Turkey is due to auction spectrum for 4G services next month, but the industry has been left in limbo after the president called for the country to skip the fourth generation of mobile services and go straight to 5G.
Tayyip Erdogan’s plan for the Turkish mobile industry is ambitious at best.
"Within two years Turkey will be on 5G," he said at a Turk Telekom event on Tuesday, according to Reuters. "Let’s be patient and jump from 3G to 5G. Can we do this? We definitely can ," he was quoted as saying.
The industry is understandably puzzled by his remarks.
South Korea is aiming to roll out a pre-standardisation 5G network for the PyeongChang Olympic games in 2018. Along with many other industry stakeholders the world over, the country is looking to commercial services in around 2020.
Thus it seems unlikely that Turkey will have 5G networks in place in 2017.
Last month the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) announced that it would hold an auction of spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands. Regulatory body the BTK later confirmed that the auction would take place on 26 May to enable operators to launch 4G services from the start of 2016.
Some spectrum has been set aside for a potential new market entrant.
If all the spectrum were to sell at the minimum price, the government would raise €2.3 billion from the process.
Should it go ahead, that is.
There has been no official reaction to Erdogan’s comments from the regulator as yet.
