4.5G mobile technology tender to be held on Wednesday

The tender for 4.5G mobile technology will be held by the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) at the BTK meeting hall at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

It has become compulsory to use 4.5G advanced fourth generation technology when establishing any future telecommunication infrastructure after a change was made in the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) tender held last month. Turkcell, Avea, Vodafone and Netgsm tendered the bid for TL 50,000 ($16,982). The tender, which is going to be held via the sealed bid open tender method will commence with the opening of bidding envelopes. After the tender commission checks the documents in the envelopes, 20 different frequency packages will be put out to tender through auctioning.

The minimum value of the 20 different frequency packages in the 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 megahertz spectrum bands must amount to $2.637 billion excluding value-added tax. The authority delegation lifetime will last until April 30, 2029. After the tender, consumers can be provided with new technologies, including 5G, by using the aforementioned frequency bands.

While the current frequency amount allocated to mobile network operators is 183 MHz, it will be increased to 573 MHz in total by adding new frequency bands as part of the tender. The amount of total frequency after the tender will be three times more than the current amount, whereas the amount of frequency bands that will provide data services to mobile broadband will be five times more.

People will have the opportunity to reach information much faster thanks to the service that will be provided with IMT Advanced Technology, which is known as 4.5G and was developed after 3G third generation mobile technology services. As of April 1, 2016, new services can be provided using the frequency bands that will be allocated after the tender. It is compulsory for the operators to cover 95 percent of Turkey's population within eight years after the authority delegation is given.

Additionally, 4.5G will cover tunnels longer than 1 kilometer, highways and high-speed train lines within three years. Thus, people traveling along those routes and lines will have the opportunity to use the mobile broadband service.

The number of the minimum qualified Research and Development (R&D) employees to be employed in R&D centers of the operators will increase by 50 percent with the changes made in the specification document. Moreover, in order to encourage Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to develop indigenous products using their own potential, it has become compulsory for mobile network operators to supply at least 10 percent of their investments with products produced in Turkey by SMEs that have been established to develop products or systems in Turkey.

BTK can conduct inspections if necessary to observe whether operators effectively fulfill their obligations about R&D activities, such as starting R&D projects, following their developments and accepting the outputs in accordance with success criteria. The mandated rate of using domestic products was determined as at least 30 percent in the first year, at least 40 percent in the second year and at least 45 percent in the third year.

According BTK's previous announcement, the tender was scheduled for May 26 but was postponed to Aug. 26.