Turkcell speeds up 4.5G activities

ISTANBUL

Turkcell has announced an acceleration of its efforts to establish 4.5G base stations amid a looming April 1 deadline to adopt the new technology in a press release on Jan. 6.

The company said it will launch 4.5G with speeds of up to 375 Mbps aggregating three carriers. By 2017, Turkcell will reach a speed of 1000 Mbps, according to the press release. 

The company also said it has been working with Huawei and Ericsson for the development of infrastructure as it continues tests for local 4.5G base stations.

Turkcell Chief Technology Officer İlker Kuruöz said the company had been conducting activities with an eye to offering the fastest speeds and the highest capacity not only on April 1 but afterwards as well. 

“We have recently conducted a speed test by aggregating five carriers, reaching a speed of 1200 Mbps. The infrastructure we have established today will create a backbone which will enable us to reach a speed of 1000 Mbps,” Kuruöz said.

Turkey’s three existing mobile operators, Turkcell, Vodafone and Avea, won the rights to the country’s advanced 4G network, dubbed 4.5G in Turkey, due to be established for a sum of more than 3.9 billion euros in the Aug. 26 tender held by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK). 

In the tender, Turkcell offered around 1.9 billion euros for eight packages and Avea offered 1.1 billion euros for five packages, while Vodafone offered $918 million euros for five packages.