The 5G Summit, organized by the EFF Organization with Bilişim Vadisi as the main stakeholder, was held at the Information Technologies and Communication Authority. Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, spoke at the program opening.
Expressing that 5G is expected to be widely used by 2025, Karagözoğlu stated, “It is estimated that by 2028, 5G subscriptions will account for 55% of all mobile subscriptions, reaching 5 billion. Today, while standardization efforts for 5G continue, as of January 2023, more than 700 5G smartphone models have been offered to users worldwide.”
Karagözoğlu said, “Nowadays, the need to access and analyze information anytime and anywhere has increased much more compared to previous years. As a natural consequence of this situation, machine-to-machine communication applications have become an inseparable part of our daily lives. As of the end of 2022, the number of machine-to-machine communication subscribers in our country has reached 8.1 million. With everything becoming connectable to the internet, we expect this number to increase much more in the coming years.”
President Karagözoğlu: For the successful implementation of 5G technology, there is a need to establish an important common ecosystem infrastructure.
Mentioning that the basic features of the 5G ecosystem consist of infrastructures formed by base stations providing high-speed connectivity, routers, and other network components, Karagözoğlu stated, “This infrastructure must be built globally to support the increasing demand for 5G services and applications. Another important aspect of the 5G ecosystem is that all kinds of user devices can easily connect to the 5G network. Many manufacturer companies have already launched 5G-enabled devices to the market, and in the coming years, many new manufacturers are expected to bring more advanced technology products to the sector with additional innovations.”
President Karagözoğlu: Our Ministry, leading the way, continues the necessary studies with awareness of the transformation that will occur with 5G, the opportunities it offers, and the potential risks.
Karagözoğlu said, “In this context, under the coordination of our Authority, the New Generation Mobile Communication Technologies Turkey Forum (5GTR Forum), which we established to develop high value-added domestic and national products, services, and technologies that will take place in the world market in next-generation mobile communication systems beyond 5G, has prepared a White Paper with the aim of determining priorities, strategies, and roadmaps for 5G and beyond. At the same time, we have organized many national and international events including vertical sector-oriented studies under the 5GTR Forum organizational structure. Cooperation agreements have been signed with the Japan and Korea 5G Forums.”
Mentioning that another study conducted towards the formation of an efficient ecosystem in 5G and beyond technologies is the 5G Valley Open Test Field, President Karagözoğlu stated, “With 5G Valley, an environment has been created in the region covering the campuses of METU, Bilkent, and Hacettepe Universities in Ankara and the BTK Main Building, where universities, research centers, companies, and startups can test applications and technologies related to 5G and Beyond and create added value. The 5G Valley Open Test Field is open for free use by all parties wishing to conduct studies on 5G and beyond.”
President Karagözoğlu: 5G technology opens new and important horizons for us in terms of production and technology ownership in the electronic communications sector.
Karagözoğlu said, “We should not forget that it is our duty and civic debt to our country to evaluate these opportunities presented by 5G, both to make important breakthroughs with our engineers and technology companies, and to produce, to the extent possible, the needs of our National 5G Network infrastructure and our users for all kinds of terminals and equipment with our domestic software and hardware and our own engineering capabilities and power. In this context, the End-to-End Domestic and National 5G Project, which we have been working on since 2017 to enable our country to join the ranks of the few countries in the world that can produce in 5G technology, is of great importance.”
Emphasizing that the proper planning of these studies and the execution of the project is an important technological development and initial step for our country, Karagözoğlu stated, “Being able to use the successful results of the project within our 5G network is among our most important goals and expectations. Under the coordination of our Ministry and Authority, with the intensive efforts of some companies that are members of the Communications Technology Cluster and ULAK AŞ, we have taken important steps by conducting the first successful trials and tests of domestic 5G products.”
President Karagözoğlu: I hope that in the near future, by providing all kinds of support to the project, we will start to see our new products in the 5G network infrastructure quickly.
Karagözoğlu concluded his speech by saying, “Of course, I want to emphasize that all our operators have important responsibilities at this point. I want to express that our operators need to discover potential producers, develop long-term collaborations, projects, and when necessary, financial support to accelerate the development of the domestic and national product ecosystem through business models. As BTK, I would like to state that we will continue our efforts in the studies within our responsibility as diligently as we have done so far to further increase our national economic welfare and quality of life by benefiting from these opportunities.”