• The most important activity in this period took place in the regulatory framework area. A new law was enacted introducing major changes in the current telecommunications legislation. The law aims developing a liberal telecom market gradually. 

• Several communication actions were performed including a workshop on IT use in worker unions, a conference on mobile communications, a meeting of the IT Group in the National Assembly.

• Several reports were published including the TUENA (Information Infrastructure Master Plan of Turkey) final report, a report on IT related news coverage in the press, a report on Internet penetration and ECommerce in Turkey, and a report on emerging Turkey.

• A new expertise group was formed on IT use in worker unions within Turkish Informatics Association jointly with leading worker union associations including Turkis, DISK and Hakis.

• An interesting observation was the increase in the number of TV commercials on IT and Internet services.

• A new law was enacted which introduces major changes in the current telecommunications legislation. The law requires privatising Turk Telekom by the end of year 2003. It also requires establishing an independent regulatory body.

• Several reports were published in this period including the TUENA (Information Infrastructure Master Plan of Turkey) final report prepared by TUBITAK for the Ministry of Transport, a report on IT related news coverage in the press prepared by the Association of Informatics Industrialist of Turkey TUBISAD, a report on Internet penetration and ECommerce in Turkey prepared by Intel, and a report on emerging Turkey prepared by the leading national newspaper Hurriyet. It is interesting that two of these reports were prepared by international organisations. The TUENA report is a plan document for long term (up to year 2020) planning of telecommunications infrastructure in Turkey. It is based on an analysis of the needs in several main sectors such as education, healthcare, industry and commerce, and a projection of the needs.

• The Intel report on Internet penetration in Turkey is based on interviewing 100 IT managers in 4 main sectors. Findings include the following: 97% consider Internet as a very important business tool, 100% believe their success in the future depends on their doing business on theInternet, only 22% are using Internet in E_Commerce today, only 19% are planning to start E-Commerce in one year, 2-15% of the income of those doing E-Commerce comes from E-Commerce, and 63% do not consider starting E-Commerce in their businesses.

• Several meetings were also held including a workshop on IT use in worker unions, a conference on mobile communications, and a meeting of the IT Group in the National Assembly.

• A new expertise group was formed on IT use in worker unions by Turkish Informatics Association jointly with leading worker union associations including Turkis, DISK and Hakis.

The new telecommunications law reflects partially the current national IS strategy. With this law the telecom market is being liberalised. The first major event was the announcement of the call for tender for licensing the forth and the fifth GSM networks.

The TUENA final report was announced in this period. The TUENA report is a master plan on information infrastructure of Turkey covering a period up to year 2020. The project was done by TUBITAK on a contract basis for the Ministry of Transport. It is considered to be a major document.

Another action taken was the formation of two committees on IT by the State Planning Organisation in relation with the preparation of the new 5 year national development plan, one committee on telecommunications infrastructure and services and the other on IT and Internet services.

An interesting observation was the increase in the number of TV commercials on IT and Internet services. A major portion of prime time commercials in leading national TV channels are on IT products and services and Internet subscription campaigns. About half of the commercials fall into this category in channels such as Kanal D, Kanal E, NTV and CNN Turk.