ISTANBUL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Turkcell (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL) helps fight the effects of Coronavirus with several initiatives for the community, business and the authorities. Backed by its resilient and reliable infrastructure, the company is committed to providing students, teachers, businesses, health authorities and staff, and the elderly with connectivity for their vital daily needs.

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Turkcell helps fight the effects of Coronavirus with several initiatives for the community, business and the authorities. (Photo: Business Wire)

Emphasizing the key role of the mobile industry amidst the global Coronavirus pandemic, “Turkcell has built one of the world’s most reliable and robust networks for days when connectivity is of utmost importance. We are committed to keeping our community connected and businesses running, as well supporting remote working from home and online education. Turkcell’s solid experience in digital transformation will empower customers while they are at home, and help stop the pandemic spread,” says Murat Erkan, Turkcell CEO.

Stating that Turkey will show strong economic resilience and emerge from the process successfully, he continues that, “As Turkcell, we support the ecosystem with a careful focus. We will fight the pandemic together with our healthcare staff, businesses, the elderly, educators and students. In the midst of the global pandemic, it is vital to stay at home and continue our daily routines while there. We have taken sound precautions to help our community in this sense, and we continue to extend our precautions.”.

“The pandemic sends a clear message for all to come together”

“The global COVID-19 outbreak proved that businesses need to be more responsive to such emergency situations, as well as more agile to ensure business continuity – and the only way is through digital transformation,” says Erkan. “In the face of the global outbreak of the new coronavirus, we have seen that the internet is not a luxury, but a utility that connects our society. It is a top priority for us, as telecom operators, to ensure business continuity across various industries and maintain uninterrupted service. We have in place a reliable and robust network infrastructure to support a large scale remote workforce. We have made sure that risk is not further exacerbated by taking solid measures to ensure the safety of our team and customers.”

“Turkcell’s broadband services at the speed of light now serve approximately 1.5 million households. The total internet traffic on our network has increased by 35% and we observed increases of 50% during peak hours comparing last week of March to that of February. The mobile data volume has surpassed 500 terabytes. The demand for Turkey’s first FWA solution Superbox that offers fiber-speed home internet access service over Turkcell’s state-of-the-art mobile infrastructure has more than doubled in the same period. We will continue to provide our customers with uninterrupted high-speed communication services.”

Turkcell’s initiatives to help make staying home easy, productive and joyful:

Additional data for students and teachers

• Turkcell provides teachers and students with 6 GB of additional data to use on the Ministry of National Education’s remote education website. The company has increased the upload and download speed of residential internet subscribers to 100 Mbit for continuous education. The company’s IPTV streaming platform TV+ provides parents and students with required channels for the ministry’s educational program on TV and mobile with additional 10 GB data.

Business continuity is ensured with 7/24 connectivity

• Turkcell continues to support businesses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company provides 1,600 companies, including Turkey’s largest, with remote support as Turkey’s largest data center services provider. Companies receive 7/24 remote support, which ensures business continuity regardless of location. Turkcell’s engineers also offer remote consultancy services to customers when needed.

Call center staff work from home

• Since March 13^th, over 5,000 Turkcell employees have been working from home. They continue their business routines uninterrupted over the company’s reliable infrastructure. Additionally, over 10,000 of Turkcell’s call center staff are equipped with the technical tools required to continue serving customers from home.

• Within the practices adopted to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Turkcell stores located at shopping malls are closed. Other Turkcell stores continue to serve customers following the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and The Information and Communication Technologies Authority. Turkcell also serves customers with its Digital Operator app, over the company’s website and via call centers. The company also shares necessary and helpful information to keep customers informed.

5 GB data and 500 minutes voice package for healthcare staff

• Turkcell has started working on a free package that will provide an additional 5 GB of data and 500 minutes of voice to our hugely committed healthcare staff who continue to fight the pandemic.

Consulate calls are now free

• To support the authorities’ precautions, we provide free call services for consulate calls to our customers abroad to enable them to reach the Consulate Call Center ( 29).

BiP’s HD-quality video group call with up to 10 people empower users

Turkcell offers digital services to users regardless of operators, country or devices. Communication platform BiP helps users to communicate with their loved ones and hold meetings provided by the app’s HD-quality video group call feature with up to 10 people. TV+ offers viewers movies and TV series, fizy offers live concerts and music, the publishing app Dergilik offers newspapers and magazines, and Paycell offers contactless payment services to users of all operators.

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