BTK President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan attended the “5G and Beyond Technologies and the Competitive Power of Turkey's Agriculture Sector Workshop” hosted by Boğaziçi University. Sayan stated that the information and communication technologies sector is ready to do everything in its power in this regard to ensure that the use of IT and ICT in agriculture and farming is proportional to these developments.
Organized by Boğaziçi University Innovative Agriculture and Food Business Management Platform and the Information Technologies and Communication Authority at Boğaziçi University, the “5G and Beyond Technologies and the Competitive Power of Turkey's Agriculture Sector Workshop” discussed the impact of 5G on the competitiveness of agriculture.
Speaking at the program, BTK President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan said that Turkey already has a conscious and competent participant profile regarding what it can achieve in agricultural technologies. In his speech, citing Malthus's book “An Essay on the Principle of Population” published 220 years ago, Sayan stated, “In this work, Malthus argued that while population increases geometrically, food production increases arithmetically, making hunger inevitable. Today, the fact that this prediction has not come true is largely due to productivity increases in agriculture. However, there is still much to be done for the world population, which is estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050. According to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a 70% increase in productivity from the current situation is still needed. Again, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, 70% of the world's population will reside in cities by 2050.”
Emphasizing that the use of IT and ICT in agriculture and farming must also be proportional to these, President Sayan said, “I want to express that the information and communication technologies sector is ready to do everything in its power in this regard. For example, we foresee increased use of technologies such as smart sensors, specialized software, RFID, NFC, M2M, and IoT applications. Issues such as energy usage, preventing and detecting environmental pollution, water and land efficiency will be working areas in addition to agricultural product productivity, and we foresee the use of information technologies in these areas. In a way, the use of information technologies is inevitable for the efficient use of resources and achieving productivity increases in agriculture. Information technologies will be used in many areas, including increased profitability in agriculture, protecting the planet, food security, and many others I cannot list. When we list all these innovations one under the other, I think it would not be wrong to compare the progress that will occur in agriculture and farming from today to tomorrow with the transition from plow to tractor use.”
Monthly Mobile Data Traffic Will Increase 10-Fold in 2019
Sayan, who said there is much to be done in this regard, stated, “I want to express that the information and communication technologies sector is ready to do everything in its power. It is estimated that monthly mobile data traffic in 2019 will reach 10 times the traffic in 2014, and the number of connected devices will reach 26 billion by 2020. To prevent existing mobile communication technologies from being overwhelmed by such high demand growth, the deployment of both fiber and 5th-generation communication systems and technologies is important. In addition, 5G will not come to the agenda just with the concept of speed increase like previous generations it is built upon. Particularly, service quality metrics such as reduced latency in line with the increase in IoT applications and machine users based on communication, reduced packet losses, and especially improved coverage quality in indoor areas where usage will be intensive will come to the forefront. For speed increases, hybrid network usage and increased spectrum efficiency are on the agenda,” he said.
Sharing the information that the first 5G deployments will go live in 2019 and commercial uses will begin as of 2020, Sayan said, “Around the world, an unprecedented aggressive race is taking place in the electronic communications sector. We see that the USA responded to South Korea and Japan's promises to switch to 5G with the Olympics they will host with systems we can call 4.9, and labeled them as pre-standard 5G examples. On the other hand, we see that Gulf countries, Europe, Russia, and China are working with all their might to say 'we are in this race too.' As a result, competition is taking place among the companies of these countries in categories such as being first, having the most patents, and dominating the world market. Governments and regulatory authorities around the world are preparing national or regional 5G transition roadmaps. Companies are becoming more aggressive day by day in frequency demands and technologies they want to introduce into global standards. As Turkey, we are working to position our country in this race and develop partnerships with realistic and collaborative countries. In this context, we recently signed cooperation memorandums with our counterpart institutions in South Korea and Japan both as BTK and as the 5GTR Forum with our counterpart platforms. We will continue to develop and concretize our cooperation with these countries.”
We Will Carry Turkey to 5G and Beyond with Domestic and National Means
Emphasizing that as the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, they are working to transition Turkey to 5G and beyond technologies with the highest possible domestic and national capabilities, Sayan said, “For this purpose, under the roof of the 5GTR Forum, our operators, suppliers, technology companies, and universities came together. Unlike previous communication technology generations, 5G will be transitioned to not overnight but by being added to existing systems with various technologies. This brings some challenges in terms of technology management while also providing the opportunity to make moves in priority areas without waiting for other parts in terms of technology production and preparation. The technology-neutral 4.5G tender we conducted is an important step that enables operators to offer 5th-generation mobile communication technologies as soon as they are ready.”
Emphasizing that 5G will bring many new experiences and business models to end-users through vertical sectors, Sayan said, “We think that a major change will occur in our sector with 5G, and this experience will be provided through services and applications developed in sectors such as energy, automotive, and health. For this reason, we come together as much as possible to discuss what can be done in different sectors in line with our localization and nationalization targets in Turkey. We started these meetings with the 'Automotive Sector on the Road to 5G' workshop in May last year. We brought together developers from automotive companies producing in Turkey with information and communication technologies sector representatives at our institution, and this workshop helped all parties for subsequent studies. We see that its echoes are still continuing.”
Providing information about the 5GTR Forum studies, Sayan continued his speech as follows: “In addition to the 5GTR Forum's physical network, core network, and standardization working groups, we established the Services and Applications Working Group. The Services and Applications Working Group continues its studies on what can be done in a total of 10 different sectors with the arrival of 5G. In this process, we also held a 5G and Vertical Sectors Workshop to increase awareness on this issue. The 5G and Vertical Sectors report prepared by our institution's experts was another study serving the same purpose. Sector representatives who came together in the 5GTR Forum also conducted a White Paper study over months to reveal opportunities in every sector with 5G and Beyond and how those opportunities can be turned into advantages. We plan to announce the White Paper to the public soon.”
We Can Implement the 5G Valley Project in Other Cities Too
Reiterating that coordinating the creation of the 5G and Beyond ecosystem with BTK is a top priority in line with Turkey's goal of being one of the countries transitioning to 5G mobile communication technology with the highest possible localization and nationalization rates at the earliest time, Sayan stated in his speech, “For this purpose, we signed the 5G Valley Open Test Field Cooperation Protocol with three of our universities—Bilkent, Hacettepe, and METU—and three operators. In the 5G Valley, we aim to establish an infrastructure where R&D, product development, and tests of 5G and Beyond technologies will be conducted through cooperation between BTK, universities, and operators, and we want our domestic suppliers to join the 5G Valley Open Test Field Cooperation Protocol. We plan for everyone producing technology in 5G, such as academics, researchers, PhD students, and startups, to benefit from this open test field.”
President Sayan listed the capabilities of the 5G Valley Open Test Field as follows: “It will provide new R&D opportunities for all stakeholders in the electronic communications sector, enable effective research and projects in the context of public-university-operator-industry collaborations, and create high value-added job opportunities for the ecosystem, contributing to employment. Therefore, the opportunities created in the 5G Valley will be open to all technology developers. For this reason, we recommend that entrepreneurs and technology producers working on agriculture also note the name of the 5G Valley Open Test Field.”
Concluding his speech, President Sayan said, “After the 5G Valley is launched and testing and trials begin, we can plan to implement similar initiatives associated with the 5G Valley in Istanbul or other cities. We are open to suggestions on this. I would like to reiterate that the 5G Valley Open Test Field will be an environment equally accessible and open to everyone. In closing, I would like to emphasize once again that domestic and national production is inevitable for our country's development. I thank Boğaziçi University for hosting this beautiful event and you valuable participants once again, and I wish you a productive meeting.”