Mobile Market – Turkey’s 4G Auction

On 4 March 2015 the Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, Lütfi Elvan, announced that the 4G auction will be completed in May 2015 and 4G will be put into service at the end of the year. Lütfi Elvan has also informed that a new operator will take part in the auction besides the incumbent operators (Vodafone Turkey, Turcell, Avea). The said announcement was awaited with a great deal of excitement, since Turkey is trying to introduce 4G for a while.

Minister Elvan explained that a total of 390 Mhz from 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz bands, will be presented in the auction. In addition to that, he concluded that the new operator will solely operate over the 2600 Mhz spectrum and it will not be subjected to the obligations imposed over the incumbents." He also emphasized the importance of active spectrum sharing in low density areas and clarified that the current asymmetry in the distribution of frequency spectrums will be removed during