July 1999

Turkey Master Report

I - General background

1.    General telecom policy

The highest level telecom authority in Turkey is the Ministry of Transportation. Two directorate generals of Ministry of Transportation, namely, Directorate General of Communications and Directorate General of Wireless Communication, are responsible for communication issues.

Turk Telekom, which is currently a state monopoly, owns and operates telecommunications infrastructures including conventional lines, satellites, submarine lines, cable TV and the Internet backbone. Turk Telekom has the right to license private or public organisations or establish joint operations with private or public organisations on a revenue share basis to use this infrastructure..

GSM operation is currently licensed to two private companies by Turk Telekom.

Broadcast and cable TV licensing is under the control of Higher Council of Radio and Television.

Internet backbone is owned by Turk Telecom. Both Turk Telekom and private ISPs provide Internet services over this backbone.

Satellite communication is provided by Turk Telekom (currently Turk Telekom owns and operates two satellites) and by international communications companies.

Submarine communication lines are owned and operated by Turk Telekom.

Turk Telekom has made considerable progress in recent years in increasing the capacity and the quality of the telecommunications infrastructure.

The current telecom policy requires liberalisation of telecom services in the country. A draft law is currently in the agenda of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA, the Turkish parliament) to liberalise Turk Telekom. Turkey declared to liberalise the basic telecom service market completely by the end of year 2005 as a member of World Trade Organisation WTO. As part of establishing a competitive telecom market the dominant operator and regulatory bodies shall be instituted separately.

2. Institutional structures in charge of the regulatory issues

2.1 Ministries in charge of the telecommunication issues

• Ministry of Transportation is in charge of the telecommunication issues in general.
• Ministry of State is in charge of radio and television broadcasting.

2.2 National regulatory authorities

Ministry of Transportation is the policy maker.

Directorate General of Communications (HGM) of the Ministry of Transportation is the regulatory authority in general in communications. Directorate General of Wireless Communications (TGM) of the Ministry of Transportation is the regulator in wireless communications.

Higher Council of Radio and Television (RTUK) under the Ministry of State is the regulator in radio and TV broadcasting and in cable TV.

As they are part of the Ministry of Transportation, Directorate General of Communications and Directorate General of Wireless Communications are not independent bodies. Higher Council of Radio and Television, on the other hand is an independent body eventhough its members are appointed by the government.

2.3 Frequencies allocation authorities

Although Turk Telekom holds the ownership of the cable TV infrastructure and the satellites, the Higher Council of Radio and Television is the authority to allocate radio and TV frequencies.

2.4 Office for the protection of economic competition

Competition Council is the office for the protection of economic competition. Although its members and its chairman are appointed by the government, it is an independent body.

2.5 Consultative councils

• Internet Higher Council is an informal high level consultative body for the Ministry of Transportation.
• Kamunet (Public Networks Organisation) Higher Council is an advisory body for the Prime Ministerís Office.

2.6 Public telecommunication operators

Turk Telekom is the telecommunications operator in Turkey. It is currently a state monopoly in owning and operating the telecommunications infrastructure including conventional lines, cable TV lines, satellites, submarine lines and the Internet backbone. It is currently 100% state owned. A draft law is currently in the agenda of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (the Turkish parliament) to liberalise Turk Telekom.

GSM operation is currently licensed to two private GSM operators by Turk Telekom on a revenue sharing basis, Turkcell with 2/3 market share and Telsim with 1/3 market share. Two new licenses are to be awarded in the near future.

VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and IBS (INTELSAT Business Services) services is provided by two joint ventures of Turk Telekom and private companies on a revenue sharing basis. NMT mobile telephone system, the remote rural area satellite communication system and marine communication system are owned and operated by Turk Telekom.

3. International relationship and agreements

Turkey became a member of International Telecommunications Union only recently (7.5.1993). Currently, ITU has reserved 6 orbits for Turkey. Currently 2 satellites are in use (TURKSAT 1B: 11.8.1994, 31.3 degrees east, and TURKSAT 1C: 10.7.1996, 42 degrees east). Turkey is a member of EUTELSAT (year:1985, share: 0.469814%), INTELSAT (year:1968, share: 1.643509%), and INMARSAT (year:1989, share: 0.26250%). Turk Telekom formed a joint venture company with Aerospatiale to launch, operate and market TURKSAT 2A. TURKSAT 2A is expected to become operational in a few years.

