Turk Telekom (TT) has said it will establish ‘5G-like’ internet speeds in April after signing a deal with South Korean full-service telco KT Corp, reports local site Hurriyet Daily News. The agreement was inked on 22 February at the World Mobile Congress, Barcelona, and will see TT combine ‘4.5G’ services – already offered by KT Corp in South Korea – with its Wi-Fi connection to enable the provision of data speeds of up to 1Gbps. TT Group CEO Rami Aslan was cited as saying: ‘We are ready to offer the highest 4.5G capacity to Turkey with our 1800MHz frequencies and wider fibre infrastructure very soon … We will bring 5G internet to Turkey by April 1 in line with our cooperation deal with KT Corp. Our customers will enjoy one of the speediest mobile internet experiences of the world.’
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, Turkey’s three incumbent mobile network operators (MNOs), Avea (mobile unit of TT), British-owned Vodafone and Turkish-owned Turkcell, each won 4G spectrum in the 26 August 2015 tender held by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), with commercial launch of 4.5G technology mooted for 1 April 2016. Meanwhile, also in August 2015, TT became the sole owner of its Avea subsidiary, following the successful transfer of a 10.0035% stake from its partner Is Bankasi (IS Bank). January 2016 saw TT announce the merging of its respective mobile and ISP (TTNet) units under the unified Turk Telekom brand name, logo and website. Avea and TTNet remain distinct legal entities as wholly owned subsidiaries of TT.