İSTTELKOM

Minister for Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication Ahmet Arslan called on GSM operators to use a common infrastructure in his speech in the Istanbul program of Davos World Communication Forum.

Arslan said, “We do not want each operator to invest separately, to enable users separately. Let us use the infrastructure jointly, let us benefit from it jointly. Instead of investing approximately 15-16 billion dollars in this sector, we can invest 5 billion dollars together for a common infrastructure and fulfill the needs of our people”.

In his speech at the opening of the Davos World Communication Forum hosted by Istanbul University, Arslan pointed out the importance of communication and communicating instant information and said that it is important to provide accurate information in this sense.

Arslan informed participants about their duties in the communication sector and their work as a Ministry and continued as follows:

“Our task particularly in our globalizing world is to be in a position in the decision making mechanisms generating decisions rather than be in a position adapting to the sector, following the sector, monitoring the sector, assuming a position according to taken decisions. This is exactly what we are trying to do as a ministry in every area. Turkey has taken significant leaps in this matter.

It is very important that the organization is carried out in Turkey. As a geographical location Turkey has the advantage of a beautiful location. Being in such a beautiful as well as central spot is accompanied with difficulties. We are in a beautiful yet challenging location. There is always competition, even deadly competition in our geographical area. In this geographical area it is essential to be strong and stay strong.

‘In order to stay strong, you have to be prepared to get out of all the crises by managing them properly and prepare for a new crisis that could come at any time. That’s what we do and try to do.’

“Operators should not invest in a separate fiber infrastructure, let us use a common infrastructure”

Minister Arslan shared the sectoral figures with the participants in his speech. Arslan indicated that the  communication and transmission sectors in Turkey had grown from a 20 billion lira sector into a 83 billion lira sector within the last 12-13 years and said, ‘during the last 14 years the number of our mobile subscribers has reached 74 million from 27-28 million. What is more significant is that 7 million are using 2G, 30 million are using 3G while 38 million 600 thousand people are using 4.5G within a period of 1,5 years’.

Underlining the importance of using the blessings of communication in the sector, Arslan explained that the Turkish communication sector is a sector that is growing with the world, not following the world and the fact that 38 million people are using 4.5G has a significant impact.

Arslan continued his speech as follows:

“Our number of fixed subscribers has dropped from 19 million to 11 million, but in reverse, it indicates that the gains enabled by GSM operators to its users has  decreased the need for landlines. The number of broad subscriber in Turkey 13 years ago was practically non-existent with 23 thousand subscribers, whereas currently there are 56 million subscribers. Our international internet output capacity was 20 GB 13 years ago and today it has reached 6 thousand GB. This is an important benchmark to show the current status of Turkey.

The essential infrastructure of the sector is the important fiber optic infrastructure. We have achieved 280 thousand kilometers out of an 88 thousand kilometer infrastructure. However, we have very serious work under way on the common and efficient use of infrastructure. We do not want each operator to invest separately and deliver services to the user. We can use the infrastructure jointly. Let’s meet the need of our people in this sector with 5 billion dollars instead of approximately 15-16 billion dollars which is the investment need of this sector. ”

“We know that there are many steps we need to take regarding cyber security”

Arslan also reported that installation work on the electronic communication infrastructure information system was being carried out throughout the country. Indicating that the fiber infrastructure would be monitored in an electronic environment with this work, Arslan informed the participants about their work on the “extension of e-government applications” which is another objective.

Referring to the work carried out on cyber security and its importance, Arslan continued his speech as follows:

“We know that we need to take several steps related to cyber security in particular in Turkey. We have a large number of cooperation in order to be prepared for crises in a geographical region where crises incur. We are conducting many national and international exercises on cyber security. In addition, we are not satisfied with the current satellites of Türksat which is an important institution of our industry and we have started tender processes regarding the procurement of two additional satellites.

We will launch Türksat 5A at the end of 2018 and 5B at the end of 2019. We are not content with these, we are continuing our efforts to improve and launch the new satellite Turksat 6A into space with local contribution. We are delivering base stations to rural areas in our country where mobile services and base stations are not available.  Nowadays we will establish approximately 500 additional base stations to deliver 2G and 4,5G infrastructure to the service of our people .”

“They thought they could fool these people by commissioning the reading of a statement on TRT on July 15th”

Arslan noted that Turkey was a country where crises incurred however, it was also a country that had learned how to deal with crises and commented on the 15 July process. Arslan reminded that with the consciousness of being a nation, the nation had responded to the President’s call and filled the public squares on the 15^th of July and said:

“We appreciate our nation in this regard. It is a good thing that they proved to the world that where there is a will, guns, tanks, helicopters are not much use, they gave a lesson to the world. There was a very important underlying reason for filling the squares that night which was communication. The perpetrators thought they could fool these people by commissioning the reading of a statement on TRT, this was undermined by communication.

They did not take the current status of communication in Turkey and the fact that as a result of lessons learned in terms of crises, the infrastructure had been reinforced and all broadcasts were delivered to the homes of people that day. They failed to take into account the virtual world that Turkey has achieved especially in terms of the Internet infrastructure. They did not take into account that failure to interrupt this communication infrastructure would result in people getting the right information on that day and that they would invade the squares free of misinformation. We thank all the stakeholders in the sector. ”

Arslan, who also commented on the critical importance and duty of the values that the communication faculties produced that night, said that reporters had delivered very important lessons.

Ahmet Arslan said that previously the employees of the sector and some young people had been considered “apolitical” by some and concluded his speech as follows:

“That night, the young people and the employees of the sector gave very important lessons. They said, ‘No, we are not apolitical. We are on top of our duty to ensure that broadcasts coming to Turksat go to the satellite and then to the citizen’s house, and if necessary, we will be martyrs’.

In fact, two of our colleagues were martyred and we wish them mercy. They proved at the cost of their lives by remaining on duty, being aware of their duties just how important communication is, how important it is to mediate communication that night. We wish them mercy and long healthy lives to all our veterans.”

03.11.2016