Vodafone Türkiye CEO Engin Aksoy said in an interview: “We are actually ready for 5.5G, not 5G” he said.
For those who missed it, the following statement was made from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s X account last week: “We are taking a new step to strengthen our internet and digital infrastructure. Within the scope of our end-to-end local and national 5G Communication Network Project We will hold our 5G tender in 2025. we will. We aim to receive our first signal in 2026..” On this subject, ECONOMY Newspaper General Coordinator Answering Vahap Munyar’s questions Vodafone Türkiye CEO Engin Aksoy said, “We think that one of the important agenda items of our industry this year will be the transition to 5G. We expect the 5G calendar to be officially announced in the coming days. 5G will increase user experience capacity rather than increasing individual data consumption. Therefore, it will bring efficiency to operators, but it will not create a revenue jump.
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5G technology will mainly benefit individuals and institutions. We look forward to bringing our international experience in this field to our customers. The technology that we will launch as Vodafone Türkiye will actually be 5.5G technology. So, we are actually ready for 5.5G, not 5G. It is useful to underline that during the transition to this new technology, tender conditions should be created by considering the investment-liability balance.
It is important to create the necessary environment and conditions for 5G to be fully implemented. Undoubtedly, the most important part of this is to have a widespread fiber network covering the whole country. Fiber investments should be encouraged and made a priority public policy. Developing the ecosystem of devices and equipment compatible with 5G should be among our national priorities. Therefore, we consider that removing obstacles to accessing 5G compatible smartphones, such as installment limits, is also important in this process.
The license extension process in fixed infrastructure should be carried out in accordance with internationally accepted standards and the simultaneous unbundling process should be initiated. Joint fiber infrastructure initiatives should be implemented simultaneously to strengthen competition at wholesale and retail levels in the Turkish fixed broadband market.
Fixed license extension, mobile extension and 5G tender should be made under equal conditions, there should be no disproportionate differences. For the 5G tender, a tender structure that encourages investments under reasonable conditions should be targeted. We also attach importance to updating obsolete technologies for effective use of resources. By updating 3G with 4.5G, a 20 percent better customer experience is possible without allocating any additional resources. Any operator should be able to update any obsolete technology they want, whenever they want.” he said.