As one of Turkey's largest foreign direct investors, Vodafone will maintain its investments in 2018 and continue to offer the latest digital innovations to the benefit of both the Turkish people and the economy of Turkey, Vodafone Turkey CEO Colman Deegan said. "Today we serve a total of 23.2 million mobile subscribers. We are continuing our investment program over TL 1 billion [$262 million] we have committed for our fiscal year 2017-2018," Deegan said.
"The strong growth we achieved and the investments we made in the first half of the fiscal year 2017-18 once again demonstrates our commitment to Turkey, our contribution to the national economy and our faith in Turkey's potential."
Deegan said in the first half of the fiscal year 2017-18, which ended on Sept. 30, 2017, service revenues increased by 14.3 percent to TL 4.5 billion, while EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased by 20.4 percent in organic terms to TL 1.3 billion, adding that corporate segment service revenues surged by 14 percent in the first half of fiscal year 2017-18 compared to the same period of the previous year.
Colman Deegan said they took important steps in 2017 in order to support domestic production and domestic cooperation. Recalling that they undertook a joint investment of TL 1.6 billion over the next three years in the Universal Service Tender for the digitalization of rural areas by acting jointly with Türk Telekom, Deegan said they signed an agreement for the use of Turkey's first base station ULAK and ASELSAN's domestic base station antenna, adding that they launched the SME Mobilization to promote domestic production in 4.5G.
Indicating that they touched the lives of about 4 million citizens over the last 10 years under the umbrella of the Vodafone Turkey Foundation, Deegan said they achieved TL 29 million in social investments and reached over 6,000 children in 22 provinces, highlighting that they aim to reach 10,000 children in 30 provinces by the end of the fiscal year 2017-18 with the "Tomorrow's Coders" project.