Turkey is a member of ETSI and ETNO.

Several submarine fiber optic cable systems are established between Turkey and other countries including ITUR between Turkey, Italy, Ukraine and Russia, KAFOS in the Black Sea area and TBL in the Balkans.

Private ISPs and some public institutions such as universities as well as Turk Telekom have agreements with international satellite communications for direct international access to Internet via satellite. Turk Telekom operates VSAT and IBS on a revenue sharing basis.

Turkey declared to liberalise the basic telecom service market completely by the end of year 2005 as a member of World Trade Organisation WTO.

4. Regulatory framework

4.1 Historical overview

Telecommunications sector is regulated according to the Telegraph and Telephone Law number 406 of 1924. The law establishes PTT as a monopoly as a public service provider for postal services and telegraph and telephone communications. In 1994, a new law was enacted (law number 4000), changing an article of this law, thus making it possible to split PTT into two organisations, one for posts (Post Administration) and one for telecommunications (Turk Telekom). Turk Telekom was established in 1994 and became operational in 1995 as the sole telecom operator, owning the whole telecommunications infrastructure including conventional telephone lines, satellite communications, cable TV lines, submarine lines and the Internet backbone.

Turk Telekom has the right to licence private companies to provide services or to build infrastructure.

Currently GSM operation is licensed to two private companies (1998).

The first Internet backbone Turnet was as established in 1996 by consortium of Turk Telekom, a university and a private company. The current backbone TTNet is established by Turk Telekom in 1999. VSAT service is provided by two joint ventures of Turk Telekom and private companies.

Remote rural area satellite communication service and marine communication are also provided by Turk Telekom.

State owned Turkish Radio and Television used to be the single radio and TV licence holder until late 1980s. Later the legislation made it possible for private companies to own and operate radio and TV stations. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of radio stations and TV channels since then. Higher Council of Radio and Television was established as a licensing and regulatory authority.

A new law enacted in 1995 (law number 5846) to update the existing Intellectual Property Rights Law to include software related issues and to introduce new measures.

4.2 Present general legislation

The governing law number 406 of 1924, which was modified by law 4000 enacted in 1994, gives monopoly to Turk Telekom on telecommunications infrastructure including conventional telephone lines, satellite communications, cable TV lines, submarine lines and the Internet backbone. The law gives Turk Telekom the right to build and operate telecommunications infrastructures of any sort, to establish joint ventures with national or international private companies on a revenue sharing basis and to authorise private companies to establish conventional, GSM, satellite and other communications operations.

Currently Turk Telekom operates the exiting conventional lines, the Internet backbone, cable TV infrastructure, TURKSAT 1B and TURKSAT 1C communications satellites and submarine communication lines. It also operates VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and IBS (INTELSAT Business Services) on a revenue sharing basis. GSM operation is currently licensed to two private companies.

The current telecommunication legislation allows Turk Telekom to authorise service providers to use the Internet infrastructure for Internet services.

Cable TV infrastructure is owned by Turk Telekom and public and private TV channels use this infrastructure for broadcasting. Frequency and channel allocation is under the control of Higher Council of Radio and Television RTUK according to lwa number 3984

The current intellectual property rights law (law number 5846) includes software related issues and measures against IPR violations..

A new draft law (law number 4161) is in the agenda of the parliament to liberalise Turk Telekom. According to the draft law, Turk Telekom is to be liberalised in terms of the following shares and share owners: Turk Telekom 51%, Directorate General of Post Administration 10%, block sale and public offering 34%, employees and small investors 5%. Turkey declared to liberalise the basic telecom service market completely by the end of year 2005 as a member of World Trade Organisation WTO. As part of establishing a competitive telecom market the dominant operator and regulatory bodies shall be instituted separately.

4.3 Key legislative measures

4.4 Issues

4.4.1 Liberalisation

4.4.2 Licensing

Conventional voice telephony and data transmissions lines ownerships and operations are under the monopoly of Turk Telekom.

