Telecommunications in Turkey provides information about television, radio, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

Telecommunications liberalisation

The

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

liberalisation Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...

process started in Turkey in 2004 after the creation of the Telecommunication Authority, and is still ongoing as of May 2013.

Private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

companies operate in

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the l ...

long distance telephony In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call (also known as a toll call in the U.K. ) is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate ...

and

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Interne ...

. There were 12.3 million (12.300.390) fixed

phone lines A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or o ...

, 82.2 million (82.795.432)

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

subscribers, and 80.9 million

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

subscribers (10.6 million xDSL, 3.8 million Fibre, 1.2 million Cable, 65 million Mobile) by Q3 2020. Telecommunications liberalisation in Turkey is progressing, but at a slow pace. The Telecommunication Authority (now renamed Bilgi İletişim ve Teknolojileri Kurumu or BTK), while technically an independent organization, is still controlled by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. While progress is being made (for example, local as well as long distance calls are now open to competition), the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

has so far managed in many areas to restrict access and protect its

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

. For example,

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. I ...

line rental is still not available to alternative operators, making it necessary for subscribers to pay two bills (one for line rental to the incumbent, and one to the chosen operator). The incumbent has so far managed to prevent any operator from connecting its own

fiber optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

at local loop unbundling exchanges, though it is technically required to allow this. Recently, the incumbent announced it is acquiring Invitel, one of only two other players in the inter-city capacity business, raising questions as to how the Turkish Competition Board will treat the acquisition. The lack of progress by the BTK in ensuring a competitive playing field can be evidenced by the

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...

the incumbent still holds. In broadband, the incumbent's provider still occupies roughly 95% share of the market. The Governmental Audit Office of the President (T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Denetleme Kurulu) issued a highly critical report of the BTK in February 2010, listing 115 findings to be addressed. For example, the report found #20 points out that the BTK has completed only 50% to 78% of its stated work plans in each of the years from 2005-2008. Alternative operators are rapidly growing, yet much progress needs to be made by the BTK to improve the competitive landscape.

Authorities

The political authority is Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communication (Turkey) . But there are also two supreme councils; Radio and Television Supreme Council (abbreviated RTÜK) and

Information and Communication Technologies Authority The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) ( tr, Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (BTK)), is a national telecommunications regulatory and inspection authority of Turkey. It was formerly known as the Telecommunications ...

(abbreviated BTK). While internet and point to point telecommunication is controlled by BTK, radio and television broadcast is controlled by RTÜK.

Apple

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly used an iPhone, including famously reaching out to his supporters via FaceTime during the

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt On 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted to seize cont ...

. In 2018 Erdogan called for a boycott of American electronics in what ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' called a "a feud with the Trump administration" over the detention of American

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

pastor

Andrew Brunson Andrew Craig Brunson (born January 3, 1968) is an American pastor and a teaching elder of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Brunson was an evangelical pastor of the Izmir Resurrection Church, a small Protestant church with about 24 cong ...

that coincided with the 2018–2021 Turkish currency and debt crisis. Erdogan noted

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

and the Turkish Vestel Venus phone as alternative to the US made iPhone. The Vestel Venus retailed from $99 in 2018. Some Vestel phones already use the Taiwanese

MediaTek MediaTek Inc. () is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that provides chips for wireless communications, high-definition television, handheld mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers, navigation systems, consumer multimedia ...

chip, but others use

semiconductors A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

made by American company

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, ...

. The phones also use the Android operating system. After the announcement Vestel shares rose on the

Istanbul stock exchange The Borsa İstanbul (abbreviated as BIST) is the sole exchange entity of Turkey combining the former Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) ( tr, İstanbul Menkul Kıymetler Borsası, IMKB), the Istanbul Gold Exchange ( tr, İstanbul Altın Borsası, İ ...

. According to ''Bloomberg News'', Vestel's market share in Turkey was around 6% at the end of 2016, while Apple sold over 200 million iPhones in 2017. ''Mashable'' reported that "Turkey relies on Apple more than Apple relies on Turkey". According to ''Mashable'', Apples market share stood in Turkey around 17.41, while Vestel's was much lower, around 2.08% and that "there are more than 8.5 times more iPhone users worldwide than there are people in Turkey." According to ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

'', the Vestel Venus phones "aren't among Apple's global rivals". After Erdogan's announcement, the company's valuation reached $450 million, compared to Apple's valuation around $1 trillion.

Made in Turkey mobile devices

In January 2021 ''

Daily Sabah The ''Daily Sabah'' (lit. "Daily Morning") is a Turkish pro-government daily, published in Turkey. Available in English, Arabic, and owned by Turkuvaz Media Group, ''Daily Sabah'' published its first issue on 24 February 2014. The editor-in-chief ...

'' reported that

had started local manufacture a line of mobile phones in Turkey. Samsung is the leader of the Turkish mobile market with 40% market share. Chinese firm Oppo released their first Made in Turkey smartphone in March 2021 with a retail price around $346. The phone has 64 GB storage, microSD support, 6.5" display and a MediaTek Helio P35 chipset.

References

External links