Turkey’s Southeastern Gem Gaziantep Gets Connected with Turkcell, Joins City Protocol Society

Taking a big step towards connecting Turkey’s cities, Turkcell (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL) has announced that it is partnering with the Municipality of Gaziantep – a city known for its burgeoning industry, as well as a rich historic heritage – in the “Smart City Gaziantep” project.

Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Sahin (left) and Turkcell's Chief Corporate Business Officer Selen Kocabas connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi in the tram. Turkcell offers free Wi-Fi on 121 public transport vehicles in Gaziantep.

At a conference held in the city, Turkcell and the Gaziantep Municipality laid out the work they have been doing for the past year in the run up to the official launching of the partnership. They also disclosed that Turkcell’s business solutions in energy, water and vehicle tracking had helped the city save 30 million Turkish Liras (roughly 13.5 million USD) over the past year, in addition to making the urban experience easier and more enjoyable for the 1.9 million inhabitants of Gaziantep.

“Every city requires a technology vision that fits its specific needs and priorities. Our mission as Turkcell is to join forces with municipalities and develop unique solutions that ensure sustainable urban development,” said Selen Kocabas, Turkcell’s Chief Corporate Business Officer. “We are happy to have taken important steps in this direction in Gaziantep under the leadership of Ms. Fatma Sahin, the Mayor of Gaziantep.”

“The sustainable development of cities is possible only through the efficient management of information, technology and resources. In Gaziantep, we have significantly improved our problem-solving and governance capacity, partially thanks to the use of technology,” said Mayor Sahin. “Turkcell has contributed to our journey in a number of different areas from energy efficiency to museum management, and we thank them for their support.”

A Year of Building the Connected City

Turkcell’s contribution to Gaziantep covers a number of areas ranging from internet infrastructure to services.

Turkcell’s fully owned subsidiary Turkcell Superonline provides fiber internet to the city with 950 km of fiber backbone. The number of households and companies that benefit from Turkcell Superonline’s FTTH services has already reached 100 thousand since the launch of the service last month.

Contributing to the energy and water efficiency of the city through the use of M2M is another highlight of the partnership. 900 smart power meters were installed in Gaziantep’s 4 industrial zones, providing real-time measurement of energy use, minimizing energy losses in the power grid and unauthorized use of energy. The city saved 25.5 million Turkish Liras (roughly 11.5 million USD) from smart meters alone.

Turkcell also helps with the city’s water management. Gaziantep is a city of scarce water resources - the Municipality carries some of Gaziantep’s water from a neighboring city via pipelines and spends 90 million Turkish Liras per year on water. Turkcell helps track 50 water wells and tanks to prevent flooding, and optimizes irrigation in Gaziantep’s Botanical Park. The goal is to achieve considerable savings in the city’s water bill.

Vehicle tracking contributes to the efficiency of municipal services (firefighting, trash collection) and helps the Municipality successfully monitor more than 900 construction trucks belonging to subcontractors. Meanwhile, 28 Smart Tram Stops facilitate the transport experience for the city’s 1.5 million monthly commuters, optimizing travel and decreasing waiting time by 20 minutes on average.

Commuters benefit from free Wi-Fi services on the city’s 121 public transport vehicles including trams and buses. Turkcell’s “the Nearest” application allows smartphone users to easily locate the nearest pharmacy, hospital, ATM and other vital addresses.

In Gaziantep Zoo, the habitats of the animals from warmer parts of the planet are tracked for thermal conditions with an M2M system that generates alerts when the heat drops below, or rises above, optimal conditions.

The 1st Turkish City in the City Protocol Society

As a result of these efforts, Gaziantep saved about 30 million Turkish Liras (roughly 13.5 million US Dollars) over the past year. Gaziantep also joined the City Protocol Society, an international community of connected cities. Gaziantep is the first Turkish city of the City Protocol Society, which includes Barcelona, Dublin, Amsterdam and Moscow among its members.

ABOUT TURKCELL: Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, with 34.6 million subscribers as of December 31, 2014. Turkcell is a leading regional player with its approximately 71.5 million subscribers in nine countries as of December 31, 2014. It was one of the first among the global operators to have implemented HSPA+. It has announced two new HSPA+ Technologies on its 3G network to meet rising data usage. Having successfully integrated 3C-HSDPA and DC-HSUPA Technologies, it became the first mobile operator in the world to enable peak speed of 63.3 Mbps downlink, while also enabling an 11.5 Mbps uplink on a 3G network. Turkcell Superonline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turkcell, is the first telecom operator to offer households in Turkey fiber broadband connection at speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps. As of December 2014, Turkcell’s population coverage was at 99.81% in 2G and 91.21% in 3G. Turkcell reported TRY12.0 billion (US$5.5 billion) in revenue with total assets of TRY23.7 billion (US$10.2 billion) as of December 31, 2014. It has been listed on the NYSE and the BIST since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more at www.turkcell.com.tr.

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