The Turkish government on Friday announced that it will hold its upcoming 4G spectrum auction on 26 August, three months later than planned.
The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) in March announced that the contest would take place on 26 May, but the country’s president Tayyip Erdogan threw the entire process into doubt in April when he called for Turkey to skip the fourth generation of mobile and move straight to 5G.
Erdogan’s claim that Turkey would have 5G networks up and running within two years, thereby negating the need for 4G, was greeted with some scepticism by the industry, given that the early movers in South Korea are working to a 2018 timeframe for pre-standardisation trial networks.
It is unclear at this stage whether the president’s remarks had a bearing on the postponement of the auction, or not.
In a Turkish language statement on Friday, the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications said that in conjunction with ICTA it made the decision to postpose the sale to allow more time for preparations to be made.
It reiterated the need for more advanced mobile technology in Turkey, noting that while 2G and 3G networks currently serve the needs of consumers, the growing demand for data and emergence of richer applications will require more capacity.
Presuming the auction goes ahead, Turkey plans to sell 390.4 MHz of paired and unpaired spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, and 2.6 GHz bands. Minimum prices it has set for the spectrum mean it aims to raise upwards of €2.3 billion.
ICTA said it has structured the auction in such a way as to ensure that at least three companies will emerge with spectrum, doubtless to the delight of Turkey’s three main mobile network operators, Turkcell, Vodafone, and Turk Telekom’s Avea.
According to new statistics published by ICTA earlier this week, there were 71.9 million mobile subscribers in Turkey at the end of last year. Turkcell led the market with a 48.2% share, followed by Vodafone with 29.1% and Avea with 22.7%.