Turk Telekom holds the right for GSM licensing. Currently two private companies are licensed as GSM operator. Two new licences are to be awarded by Turk Telekom in one or two years.

Two joint ventures of Turk Telekom and private companies provide VSAT services.

Internet infrastructure ownership and operation rights belong to Turk Telekom. Turk Telekom has the right to license private companies for value added services. It also has right to establish new companies or consortia to license the construction and/or operation of the Internet infrastructure on a revenue share basis. The previous Internet backbone Turnet is an example of this. ISPs provide Internet services using the lines obtained from Turk Telekom. DNS allocation is currently licensed to a university (for historical reasons). Aside from the current Internet backbone TTNet, there exists an academic computing network called ULAKNET connecting universities and TUBITAK (Scientific and Research Council of Turkey). ULAKNET is operated by TUBITA K but the communication infrastructure is owned by Turk Telekom.

Radio and TV licensing is under the control of Higher Council of Radio and Television. Currently TRT (State Radio and TV organisation) and many private radio and TV companies have national or local radio and TV licenses.

Cable TV infrastructure is owned by Turk Telekom, but cable TV licensing right belongs to Higher Council of Radio and Television RTUK.

Turk Telekom is a member of ITU on behalf of Turkey and it holds the ownership of the orbits currently allocated to Turkey (currently 6 orbits). Turk Telekom owns two satellites currently (TURKSAT 1B and TURSAT 1 C). A third satellite, TURKSAT 2A, is to be launched, operated and marketed in the near future by a joint venture company of Turk Telekom and Aerospatiale. Aside from national and international IBS channels, TURKSAT 1B is used by TV channels including Kent TV, CTV, HBB, Global TV, KTV, Super Kanal, Best TV, MNG TV, Medya TV, Yavuz TV, Ozdil TV and ETV, and some radio channels. TURKSAT 1C is used for national IBS channels, VSAT communication, TV channels including TRT1, TRT2, TRT3, TRT4, TRT-Avrasya, Kanal D, ATV, Kanal 6, Cumhuriyet TV, Samanyolu TV, Euro D, Kanal 7, Show TV, Cine5 and many radio channels.

4.4.3 Universal Service

Voice telephony, mobile communications and data transmissions are available throughout the country.

Number of conventional lines per 100 inhabitants is 28.55 (end of 1998) and number of public pay phones per 1000 inhabitants is 1.19 (end of 1998). Network digitisation ratio is currently 83% (end of 1998).

GSM coverage is relatively high for the country. Currently the whole country is covered except for some remote rural areas. Number of GSM lines per 100 inhabitants is 3.9 (end of 1998) and it is expected to reach to 9 in a short time.

For remote rural areas, remote rural areas satellite communication system is available. NMT mobile telephone system is also available. Turk Telekom also provides sea (marine) communication.

ISPs are concentrated mostly in the major cities but Internet services are provided throughout the country by Turk Telekom through the current Internet backbone TTNet. Currently the number of domestic Internet users per 1000 inhabitants is 0.6 (end of 1998) and the hostcount by DNS domains per 1000 inhabitants is 0.864 (end of 1998).

TTNet is based on ATM switching and it provides ATM, FR, ADSL, LL access and also B-ISDN services. It provides 87 Mbps capacity for international incoming traffic and 113 Mbps capacity for international outgoing traffic. Capacity of the national backbone is 155 Mbps and the total number of access nodes is 140. It has 14250 dial up ports at 56 Kbps, 4830 ISDN-BRI ports at 64-128 Mbps, 2328 leased line ports at 64 Kbps-2 Mbps, 5202 frame relay ports at 64 Kbps-2 Mbps, 4290 ADSL ports at 640 Kbps, and 92 ATM ports at 2-155 Mbps. A new service offered by TTNet, which is called Dial Internet, makes Internet connection possible over conventional network PSTN. This service is aimed at rural areas and those areas where no ISP provides Internet service. It is expected that this service will increase widespread Internet use considerably.

