Turk Telekom purchases Pantel, player in central/eastern Europe and the caucasus

Turkey's leading fixed line operator, Turk Telekom, has purchased Pantel International, which has 30,000 fiber optic networks in 16 countries, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Caucasus. "By purchasing Pantel International, we have spread our communication infrastructure to Europe," Turk Telekom CEO Gokhan Bozkurt told the Anatolia news agency yesterday during the CeBIT fair in Hanover, Germany. Saying that CeBIT is a good opportunity for Turk Telekom to show off its technology, Bozkurt added, "Our investments in technology and communications over the past five years have reached TL 9 billion ($5.6 billion). Our investments didn't slow down, unlike the way other world companies stepped on the brakes due to the global [financial] crisis."