Telefónica Germany and Turk Telekom formed a strategic alliance to target Germany's significant Turkish population with tailored services. Under the agreement, the two operators will leverage their existing content and service development to offer a wide range of services that will be available to customers regardless of whether they are in Germany or Turkey.
The new service will be launched in the summer and marketed by both companies. It will compete directly with Turkcell, Turkey's largest operator, which launched as a MVNO in Germany on Deutsche Telekom's network last month.
Turkcell agreed to a five-year wholesale deal to use Deutsche Telekom's network as part of its MVNO offering and is targeting a close to 4 per cent share of the German market. According to Wireless Intelligence data cited by Mobile Business Briefing, Germany already has over 100 MVNOs in the market, including several that are focused on migrant communities.
Turks are the largest single ethnic group in Germany, making up around 2.4 per cent of the population, according to the CIA World Factbook. As such, the Turkish community has become a focus for operators in the country. Germany's No. 4 operator, E-Plus has a brand called "Ay Yildiz" that also focuses on Germans who have Turkish roots, while Vodafone, which has networks in both Germany and Turkey, offers preferential roaming rates for calls between the two countries.
For more:
- see this TelecomPaper article
- see this Mobile Business Briefing article
- see this C114.com article
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