17 Apr 2012Turkey Broadband Overview

Turkey’s telecommunication sector was liberalised on 1 January 2004. Since then, new price control regulations coupled with entry of new players into the market have intensified competition leading to reduction in tariffs. Turkey’s preparation to join the European Union is an important incentive to make its telecommunications sector more competitive and dynamic. This has encouraged changes in the telecommunications regulatory regime following the guidelines set out in the EU 'acquis’ for candidate countries. However, significant progress still needs to be made, particularly in relation to the regulation of the former state-owned incumbent operator Turk Telekom (TT) and the cable companies.

Along with the increase in mobile phone use, a downward trend in fixed line penetration can be observed. By the end of 2011, Turkey had about 15.21 million fixed line subscribers, down from 16.2 million a year ago. Fixed line penetration fell further to 20.6 per cent from 22.3 per cent in Q4 2010. The fixed telephony market is still dominated by the incumbent. In Q411, 91 per cent of revenue from telephony services provided in the country was earned by Turk Telekom, with only 9 per cent shared by alternative operators. Turk Telekom’s share has increased from 89 per cent in Q410, though it did fluctuate during the year.

As in other countries, rural broadband coverage remains a challenge in Turkey. To this end, in summer 2011, Turk Telekom received from the European Investment Bank EUR 250 million finance package for developing the Internet infrastructure in rural areas as well as modernisation of the existing infrastructure. The first tranche of the credit, worth EUR 100 million, has already been transferred to Turk Telekom.