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),
Vodaphone (900 Mhz, next largest)
Türk Telekom (1800 Mhz, formerly Avea) 

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.

Telecommunication Regulation

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;

  1. authorisation by notification to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (“Authority”) for services for which spectrum allocation is not required; and
  2. authorisation by obtaining a license for telecommunication services for which specific spectrum allocation is required.

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 Humanitarian Telecoms Systems

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

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

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

-

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs)

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
Cash Transfer Programmes?

Services Offered
(i.e. Merchant Payment,
Bulk Disbursement,
Receive & Make Payment)

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
(formerly Avea)

+90
444 5 444

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