“The Mobile Market Will Grow 20 Fold”

Anders Lindblad is the Ericsson General Manager for Turkey and Israel… He came to Turkey approximately 18 months ago. When he compares Turkey with the rest of Europe, Lindblad sees it as one of the fastest growing markets, particularly in the use of mobile telephones. “Turkey is one of the leading countries, particularly in terms of SMS usage. The market will continue to grow in the years ahead and I predict that the landline telephone market will grow 8 fold and the mobile telephone market 20 fold”, he says.

Telecommunications of one of the fastest growing sectors in Turkey. The entry of new players, particularly as a result of the privatization process, has increased competition. As the number of mobile users has reached record levels, Turkey has become the foreigners’ favourite. When he compares Turkey with the rest of Europe, Anders Lindblad, Ericsson General Manager for Turkey and Israel, sees it as one of the fastest growing markets, particularly in use of mobile telephones. “Turkey is one of the leading countries, particularly in terms of SMS usage,” he says, adding that Ericsson will continue with its investments in Turkey in 2008. We spoke with Anders Lindblad, Ericsson General Manager for Turkey and Israel, about the communications sector and Ericsson’s new investment plans for Turkey. 

*Could you please compare Turkey’s market with other countries in which you worked?
Communications with people are not so different globally. Turkey was one of the most rapidly growing countries in the end of the 90s and beginning of the 2000s. If you compare it with the rest of the Europe, Turkey has actually been one of the leading markets for 2-3 years. Maybe for Ericsson it is the biggest market, even bigger than Italy, the US, China or the UK. It is a fantastic market for us. The next step is how can we utilize the text, how we can do that in a simple menu? You are not part of the world unless you know how to use internet. And there are 50 million people who never use internet. That’s the big handicap. But you can bring that quickly to Turkey. Than Turkey will have a much better competitive position in the rest of the emerging markets.

*Turkey is one of the most important counties in terms of SMS usage. How do you evaluate Turkey from this perspective?
Turkey is one of the biggest countries in terms of SMS. When it comes to the fixed side, I think that the reason for the low penetration of broadband has nothing to do with Turks. It is not available. It has lower penetration of computers. And no knowledge. That is just a question of Turkey investing in broadband platforms. Text or e-mail or instant messaging, everybody will do that. Turkey has such a young population. Yes, I think there is very little difference. It’s the technology platform that will determine how quickly this will actually spread out of the country. There is no reason why Turkey should not have 100 percent penetration of broadband or 100 percent penetration of mobile voice. I mean technology that has to reach everybody.

*How has privatization affected Ericsson Turkey? Actually, how has it effected competition in Turkey?
In general, I think privatization is good. Competition is good for the business. It creates more opportunities and if you look at the mobile sector, which was open some time ago, it has created today quite interesting phenomena. It pushes down prices. It increases the quality for the consumer that is the main business for me. Of course, competition is on the other side. I mean, it is not alone. But I think that on the operator side competition in privatization is good.

*You mentioned before that the progression of IT is so rapid in Turkey. Turkey could be a global leader in the future. So what factors can help Turkey become a global leader?
The basis has to be the technology platform. I mean, you have to have access to broadband. Turkey has shown that it could be a leader in the mobile operator side. All the innovative services on 3G. Unless we develop in Turkey a very good broadband platform, there is nothing to develop. The important thing is creating an ecosystem that can feed itself. And that successful people will look at the eco system and try to draw out some good ideas about it. That’s the whole secret. You have to have broadband and you have to have fixed and mobile.

*What are your expectations for the mobile phone market? What are the latest trends? First of all, mobility is something personal. Let’s say a family has an average of 4 members. So the potential for the fixed market is 25 percent of the potential for the mobile market. People may associate mobility nowadays with voice. But think of mobility as just another way to access to broadband platform. There may be 3 million broadband users in Turkey. We have 60 million mobile voice users. Each of these 60 million voice users will be an internet broadband user tomorrow. That means that you can have 20 times as many broadband users on the mobile phone as you can have today on the fixed platform. That is not mean that the fixed platform goes away. It just complements it. Like it is on the voice side. The potential therefore of the Turkish market when it comes to broadband is enormous.

“We Won’t Give Up On Turkey”

We Shall Grow Locally
First of all, we shall to continue to invest in Turkey. We see Turkey as a fantastic platform when it comes to competencies and also potential of the market. You need a big market where you can grow. We would like to invest in growing our company here locally.

Turkey Is One Of The Leading Markets
I think it is little difficult for me to look at Turkey as an emerging market. It is very big market and it has increased in the very advanced areas. If you compare Eastern Europe or something like that, I think Turkey has the potential to be a big country and it has a lot of local traditions.

The Sector Is Driven By Young People
As I have said before, having a lot of youngsters will drive the development. Like R&D… that could help quite a lot in terms of Turkey becoming a leader in this region. I think many eastern European countries, and of course Turkish Republics and other countries globally, will look at what is happening in Turkey.

Hande Yavuz
hyavuz@capital.com.tr