Turkcell's Cep-T Paracard Receives Best Global Prepaid Innovation Award

ISTANBUL, October 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Turkcell (NYSE:TKC, ISE: TCELL), the leading communications and technology company in Turkey has announced that the "Cep-T Paracard", the co-branded prepaid card launched in collaboration with Garanti Bank, the leading bank in payment systems; has received the "Best Global Prepaid Innovation" category award at the Prepaid Awards UK & Global 2012.

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Cep-T Paracard in garnering this award has left behind other prepaid providers including Google Prepaid Card.  The Prepaid Awards has been held annually since 2008 to recognize the significant achievements and successes of the prepaid sector.  The event brings people and companies from across the industry to reinforce and recognize the efforts made.   

Turkcell Chief New Technology Business Officer Cenk Bayrakdar commented that "Mobile communication technologies have been reshaping the world, and easing people's lives in every aspect.  The finance and banking sectors are leading the pace of mobile evolution.  Through this strong collaboration in the area of mobile payment systems, Turkcell and Garanti Bank are not only the driving force of this evolution in Turkey, but have also signed off on innovative products, destined to set global examples.  The granting of this award to Cep-T Paracard, which has appealed to many within a short period of time, proves Turkey's leadership in mobile payment systems.  We will continue to offer our customers innovative products with Garanti Bank in the future."

Commenting that the initial target in designing Cep-T Paracard had been to include Turkcell subscribers without a debit card into the banking system, Garanti Payment System General Manager Onur Genc added that "Our well received product has reached out to 350,000 users so far.  The "Best Global Prepaid Innovation" award confirms that this success is also acknowledged globally.  Telecommunication companies have been collaborating with the banking system for years to offer products such as the digital wallet and virtual money cards.  Turkey leads on this front with Garanti Bank and Turkcell, taking giant steps to include the unbanked population into the system, in so doing contributing to growth of the registered economy.  We will steadfastly work towards our target of a "cash free Turkey in 2023," offering innovative products and services that ease life through rapidly developing technologies."

ABOUT CEP-T PARACARD

The Cep-T Paracard is a no name prepaid card with MasterCard logo issued by Garanti Bank. Turkcell customers can purchase the Cep-T Paracard and subscribe to the Cep-T Para service from any Turkcell Communication Center (TIMs) and top-up money to the card via Garanti POS machines at TIMs, or from any Garanti ATM.  Customers can use their cards for payments worldwide wherever MasterCard is accepted. The Cep-T Para service is a SIM based secure service that can be used with any handset.  Cep-T Para subscribers can use this service to transfer money to any operator's mobile subscribers. Recipients can withdraw their money instantly from Garanti ATMs by simply using a secure code sent to them, without a debit card. Subscribers can also use the service to top-up their prepaid lines.

ABOUT TURKCELL

Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, with 35.2 million subscribers as of September 30, 2012. Turkcell is a leading regional player, with market leadership in five of the nine countries in which it operates with its approximately 68.1 million subscribers as of September 30, 2012. It has become one of the first among the global operators to have implemented HSPA+. It has achieved up to 43.2 Mbps speed using the Dual Carrier technology, and is continuously working to provide the latest technology to its customers, e.g. 84 Mbps in the near future. As of September 30, 2012, Turkcell population coverage is at 99.17% in 2G and 83.14% in 3G.  Turkcell reported a TRY2.8 billion (US$1.5 billion) net revenue with total assets of TRY18.0 billion (US$10.1 billion) as of September 30, 2012. It has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr

For further information please contact Turkcell
Nihat Narin                             
Division Head of Investor and International        
Media Relations                                        
Tel: +90-212-313-1244                            
Email: nihat.narin@turkcell.com.tr                        

Banu Uzgur
International Media Relations Manager    
Tel: +90-212-313-1506    
Email: banu.uzgur@turkcell.com.tr
investor.relations@turkcell.com.tr

You can now follow the most up-to-date Turkcell developments on twitter by clicking on the link below.

http://twitter.com/TurkcellNews

SOURCE Turkcell