Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) have released the first quarter figures in an Electronic Communications Sector Market Report. Accordingly, Türk Telekom and mobile operators raked in nearly 6.2 billion liras in net sales revenue in the first three months of 2013. Türk Telekom and mobile operators also invested nearly 557 million liras during the months of January, February and March.

Total mobile traffic in the first three months of the year reached 42.9 billion minutes, with landline traffic reaching 4.3 billion minutes. This year's figures showed a drop of 0.5 percent in mobile traffic and 6.5 percent in landline traffic compared to the same time period the year prior. A significant majority (85.7 percent) consisted of mobile-to-mobile phone traffic.

Revenue from land line calls saw a drop by 9.4 percent compared to last year, reaching a gross total of 1.1 billion liras. The annual growth rate for total internet subscribers is now 22.4 percent.

MOBILE MARKET

As of the end of March, the 89.8 percent penetration rate of cellular phone users in Turkey was derived from a total 67.9 mobile subscribers. The number of 3G subscribers has now reached 43.9 million. The rate of penetration, excluding the 0-9 age population is over 100 percent.

The number of mobile computer and cell phone internet subscribers of 3G services increased from 8,941,987 to 12,358,175 year-on-year. The total amount of mobile internet usage during this quarter reached 24.233 TByte.

The distribution of cellular service subscribers in the first three months of the year are as follows: Turkcell with 51.33 percent, Vodafone with 28.45 and Avea with a 20.22 percent share. As for postpaid lines, Avea came in first at 43.9 percent, followed by Turkcell with 38.6 percent and Vodafone with 36.5 percent.