Finland's Nokia has been awarded a $30 million contract to extend the Global Standard for Mobiles (GSM) network operated by the privately owned Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon. Nokia says it is the first GSM contract it has won in Turkey.

The contract makes Nokia the sole supplier of GSM transmission equipment to Telsim, and one of two suppliers of network subsystem equipment. It includes the supply of microwave radios, several mobile switching centres, and home location registers.

Telsim, with about 250,000 subscribers at present, is the smaller of the country's two current holders of GSM revenue sharing agreements with state-owned Turk Telekom. The other operator is Turkcell, which has about 890,000 subscribers, representing an 85 per cent market share. The company recently awarded a mandate for a $575 million financing package to Bankers Trust, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and JP Morgan (MEED 15:8:97). Turkcell also recently awarded a $150 million contract to its largest shareholder, Sweden's Ericsson, for equipment and services, including new radio base stations and switching equipment.

The government, as an initial stage in telecommunications privatisation, is planning in the autumn to convert both companies' revenue-sharing agreements into full operating licences. This process is expected to raise about $1,000 million, and will permit each company to increase the number of their subscribers to 1.18 million. The government's Privatisation Administration also hopes to make an initial offering of a 15 per cent tranche in Turk Telekom itself in January 1998, according to the administration's new head, Ugur Bayar.