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Turkcell may enter Belarus mobile market - agency

Tue Mar 4, 2008 9:16am EST

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MINSK, March 4 (Reuters) - Turkey's leading mobile phone operator Turkcell (TCELL.IS) may enter the Belarussian cell phone market, the BelTA news agency reported on Tuesday.

The state agency said Turkcell might create a new operator in Belarus or buy a stake in one of the existing players. The news came after Turkcell officials met Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"You are of great interest for us as one of the world's largest players in the telecommunications market. We are interested in attracting Turkish business in different sectors of the Belarussian market," Lukashenko was quoted as saying.

The presidential administration and communication ministry, reached by Reuters, declined to comment.

Lukashenko said last year the Belarussian government was ready to cede control in a state-owned mobile operator BeST for around $500 million.

In October it agreed to sell control of the country's No.2 mobile phone operator MDC, operating under the Velcom brand, to Telekom Austria (TELA.VI) for $1 billion.

Belarus's largest mobile services provider is MTS Belarus, co-owned by Russia's No.1 cellphone operator, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (MBT.N). (Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky; Writing by Maria Kiselyova, editing by Will Waterman)



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