Turkey has a great opportunity to build a 5G system and the latest technologies in the telecommunications field, the chief executive officer of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) has said.
“Almost every telecom operator brings tremendous service to society, while the communication sector is one of the fields which need the biggest infrastructure investments,” Guru Parulkar told state-run Anadolu Agency in an interview.
“We are trying to move it further, so we can do faster innovation on this infrastructure,” he said.
“We think that the communication infrastructure has gone quite far but there is still a long way to go,” he added.
“More opportunities are coming up with Internet of Things [IoT], Virtual Reality [VR], Augmented Reality [AR], and connected cars... There are so many new technologies requiring better networks,” Parulkar said.
“What we are trying to do is to enable that the rate of innovation is at a cost point which operators and society can afford,” he added.
Parulkar stated that it is not economically viable to build communication infrastructures in rural areas with the current traditional ways while the open source materials allow establishing such networks at a very different type of investment — much more cost-effective.
Pointing out the Turkish government’s efforts to expand universal service network to bring communication infrastructure to the country’s rural areas, he noted that a protocol was signed between the ONF and the Turkish government to test the latest telecommunication technologies during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
“Using this government program as an opportunity to deploy the latest technology is a great idea,” Parulkar said.
“If you can test the latest instruments, prove them in the rural areas, then you can deploy them in the mainstream metropolises,” he added.
“So there are a couple of ifs, but if those ifs become true then Türk Telekom and whoever other partners will have tremendous opportunity not only to create the best infrastructure in the country but also to export it to other countries as well,” he noted.
Noting that not many telecom operators are willing to deploy such disruptive or very programmable technologies based on open sources, he said: “If Türk Telekom can indeed deploy the technology coming out of our labs this year the company would be a world leader in 5G.”
Since 2011, the ONF consortium has been working with around 150 organizations including universities, equipment vendors, chip manufacturers, and software suppliers.