April 29, 2016
The New Generation Mobile Communication Technologies Turkey Forum (5GTR) meeting was held on April 29, 2016, at the Istanbul Regional Directorate of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority. The opening speech of the meeting was delivered by Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority.
BTK Board Member Figen Kılıç and BTK executives attended the 5GTR Forum meeting, where important activities such as coordinating and monitoring 5G-related studies in our country, ensuring coordination between the public, universities, and industry, determining priority areas, and contributing to the support of R&D and product development studies in these areas are planned. Additionally, representatives from the public sector, universities, and industry presented their views and suggestions.
Dr. Sayan stated that factors such as the rapid increase in the number of smart devices worldwide, technological developments, and demands for speed and capacity have continuously triggered new developments in mobile broadband technologies, providing the following details on the subject:
“The rapid increase in the number of internet-connected devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, the Internet of Things, energy efficiency in communication devices and equipment, and increasing demands for speed and capacity have brought 5G to the agenda, and the global mobile industry has been focusing on 5G technology for the last two-three years. Intense discussions continue on 5G, whose industrial standards have not yet been defined. The most important agenda items of the ITU WRC 2015 conference held in Geneva in November 2015 were dedicated to 5G spectrum planning, and the main agenda at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona in February 2016 was again 5G. A race is ongoing between Asia, Europe, and the US regarding new mobile communication technologies. 4G service is actively used in our country and many countries around the world. 5G is expected to launch at the earliest in 2020 in Japan and South Korea. Countries like South Korea and Japan, which stand out in 5G worldwide, are emphasizing R&D efforts to set standards. In 5G mobile networks, the focus is not only on increasing speed but also on reducing latency and ensuring connection reliability. For speed increases, hybrid networks and improving spectrum efficiency are on the agenda.”
BTK President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan noted that in our country as well, over the past year, following our President's suggestion that "Turkey needs to transition to 5G technology," the 5G topic has gained momentum and become a focal point:
“As a result of workshops and meetings conducted in the last year, primarily by our Institution, as well as other public institutions involved in the subject, universities, and the electronic communications sector; similar to leading countries in 5G technology such as South Korea, Japan, and China, it has been deemed necessary in our country to establish a Forum (5GTR) that ensures collaboration among the public, universities, manufacturers, operators, and relevant NGOs, and coordinates all efforts to have a say in 5G technology.
Starting from this need, this meeting has been organized to gather your views and suggestions for establishing the 5GTR Forum in our country, with the aims of coordinating and monitoring 5G-related studies, ensuring coordination among stakeholders, contributing to the support of R&D studies by determining priority areas, recognizing that 5G will not be a single technology but a combination of numerous concepts, services, and technologies—alongside fundamental projects like ULAK, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small entrepreneurs will also find their place in the 5G ecosystem—and determining the 5G roadmap with the contributions of all stakeholders and taking the necessary steps to implement it,” he said.