VODAFONE IN TURKEY

[BIZ: London December 14]
The Vodafone Group has stormed into the Turkish market with the announcement today it has acquired second placed operator Telsim for USD 4.55 bn.

According to Mark Newman, Informa Telecoms & Media's Chief Research
Officer, "Vodafone's acquisition of Telsim is further evidence of a
shift of focus away from mature markets to developing ones. Despite
Vodafone's enthusiasm for 3G it clearly questions whether 3G can
help to grow ARPU rather than merely stalling, or slowing, a decline.
Vodafone has already exited one mature market - Sweden - and all eyes
are now on Japan. We believe that Vodafone is mulling two options for
its Japanese business. The first is a straightforward sale and the second
is repositioning Vodafone KK as a wholesale player, selling network
capacity to Mobile Virtual Network Operators and the new 3G carriers
who will launch in 2007"

In terms of Vodafone's prospects, Turkey has 41 million mobile users
today and Informa Telecoms & Media predicts that this will rise
to 66 million by 2010. If Vodafone can capture a third of these -
Telsim currently has 22% of the market - this will give it eight million
new customers over the next five years.
http://www.informa.com