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| Turkish people have spent $27.5 billion for 135 million mobile phone handsets sold in Turkey since 1994, either registered or unregistered, a study showed. Three mobile phone operators --Turkcell, Vodafone and Avea-- has 63.6 million subscribers in Turkey as of December 2009. The study, made by the Mobile Communication Systems Dealers Association, covers the period from 1994, when mobile phone services were first introduced in the country, and the beginning of 2010. Turkey legally imported some 105 million mobile handsets in 16 years. Around 19 million illegal phones, which did not have a valid International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, has been registered after a law introduced in 2005. The study revealed that there are still 10.5 million illegal sets in use. It also showed that 72 million handsets out of 135 million mobile phone sets are now considered trash. Total amount of trash handsets are worth around $18 billion. |