The CEO of Türk Telekom, Ümit Önal, says the company needs “to be the backbone of Turkey’s digital transformation."

"We have the revenue, our products attract demand, and we will grow with new investments,” the CEO of Turkey’s leading information and communication technologies company told Sabah daily on Sunday.

Türk Telekom aims to conclude 2020 with an investment worth TL 6.6 billion ($873 million), the newspaper reported.

Önal also stated that the company’s strong performance has resulted in record sales figures, adding that they have overcome the pandemic without any serious problems.

“We are prioritizing the use of domestic technologies to be the backbone of Turkey’s digital transformation,” he said.

Önal also underlined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in digitalization.

“We have managed to catch up with the skyrocketing demand for digitalization arising from the pandemic. We are concluding this year with high performance, as we have recorded an 18%-19% growth in the first nine months. We have made a profit of 1.9 billion liras ($251.4 million) in this period. We believe our performance will stay the same as the year-end looms,” he said.

Önal added that demand for fixed lines has skyrocketed by 50% while demand for mobile lines has also increased by 26%.

“This was a giant leap. The pandemic has increased the demand for video content, both for business reasons and due to the need to socialize during the lockdown,” he said.

“If we had not made investments, it would be impossible to match this demand and control such a growing traffic,” Önal added.

The CEO also stated that the company received over 4 million applications mostly for internet subscriptions, and 17,000 employees worked day and night to deliver what the company promised.

“It has been a challenging period of time, it was crucial to be able to orchestrate such a high demand,” he said.

“I learned this during this period: ‘Focus on digitalization, prioritize the customer experience and never back down from investment.’ It has been a big experience for us. Being rewarded for our efforts and investments increases our appetite for even more investments,” Önal added.

“By mid-2021, we believe the effects of the pandemic will die down mostly. We foresee that 2021 will be a better year for our company’s operational and financial performance,” he said.

“We will complete our 6.6 billion lira-worth investment in 2021. If you are a 180-year-old company, if you have aimed to be the backbone of this country’s digital transformation, you cannot compromise on investment as an operator reaching out to everyone,” Önal stated.

Önal also said that the company plans to employ between 1,500 and 2,000 new people.

“We have contributed to the employment rate with similar numbers in the past year too,” he underlined.

The CEO also said that the company’s employees are working remotely due to the pandemic.

“We are one of the first companies to switch to remote working. We have a VPN infrastructure capable of accommodating 20,000 employees working remotely,” he said.

Önal also added that education has not suffered from the constraints of the pandemic since technology made remote schooling possible.

“As a father of three, the education side of things concerns me much too. We have done our best, like other operators, to make sure education continued without halt,” he said.