The academic Internet network ULAKNET connects 91 universities and TUBITAK (total 92 ports). The backbone connects Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir with 34 Mbps ATM lines. An additional line of 34 Mbps connects ULAKNET center and OSYM (University Student Placement Center). ULAKNET provides 3 international connections at 2 Mbps, 512 Kbps and 256 Kbps capacity. It is also connected to TURNET (the older Internet backbone of Turk Telekom) at Ankara and Izmir, each at 2 Mbps capacity.

Radio and TV broadcasting covers the whole country. State Radio and TV organisation TRT has three national TV channels, one regional and one international TV channel. There are many private national and local TV as well. Radio stations are very many both at national level and at local level. Number of TV sets per 100 inhabitants is 32.4 (end 1997). Cable TV is available currently in 20 major cities including 9 metropolitan areas Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Gaziantep, Bursa, Konya, Kayseri, and 11 other cities Mersin-Tarsus, Izmit-Golcuk, Eskisehir, Karadeniz Eregli, Denizli, Balikesir, Samsun, Adapazari, Tekirdag-Cerkezkoy-Corlu, Erzurum, Yalova-Ciftlikkoy. Number of home cable TV subscribers per 100 inhabitants is 9.9 (early 1999). Cable TV network is currently being upgraded to increase existing channel capacity and to increase geographical area coverage. Number of TV channels available is 45 for the 9 metropolitan areas and 60 for the other 11 cities.

4.4.4 Tariffs policies

Telephony and Internet backbone access tariffs of Turk Telekom are subject to the approval of Directorate General of the Ministry of Transportation.

Tariffs for telephony are comparable with developed countries. Fixed cost of installation for main line for conventional telephone is approximately 30 Euros and monthly fixed cost of service for main line is approximately 3 Euros which includes a certain amount of communication as monthly credit. 90 seconds of local call at normal period is 0.03 Euros.

GSM communication rates are also at a reasonable level.

For Cable TV, fixed cost of single line installation is 30 Euros and monthly fixed rate is 3.5 Euros.

Tariffs for the Internet backbone access used to be high for the previous backbone Turnet, but with the new backbone TTNet, tariffs are considerably lowered. The following rates are to be valid for TTNet: Dial Internet (conventional network reachable everywhere in the country): 1 Euro per hour of connection; 2 Mbps connection over ATM: 1000 Euros installation cost, 1000 Euros monthly rate; ISDN: 4.5 Euros installation cost, 20 Euros monthly rate; ADSL: 45 Euros installation cost, 45-70 Euros monthly rate; dial up connection: 4.5 Euros installation cost, 15 Euros monthly rate.

4.4.5 Quality of Service

With the high network digitisation ratio (83% at the end of 1998) and with the available reasonably high capacity, quality of service is satisfactory for voice telephony and data communications.

GSM coverage is increasing. GSM capacity and quality of service is constantly increasing with the addition of new stations to meet increasing traffic due to increasing number subscription. New GSM licenses are to be given to increase the capacity to meet the increasing demand.

ISPs used to complain about the capacity of the backbone due to high demand. They also used to complain that they could not get the as may lines as they needed. With the new backbone TTNET these complaints are expected to diminish.

TTNet provides Internet access throughout the country, including those locations where Internet services are not provided by private ISPs. TTNet provides a variety of access technologies including ATM, PSTN, ISDN, ADSL, FR, LL and X.25. ATM technology is superior in terms of quality of service as it provides CBR (Constant Bit Rate), VBR (Variable Bit Rate) and UBR (Unspecified Bit Rate). TTNet provides high performance, scaleability, advanced management and control, traffic management and end-to-end service quality. It provides an infrastructure for suitable for diverse Internet applications including existing services such as Mail, Web, News and Proxy, and new and emerging services and multimedia applications. TTNet backbone provides alternative connectivity for each connection in the backbone, thus providing continuous reliable network and service connectivity.

The academic Internet network ULAKNET provides additional connectivity for universities and research organisations.

4.4.6 Interconnection

Turkey has a high national interconnectivity of telephony. In terms of international connectivity, both Turk Telekom and international communications companies provide international connectivity. GSM operators provide roaming service for international connection. NMT, Remote Rural Area Satellite Communication System, and Sea Communication System provide further connectivity.

