Leading Turkish cellphone operator Turkcell and Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei set a record in the first 5G millimeter-wave band speed test on Thursday.

Turkcell and Huawei broke a new speed record in Turkey, Turkcell said in a statement.

In the tests, which used 5G equipment and technologies, the download speed tallied 70 Gigabits per second (Gbps), a target difficult to achieve using present-day technology, the statement added.

Turkcell Deputy Director General Network Technologies Gediz Sezgin called the successful test result a "breakthrough in telecommunication."

Huawei's President of R&D Wireless Networks Ying Weimin said that they were happy to use technology to improve lives.

Previously, on Jan. 11 when Turkcell did its first speed test with 5G equipment in Turkey, the speed per second was 24.7 Gbps.

Turkey's first 5G test was made with Stockholm-based telecommunication company Ericsson.

The mobile network progressed to 4.5G in April 2016, which is 10 times faster than 3G technology.

The companies, which have been working together for the last two years on 4.5G and 5G technologies, signed a deal during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's official visit to China.

GSM-based mobile communication began in Turkey when Turkcell commenced operations in 1994.