Turkey officially entered the 5G era on Wednesday as the country’s three major mobile operators — Turkcell, Türk Telekom and Vodafone Turkey — simultaneously activated 5G services across all 81 provincial centres.
The nationwide launch follows six months after the trio collectively invested US$2.95 billion in 5G spectrum in the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands during last October’s auction. Under licence obligations, the operators must extend 5G coverage to the entire country by April 2028.
Turkcell Showcases 5G Capabilities with Live Demonstrations
Turkcell marked the milestone with a press event featuring simultaneous live 5G calls to teams in all 81 provinces, real‑time speed tests with employees in Erzurum, Adana, Trabzon, Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and Diyarbakır, and a remote‑driving demo using an electric vehicle from domestic automaker Togg.
General Manager Ali Taha Koç highlighted Turkcell’s spectrum holdings as a key competitive advantage in the new 5G landscape.
“We build 5G technology on the broad spectrum we have in 3G and 4.5G,” he said. “I'm talking about a total capacity of 394.4 MHz — 25% more than our closest competitor. As of today, we are the operator with the widest coverage competence in high capacity.”
Koç also pointed to Turkcell’s transport backbone, capable of supporting up to 1.6 Tbps, as a strategic asset. The operator’s financial strength is another factor: last week it secured a US$1 billion syndicated international Murabaha financing agreement with 14 banks to support its 5G rollout.
Beyond consumer mobile services, Turkcell is positioning itself to expand into fixed wireless access (FWA) with a 5G version of its Superbox home broadband product and a portable hotspot device, Superbox Go. The company also plans to offer enterprise‑grade network slicing solutions tailored for sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare and logistics.
Türk Telekom Leans on Fibre Strength
At its own press event on Monday, Türk Telekom CEO Ebubekir Şahin underscored the operator’s extensive fibre footprint — now exceeding 500,000 km — as a major differentiator in the 5G race.
“With our fibre network extending to all 81 provinces, our extensive 5G infrastructure, our expertise in 5G applications, LTE base stations of which 61% are fiber‑connected, and the highest 5G capacity per subscriber, we are ready to deliver the most inclusive 5G experience for everyone, everywhere across Turkey,” Şahin said.
