Reuters reports that Vodafone is to shed 260 jobs at its Turkish operation as part of a company restructuring, just days after it said it plans to invest TRL1.3 billion (US$754 million) in the business that included the recruitment of a further 500 staff. According to Turkish publication Hurriyet, the operator said the layoffs come as part of “an organisational overhaul” amid efforts to increase efficiency.

The restructuring comes after Vodafone Turkey experienced a poor last quarter of 2008, which saw its revenues fall 14.5 percent and customers lost to rival players, Turkcell and Turk Telekom’s Avea. The introduction of number portability in the country at the end of last year has also sparked a price war among the operators. Vodafone bought its Turkish business – previously known as Telsim – for US$4.6 billion in 2005, but it was among the UK-based group’s worst performing businesses last quarter. According to Wireless Intelligence, Turkey had a mobile penetration rate of 87 percent by the end of 2008 and was dominated by market-leader Turkcell (36.9 million connections and a 56 percent market share). Vodafone Turkey had 16.7 million connections (25 percent market share) whilst Avea had 12.8 million connections (19 percent market share). Last November, all three operators snapped up 3G licenses and are expected to launch services this summer.