Telsim / Vodafone Turkey

Vodafone Turkey is the second largerst mobile phone operator in Turkey after Turkcell with about 11 million subscribers and nearly 25% share of the market. Currently, it covers the urban areas with a population over 5,000 and is available in Northern Cyprus Island, as well.

Telsim until December 2005, it was purchased by the gigantic British-based mobile operator Vodafone for the price of $4.5 billion. Thus, the old Telsim brand was phased out on 31 March 2007 in favour of Vodafone. Founded in 1994 as Telsim, Vodafone Turkey remained the only alternative to the powerful Turkcell until the 2000s when other smaller mobile phone operators appeared on the market, such as Avea. Vodafone Turkey has roaming agreements with more than 500 GSM operators.