Information Technologies and Communication Authority President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu attended the France Trade Attaché Event held at Istanbul Technical University Arı Teknokent.
Information Technologies and Communication Authority President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu expressed his pleasure at being together at this important event bringing together Turkish and French companies, stating, "As the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, we closely follow developments in the ICT sector, always keeping this vision in mind both in terms of infrastructure and regulation, and shaping our work in line with the 'New Turkey Century' vision indicated by our esteemed President."
President Karagözoğlu stated, "Our Institution, established in 2000 with the aim of developing the communication infrastructure and services of our country, ensuring their widespread use, and providing fast, secure, continuous, and high-quality communication services based on new technologies supported by national resources, continues to provide services with approximately 1,300 personnel and 9 regional directorates across the country in addition to its central building in Ankara."
President Karagözoğlu: One of our most important goals is the development of fiber infrastructure and increasing fiber internet usage.
Institution President Karagözoğlu said, "Today, our fiber line length has exceeded 517 thousand km. The EHABS Project, managed by our Institution, records information on the infrastructures of operators operating in the electronic communications sector for the development of fiber infrastructure and broadband internet services and the efficient use of resources. It aims to collect geographic information on the country's electronic communications infrastructure in a single center, display this information on a GIS-based map, contribute to the effective and fast execution of right-of-way and facility sharing processes, monitor right-of-way processes in real-time, assist in determining policies to widespread broadband access under universal service, and contribute to the decision support systems of other institutions. Since EHABS became operational, it has been actively used in right-of-way and facility sharing."
President Karagözoğlu: It is estimated that more than 228 commercial 5G networks are operational worldwide and that 5G subscriptions will reach 5 billion by 2028.
Institution President Karagözoğlu said, "In this context, in 2016, we established the Next Generation Mobile Communication Technologies Turkey Forum (5GTR Forum) to ensure the development of domestic/national products, services, and technologies that will take place in national and international markets in 5G and beyond new generation communication systems expected to shape the coming years, and to contribute to the formation of an efficient ecosystem in this field. Under the coordination of BTK, the 5GTR Forum Working Groups aimed to determine priorities, strategies, and roadmaps for 5G and beyond, and in this direction, detailed roadmaps were prepared in 2018 in the form of a White Paper including areas such as Core Network, Physical Network, Services and Applications, and Standardization."
Stating that they have already started working on developing 6G technologies alongside 5G technologies with domestic and national capabilities, Karagözoğlu said, "With 6G technologies, although their definite boundaries are not yet determined; we can say that studies continue towards goals such as the use of frequencies starting from 100 GHz up to 3 THz, the use of Li-Fi technology, i.e., communication technology with visible light using high-energy LEDs, providing 1000 Gbps level in the network and 1 Gbps speed to individual users, and reducing latency times well below 1 ms."
President Karagözoğlu: Due to the increase in cyber attacks and threats, many countries are forming security strategies and taking measures against cyber threats.
Karagözoğlu said, "In our National Cyber Incident Response Center established within our Institution, Cyber Incident Response Teams work uninterruptedly 7 days 24 hours, conducting alarm and warning activities to prevent cyber threats originating from domestic and foreign sources, thus ensuring cyber security. Since 2011, we have increased our national-level cyber incident preparedness and response capabilities with 7 national and 2 international cyber security exercises. Our country continues to participate and contribute to various international cyber security exercises such as NATO Locked Shields, NATO Cyber Coalition, and NATO Crisis Management Exercise."
Stating that they are widespreading Cyber Incident Response Teams (SOME) nationwide, which is another important element of the national cyber security organization, President Karagözoğlu said, "In our country, electronic communications, finance, energy, water management, transportation, and critical public services have been identified as critical sectors, and in this context, 14 Sectoral SOMEs and more than 2,100 institutional SOMEs are operational."
President Karagözoğlu: Our initiatives continue to provide sufficient contribution to the needed human resources.
"With the support of our Ministry, through our Institution, we discover young talents with 'CYBER STAR' capture the flag competitions aimed at meeting the need for experts in the cyber security field in our country, and aim to employ them in public institutions and organizations needing experts in this field. In addition, we provide cyber security laboratory training to successful young people in competitions through the FETİH Cyber Training Ground program. Indeed, we are seeing the results of these efforts. According to the latest report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) published in 2020, our country rose 9 places compared to the previous year, reaching 11th in the world and 6th in Europe."
Emphasizing that BTK Academy continues to achieve successful works, Karagözoğlu said, "On the BTK Academy Online Training Portal, there are a total of 110,411 minutes of online training under 8 main categories: Software World, K12 World, System World, Business World, Personal Development World, Design World, Safe Internet World, and Regulation World, with 220 topics. As of March 2023, the number of registered users on the BTK Academy Online Training Portal has reached 1,513,050."
Emphasizing that BTK continues to strengthen its international relations to take its place in the globalizing world and to be more effective and efficient in the communications field, and maintains close cooperation with the European Union as well as the international and regional organizations it is a member of, Karagözoğlu concluded his speech by saying, "In line with the effective policies followed internationally, our country has been re-elected for the 6th time as a member of the ITU Council from the Western Europe Region in the elections held during the Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-22) of the International Telecommunication Union-ITU, one of the United Nations' specialized agencies. In this vein, while maintaining multilateral relations, we also attach great importance to strengthening bilateral relations. I would like to note that we have signed Memoranda of Understanding with the relevant institutions of 37 countries."