Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Deputy Minister Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan attended the meeting themed "Satellite Sector During and After the Pandemic" organized by Satcom Vision.
In his speech, Deputy Minister Sayan emphasized the importance of information technologies. Stating that information and communication technologies are increasingly used in every field from transportation to health, industry to energy, education to social life, Sayan said, “The diversity and capacity of information and communication infrastructures are a matter of wealth and prosperity for countries. Alternative communication infrastructures on land, sea, air, and space add strength to countries' power. Space activities, which initially involved the use of simple reconnaissance satellites and communication satellites and were sometimes a matter of prestige or deterrence for superpowers, have now become vital in terms of countries' economic and military capabilities.”
Pointing out that air defense has emerged as a highly important issue today, Sayan stated, “Information critical for military and intelligence purposes can be obtained via satellites accurately, quickly, in real-time, and securely across the entire world, without being subject to any geographical restrictions or causing tensions in interstate sovereignty rights such as violations of land-sea-air spaces and borders. While tank-on-tank or aircraft-on-aircraft combat in conventional wars is defined as symmetric operations, Azerbaijan destroying an Armenian tank with a UAV today is an example of asymmetric operations. Countries capable of using space-related technologies gain the ability to conduct asymmetric operations. Countries lacking these capabilities have extremely limited counter-response abilities against those that possess them. This situation demonstrates how important space is in terms of national security,” he said.
Emphasizing that a country's space activities cannot be separated from satellite operations, Sayan said, “Space technologies enable the creation of new business areas, employment of personnel in these fields, establishment of qualified workforce, facilities, and equipment infrastructures in the space sector, sale of owned products and services to friendly and allied countries, thereby generating significant foreign currency, and transitioning to the league of developed countries. Our work on the allocation of frequency bands to meet the spectrum needs of mobile broadband communication services in our country in a timely manner, together with satellite communications, continues under the Mobile Broadband Spectrum Strategy on short, medium, and long-term bases.”
Deputy Minister Sayan also mentioned TÜRKSAT's services as follows: “In addition to Cable Internet, I would like to talk about the internet service provided via satellite under the TürksatVSAT brand. The main goal here is to reliably, high-quality, and uninterruptedly meet the internet and communication needs of public institutions and organizations, private companies, regardless of geographical conditions, through TÜRKSAT communication satellites. Services are provided to institutions such as village schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PTTBank, Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş., Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), Türk Telekom, Turkish Red Crescent, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, as well as municipalities and private sector companies, especially in regions without terrestrial infrastructure. As of the end of September 2020, services are provided with a total of 4,014 terminals, 1,200 of which are village schools. The number of village schools, which previously reached 4,149 active terminals, is decreasing as fixed and mobile broadband services become more widespread.”
Deputy Minister Sayan: Data is Now More Valuable Than Precious Stones
Stating that data is more valuable than precious stones today, Sayan said, “In the framework of the policy that our country's data remains in our country, I would like to remind satellite operators who do not currently have satellite ground stations in our country to establish their ground stations in our country as soon as possible in accordance with these regulations.”
Emphasizing that very little time remains for TÜRKSAT 5A, Sayan said, “In addition to our TÜRKSAT satellites, we see that we have reached this important level thanks to the domestic development and production of many subsystems and components of satellites such as BİLSAT, İTÜpSAT, RASAT, Göktürk-1, Göktürk-2, and recently developed UBAKUSAT, ASELSAT, LAGARİ, GRİZU, and İMECE satellite projects. In line with the rapidly developing satellite communication services in recent years, changes are also occurring in international regulations. Studies continue to develop our existing regulations regarding spectrum and authorization practices for satellite communication services.”
Underlining that countries successful in developing technology and effectively using the technologies they develop leave their competitors behind in the progress race, Sayan concluded his speech by saying, “Countries that fail to achieve this become increasingly dependent on the outside. Today, the traditional understanding of independence has changed and become technology-focused. The most important condition for full independence is to reach a position of designing, developing, producing, and exporting technology. Technological sovereignty will be possible by reducing dependence on other countries. For this reason, as the Ministry, our primary goal is to develop a domestic and national ecosystem in the sector. Our efforts as the Ministry and BTK to develop domestic and national products and services continue without slowing down.”