Turkey is reasonably advanced in satellite communications, currently owning and operating 2 communication satellites TURKSAT 1B and TURKSAT 1C. These satellites are used for TV broadcasting, radio broadcasting, IBS, and VSAT services.

Further connectivity is provided with submarine fiber optic lines between turkey and Europe, Black Sea Countries and Russia and Balkan countries.

The current Internet (TTNet) topology connects Ankara, Istanbul ( 5 nodes: Atakoy, Tahtakale, Gayrettepe, Acibadem, Kadikoy), Izmir, Adana, Samsun, Bursa, Antalya, Kayseri with 155 Mbps backbone and other cities and Cyprus with 34 Kbps ñ 2 Mbps speed. It provides 87 Mbps capacity for international incoming traffic (USA-Istanbul 45 Mbps fiber optic cable, USA-Ankara 34 Mbps fiber optic cable, Europe-Istanbul 34 Mbps over TURKSAT) and 113 Mbps capacity for international outgoing traffic (USA-Istanbul 45 Mbps fiber optic cable, USA-Ankara 34 Mbps fiber optic cable, Europe-Istanbul 8 Mbps over TURKSAT). Capacity of the national backbone is 155 Mbps and the total number of access nodes is 140. It has 14250 dial up ports at 56 Kbps, 4830 ISDN-BRI ports at 64-128 Mbps, 2328 leased line ports at 64 Kbps-2 Mbps, 5202 frame relay ports at 64 Kbps-2 Mbps, 4290 ADSL ports at 640 Kbps, and 92 ATM ports at 2-155 Mbps. A new service offered by TTNet, which is called Dial Internet (access number 145), makes Internet connection possible over conventional network PSTN. This service is aimed at rural areas and those areas where no ISP provides Internet service. It is expected that this service will increase widespread Internet use considerably.

The academic Internet network ULAKNET connects 91 universities and TUBITAK (total 92 ports). The backbone connects Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir with 34 Mbps ATM lines. An additional line of 34 Mbps connects ULAKNET center and OSYM (University Student Placement Center). ULAKNET provides 3 international connections at 2 Mbps, 512 Kbps and 256 Kbps capacity. It is also connected to TURNET (the older Internet backbone of Turk Telekom) at Ankara and Izmir, each at 2 Mbps capacity.

Radio and TV broadcasting covers the whole country. State Radio and TV organisation has four national TV channels, one regional TV channel and one international TV channel. There are many private national and local TV channels as well. Radio stations are very many both at national level and at local level. Number of TV sets per 100 inhabitants is 32.4 (end 1997). Cable TV is available currently in 20 major cities including 9 metropolitan areas Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Gaziantep, Bursa, Konya, Kayseri, and 11 other cities Mersin-Tarsus, Izmit-Golcuk, Eskisehir, Karadeniz Eregli, Denizli, Balikesir, Samsun, Adapazari, Tekirdag-Cerkezkoy-Corlu, Erzurum, Yalova-Ciftlikkoy. Number of home cable TV subscribers per 100 inhabitants is 9.9 (early 1999). Cable TV network is currently being upgraded to increase existing channel capacity and to increase geographical area coverage. Number of TV channels available is 45 for the 9 metropolitan areas and 60 for the other 11 cities.

5. Freedom and protection

5.1 Copyright and intellectual property rights

Intellectual Property Rights Law was revised in 1995 (law number 5846) to include software related issues, to allow the establishment of associations of intellectual property rights owners for the registration of intellectual property in musical, video, multimedia and software items, to introduce new measures against intellectual property rights violations by increasing in the existing penalties and by introducing new penalties.

5.2 Privacy, data protection, consumer protection

Privacy is under the protection of general civil law. Data protection is under the protection of civil law and commerce law. Consumer protection is under a special law for consumer protection. Official consumer complaint offices are established under the Ministry of Industry and Trade according to this law, providing good consumer protection with no or minimal cost. There are also specialised courts established to deal with consumer complaints.

5.3 Electronic protection, legal protection and security (encryption, electronic commerce)

Electronic protection (encryption) is not available on PSTN. Legal protection is available against privacy violation but proof of violation is not easy.

5.4 Freedom of expression and information

Freedom of expression and information are civil rights that are under the protection of both the constitution and the laws. Nevertheless there are some laws forbidding some sort of expression against the state.

