Turkey’s leading defense contractor ASELSAN and leading GSM operator Turkcell have joined forces to develop safer digital communications, a press release from the companies said Monday.

The a-ileti ("a-message") platform has been developed based on Turkcell's communication and life platform, BiP, and was designed specifically for ASELSAN to allow for safe and secure communication between over 8,000 of the defense company’s employees.

The platform is the first communication to represent a customized design for a company.

The platform uses the BiP infrastructure with additional features made in line with ASELSAN's request. Data transmitted through the company's communication platform is kept in ASELSAN's own data storage centers.

ASELSAN CEO Haluk Görgün, whose thoughts were included in the company statement, said that information about the company should be secured in line with commercial confidentiality requirements, since ASELSAN was among the top 50 defense companies of the world, with a $2 billion turnover and its products were used in 69 countries.

Furthermore, he added that communication between the employees was especially confidential since the company's product range was in the service of the military, and thus a domestically produced infrastructure would guarantee a greater degree of security.

Commenting on the partnership, Turkcell CEO Murat Erkan said that the telecom giant was glad to cooperate with ASELSAN, one of Turkey’s biggest defense groups.

“With this cooperation, we have enabled the employees of ASELSAN, with whom we similarly develop domestic technologies, to safely communicate via a-ileti, a platform developed by our country’s engineers,” Erkan said, adding that Turkcell was ready to develop platforms for other companies and public institutions in line with various particular requirements.