The telecommunications liberalisation process started in Turkey in 2004 after the creation of the Telecommunication Authority and is still ongoing as of May 2013. Private sector companies operate in mobile telephony, long distance telephony and Internet access. There were 16.5 million fixed phone lines (18th ranked in the World) and 62.8 million mobile phone subscribers (17thranked in the World).
For more information on telecoms contacts, please see the following link: 4.11 Additional Services Contact List
Telephone Services | |
---|---|
Is there an existing landline telephone network? | Yes |
Does it allow international calls? | Yes |
Number and Length of Downtime Periods (on average) | - |
Mobile Phone Providers | Turkcell (900 Mhz, the largest), |
Approximate Percentage of National Coverage | Turkcell's - coverage is the best in Turkey, pretty much everywhere, except for occasional relatively small dead spots in a few remote and/or mountainous areas in the eastern region of the country. Vodaphone - with 22% of the mobile phone customers in Turkey, has fairly good coverage in towns and cities larger than 10,000 population, but the least complete coverage of the three companies. Türk Telekom - with 17% of Turkey's mobile phone customers, has extensive coverage of the country. You probably won't find significant areas in your travels that have no service. |
The provision of telecommunication services is subject to authorization in Turkey. Under the Electronic Communications Law w. no. 5809, two types of authorisation procedures are stipulated;
The roles and responsibilities of the Authority are stipulated in laws such as Law no. 5809 and Law no. 2813 on the Establishment of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority. Further, there are several pieces of secondary legislation which stipulate the detailed roles and responsibilities of the Authority, the licensing regime and the legal and technical requirements for operators.
Regulations on Usage and Import | ||
---|---|---|
Regulations in Place? | Regulating Authority | |
Satellite | Yes | - |
HF Radio | Yes | - |
UHF/VHF/HF Radio: Handheld, Base and Mobile | Yes | VHF is allowed only to the government authorities |
UHF/VHF Repeaters | Yes | VHF is allowed only to the government authorities |
GPS | Yes | - |
VSAT | Yes | - |
Individual Network Operator Licenses Required | ||
- | ||
Frequency Licenses Required | ||
No |
Existing UN Telecommunication Systems | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UNDP | WFP | UNMM | UNICEF | UNHCR | IOM | |
VHF Frequencies | - | - | - | - | - | - |
HF Frequencies | 3-30mhz | 3-30mhz | 3-30mhz | 3-30mhz | 3-30mhz | 3-30mhz |
Locations of Repeaters |
Repeater 1 – Duluk Baba Hill – Sehitkamil/ Gaziantep Repeater 2 – WFP Building – Sahinbey / Gaziantep
| |||||
VSAT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The Internet in Turkey has been available to the public since 1993.The first available connections were dial-up. Cable Internet has been available since 1998 and ADSL since 2001.
There are four main internet services providers (ISPs) in Turkey: E- Kolay, Kaynet, Superonline and TT-net. Organizations are also able to contract through private companies. The connections are relatively stabile and the offer of speed per 5Mbs is from up to 1GBs
Internet Service Providers | ||
---|---|---|
Are there ISPs available? | Yes | |
If yes, are they privately or government owned? | Privately and only Turk Telekom is 49% owned by the Government | |
Dial-up only? | Yes | |
Approximate Rates (local currency and USD - $) | Dial-up | - |
Broadband | - | |
Max Leasable ‘Dedicated’ Bandwidth | - |
Turkey's mobile (cell) phone companies are Turkcell (900 Mhz, the largest), Vodaphone (900 Mhz, next largest), and Türk Telekom (1800 Mhz, formerly Avea).
All of them also offer 2G and 3G (W-CDMA, 2100 Mhz) service, and 2G GPRS/EDGE and 3G data.
A 4.5G LTE network is being constructed and it is in service by 2016.
For information on MNOs please visit the GSM Association website.
Company | Number of Agent Outlets by Area | Network Strength by Area | Contracted for Humanitarian or Government | Services Offered |
---|---|---|---|---|
Turkcell | +90 532 757 22 22 | Turkcell's - coverage is the best in Turkey, pretty much everywhere, except for occasional relatively small dead spots in a few remote and/or mountainous areas in the eastern region of the country. | Yes | All kind of services which most advanced companies offer are also offered by Turkcell |
Vodafone | +90 542 542 00 00 | Vodafone - with 22% of the mobile phone customers in Turkey, has fairly good coverage in towns and cities larger than 10,000 population, but the least complete coverage of the three companies. | Yes | All kind of services which most advanced companies offer are also offered by Vodafone |
Turk Telekom | +90 | Türk Telekom - with 17% of Turkey's mobile phone customers, has extensive coverage of the country. You probably won't find significant areas in your travels that have no service. | Yes | All kind of services which most advanced companies offer are also offered by Turk Telekom |