriber base in Turkey with its high-quality wireless telephone network, Turkcell reported US$4,269 million net revenues as of December 31, 2005. Turkcell has interests in international GSM operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Ukraine. Turkcell has been listed on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and the ISE (Istanbul Stock Exchange) since July 2000 and is the only NYSE listed company in Turkey. 51.00% of Turkcell's share capital is held by Turkcell Holding, 13.29% by Cukurova Group, 13.07% Sonera Holding, 5.94% M.V. Group and 0.01% by others while the remaining 16.69% is free float.