BTK President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan spoke at the Mobile Broadband Strategy Workshop. Emphasizing that the electronic communications sector is developing at a dizzying speed, President Sayan stated that it is very important to use information technologies effectively and efficiently in this regard.
The Mobile Broadband Strategy Workshop, held at the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) for planning mobile broadband communications in our country, setting targets, and presenting the mobile broadband strategy working report, was attended by BTK President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Institution Department Heads, academics, and numerous representatives from public and private sectors.
Stating that the electronic communications sector is undergoing a very rapid development and change process, President Sayan said, “Today, it is almost impossible to talk about a sector that does not use electronic communication services and infrastructure. The effective and efficient use of electronic communication technologies has become the key to productivity in education, health, agriculture, industry, tourism, and all other sectors that come to mind. Therefore, using information technologies effectively and efficiently stands out as the most important goal for all sectors.”
Reminding that they are moving with the “Broadband Everywhere for Everyone” target for 2023 and recalling the prepared “National Broadband Strategy and Action Plan,” President Sayan said, “Within the framework of Law No. 5809 on Electronic Communications, the duty to determine the strategy belongs to our Ministry; developing strategy proposals is within our Institution's scope. With this study, the first steps towards determining the strategy for mobile broadband communications in our country will be taken together, and then this strategy proposal will be forwarded to our Ministry.”
Drawing attention to the rapid increase in data consumption in mobile broadband services, Sayan shared the following information with the participants regarding the results of the report published by Ericsson in 2017: “Global mobile data traffic increased by 70% from the first quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017, while in our country, the increase was 97% in the same period. Between 2011 and 2017, mobile data traffic in Turkey doubled approximately every year, increasing by 6237%. Despite variations in traffic forecasts, significant increases in mobile data traffic volume are expected in the next 5 years.”
Listing the reasons increasing mobile data traffic volume as factors such as “the development of devices like smartphones and tablets that enable high data usage, new technologies providing high data speeds that satisfy users, and mobile applications encouraging users to consume data,” Sayan said, “I would like to remind that the provision of mobile broadband communication services in our country started with 3G authorization. Subsequently, with the 4.5G tender, which was an important step to provide our citizens with the latest communication technology, the allocated frequencies of 183.8 MHz were more than doubled, raising this value to 365.4 MHz. Thus, the total allocated frequency reached 549 MHz.”
WE ARE WORKING TO PROVIDE SERVICES OF HIGHER QUALITY
Stating that the regulations made pave the way for citizens to access mobile broadband services with higher quality, President Sayan underlined the importance they attach to consumer rights by saying, “Our consumers should receive services of sufficient quality in return for the fees they pay and should never pay more than necessary for the services they receive. We are acting, and will continue to act, with the vision of being an institution that leads the transformation of technology into economic and social benefits to prevent all these.”
Emphasizing that creating a “Mobile Broadband Spectrum Strategy” is of great importance for reducing the digital divide, ensuring consumers' access to mobile broadband services at affordable prices, guiding our producers, and increasing the quality of mobile broadband services, Sayan said, “The regulations currently in practice regarding domestic production will be determined within the scope of the Mobile Broadband Strategy and will also be valid in granting frequency usage rights. Therefore, I want to warn our operators and producers to make the necessary preparations. Although the current allocated spectrum amount allows the existing traffic to be carried comfortably today, increasing data usage, technological developments, changing consumption needs, and the proliferation of broadband-requiring applications will cause operators' needs for new frequency allocations to increase in a certain period.”
ALLOCATING SPECTRUM AT THE RIGHT TIME WILL REDUCE PRICES
Reminding that allocating spectrum at the right time will reduce user prices in the same proportion by reducing network investments, Sayan said, “Considering that fixed broadband is lower cost compared to infrastructure, it can be said that especially spectrum below 1 GHz can play an important role in improving the quality of broadband services in rural areas by defining certain coverage obligations.”
Sayan also touched upon developments regarding 5G in his speech. Stating that additional spectrum allocations supporting these technologies should be utilized to encourage the development of 5G technology in Turkey and to prevent its progress from being hindered in Turkey due to spectrum shortage, Sayan provided the following information about the studies conducted: “It shows that every 1 unit of investment in the ICT sector provides 1.8 units of growth in the total economy, and every 10% increase in broadband access provides 1-1.5% growth in GDP. International studies also show that the greatest economic growth potential by 2025 lies in mobile internet. It is projected that the global mobile internet market alone will reach a size of 3.7 trillion to 10.8 trillion dollars in 2025.”
Sayan concluded his speech by saying, “I wish this workshop, conducted in line with the policy and strategy determined by our Ministry in accordance with the vision drawn by our esteemed President, to be beneficial primarily to our country and citizens, as well as the entire electronic communications sector. I greet you all with respect.”
Following the opening speech, Spectrum Management Department Head Afşin Büyükbaş made a presentation informing about the studies conducted by BTK on the “Mobile Broadband” topic. Emphasizing that they follow international regulations regarding developments, Büyükbaş said, “Since we cannot use a scale system specific to Turkey, we adopt a scale system by following international regulations, and our domestic producers need to comply with them as well. Therefore, we must closely follow the developments. Even though our work is independent from the world, we should also monitor what they do on the other hand.”