'Infrastructure work' at leading mobile operator on the election day raises concerns
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Turkcell, the leading mobile operator in Turkey, sent its employees working at its headquarters an e-mail and notified that there will not be any entrance to the plaza and the offices on the election night due to "technical infrastructure works" to be carried out.
The company also announced in the e-mail that the employees will not be able to connect to their computers via VPN in the same period.
Turkcell notified its employees that the technical infrastructure work will be carried out in all their plazas from 21:00 pm. on May 12, Friday until 06:00 am. on May 15, Monday, and that there will not be any entrance to the plazas or offices except for compulsory cases. VPN connections will not be made during this period either.
CEO: We have carried out the same work during the elections before
Turkcell's CEO, Murat Erkan, participated in a program broadcast in Halk TV and responded to questions.
"How can the internet be related to a plaza? Can internet or telephone communication be cut by way of not letting people in a plaza? The internet can be cut or slowed down without any need to close the doors of the plaza. Our technical teams will be working on our infrastructure for two days at the offices," he said.
Erkan underlined that Turkcell is not the only operator providing internet service in Turkey. "We have done the same in the previous elections," he said and added, "We are managing this process very sensitively. Our jog is to ensure that there are no access problems. It may sound too assertive, but Turkcell's internet will never collapse. There may be problems in technological services and we are carrying out this kind of work in order for them not to occur. We carried out similar work in the previous elections. Were there any problems with Turkcell? No. We are not a party in the election. We are delivering service to many companies, parties, and public institutions.
Only in Turkcell
bianet talked to Füsun Sarp Nebil, a journalist who is an expert in software and telecommunication. She said that she directed questions to Turkcell, Vodafone, and Turk Telekom last night and that she would be sharing an article on this subject at 16:00 today.
Nebil also told that this was a procedure that Turkcell followed since 2007, but something similar was not the case in Vodofone or Turk Telekom.
Circuit breaker in the stock exchange
There was a 5 percent drop in the price of the Turkcell shares after there were news reports that there is going to be technical work carried out in Turkcell on the election evening.
İstanbul Stock Exchange introduced a circuit breaker following the drop.
Partnership structure of Turkcell
Turkey Wealth Fund (TVF) is the principal partner, holding 26,2 percent of the shares of Turkcell.
Amendments in the Articles of Incorporation of the company were approved in the ordinary general assembly of Turkcell held on October 21, 2022, which allowed the Wealth Fund to become the principal partner.
Telia, the telecommunication company centered in Sweden, which is one of the founding partners of Turkcell sold its 24,02 percent of shares in Turkcell for 530 million dollars and left Turkcell. Again Çukurova Holding, another founding partner of Turkcell also left Turkcell by selling its shares.
LetterOne, an investment company under the AlfaGroup of Russia, on the other hand increased its share in Turkcell to 24,8 percent and has become the largest minority shareholder.
49 percent of Turkcell shares are publicly held. (HA/PE)