ANKARA: Turkey’s defense procurement institution has unveiled a critical component in the country’s establishment of a 4G network, which is expected to be operational by the first day of 2016.
Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul, Orhan Öğe, a senior official at the Turkish Defense Industry undersecretary, said the new base station, which serves to connect mobile devices to a network – in this case 4G – would meet “global standards.”
The tender for 4G frequency bands is scheduled to be held on May 26. A total of 20 broadband segments will be offered for use in the 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2100 MHz frequencies. The total broadband will be 390.4 MHz and its total minimum cost has been determined at about 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion).
The base station has been developed in collaboration with Aselsan, a leading Turkish defense manufacturer, and telecommunications companies Netaş and Argela. It is a domestic base station, which aims to serve GSM operators Turkcell, Avea and Vodafone in Turkey.
After press briefings, officials from the three GSM operators signed an agreement to test the domestic base station.
Mehmet Erkul from Avea welcomed the move and voiced the company’s support for the production of domestic base stations. “We will proceed to tests,” he said.
Hikmet Kangal, the chairman of the Information Technologies Department at the Defense Industry undersecretary, told the Anadolu Agency he expects the test period will be completed within three to four months. Kangal also noted that import of these types of base stations had caused a current deficit in the country, thus stressing the need for domestically-produced ones.
During the press conference, Kangal also asserted that the undersecretary aims to sell these stations to Central Asian, African and Southeast Asian countries.
4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone technology following 2G and 3G, according to a definition by U.K. telecoms regulator Ofcom. 2G technology was suitable for making calls and sending text messages, while 3G made it possible to access the internet more effectively through mobile phones.