6. Information Society Policies

6.1 Umbrella Policies

Turkey lacks clearly defined information society policies. On the other hand the existence of committees such as the Electronic Commerce Co-ordination Committee and long term infrastructure plans such as TUENA imply that information society issues have high importance. Similarly, the existence of many ongoing networking, MIS (Management Information Systems) and other IS (Information Systems) projects at many governmental organisations including ministries, census bureau, internal revenue offices, customs, educational institutions and administration, health organisations and social security administration, railways administration and ticketing, municipalities, public utility administrations and others show that information society projects have a high priority. Information technologies is identified as one of the high priority areas in R and D.

6.2 IS Application Areas

6.2.1 Government (national, regional and local)

The Government and the local administrations are at a moderate level of computerisation. There are some major networking and MIS projects in all ministerial and administrative organisations. The Government started Kamunet project to harmonise thse projects that are under way or planned at different governmental organisations including ministries and other administrative units in the government. Metropolitan cities such as Istanbul also have some major IS projects.

6.2.2 Education

The Ministry of National Education has a project to connect all ministerial organisational units at all provinces and to build an MIS. This project is called MEDSIS. Its major components are OKULSIS, which connects schools, and ILSIS, which connects administrative units of the ministry at provincial and subprovincial levels.

Another project is to build more new CAI (Computer Aided Instruction) labs or to renew existing ones.

Academic and research community has an alternative Internet backbone called ULAKNET.

6.2.3 Transport

State Highways Administration has several IS projects under way including a highway information network project, automatic toll payment project, traffic management system project and emergency communication system project.

State Railways Administration has several IS projects including the reservation and operational management information system project (OMIS), and the central traffic control system project (CTC).

Turkish Airlines has an electronic ticket project.

6.2.4 Medicine

Ministry of Health plans to establish a national communication network for medical and health related purposes called UMEDIA. Other Ministry of Health projects include a health statistics project (the TSIM project), a resource management project (the CKYM project), and a hospital information system project (the HBS project).

Social Security Administration, which is under Ministry of Labour and Social Security, has similar projects to connect its medical and administrative units and to establish a management information system.

6.2.5 Other

Information society projects cover virtually all application areas. Some examples are given below.

Ministry of Finance has a project to automate internal revenue and tax offices (the VEDOP project).Ministry of Interior has a project to build a national census system (the MERNIS project). Small and Medium Size Enterprises Administration KOSGEB, which is under Ministry of Industry and Trade, has a project to provide Internet connection to SMEs where a network called KOBINET is to be established.

II - On-going developments

1. On going changes in the institutional structures

No major on going change is under way presently in institutional structures.

2. On going changes in the regulatory framework

2.1 Telecommunication liberalisation

A new draft law (law number 4161) is in the agenda of the parliament to liberalise Turk Telekom. According to the draft law, Turk Telekom is to be liberalise in terms of the following shares and share owners: Turk Telekom 51%, Post Administration 10%, block sale and public offering 34%, employees and small investors 5%.

2.2 New laws/measures under preparation

See paragraph 2.1 above.

2.3 Allocation of resources (frequencies, numbering, access rights, licensingÖ)

• Two new GSM licenses are to be awarded in the near future.
• Turk Telekom is to launch a third satellite (TURKSAT 2A) in the near future, which is to be operated and marketed by a joint venture company of Turk Telekom and Aerospatiale.
• The current cable TV infrastructure is being upgraded for higher quality and channel capacity.
• The new Internet backbone TTNet is being enlarged for higher coverage countrywide and for adding a third international gateway.

3. On-going changes in IS policies

IS issues and policies are gaining importance every day. An informal group is formed in Turkish General National Assembly (the parliament) among the parliamentarians on information technologies to focus on information society transition and issues.

4. Media and telecommunication markets: privatisations, foreign investments, mergers and acquisitions, etc.

The Media market is very dynamic. New TV channels start operation, new newspapers start publishing, new companies in telecommunications, electronic commerce, Internet services, multimedia, electronic banking, PC and Internet TV manufacturing are established every day.

See also paragraph 2.3 above.