Turkey’s 4G tender gets bad reception from Erdogan

Turkey currently uses the 3G, or third-generation, mobile communications network, but last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that his country does not need to upgrade to the 4G system. Instead, Erdogan said, Turkey should leap forward to the more advanced 5G network in two years. The problem is, nobody knows exactly what 5G would entail — the technology does not exist.

Turkey is already late to the 4G party. The newest mobile Internet communications system has been spreading around the world since 2008. If all goes according to plan, Turkey’s Information and Communications Technologies Authority will distribute the 4G licenses to the highest bidders on Aug. 26. This date comes after the Transport and Communications Ministry announced May 15 that the 4G tenders would again be delayed by three months to spend more time on preparations. It would take at least another year before a critical mass of 4G mobile towers show up around the country. All told, Turkey would have taken nearly eight years to establish its 4G infrastructure.

One expert, a senior engineer and product manager at Turkey’s leading mobile phone company, Turkcell, talked to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. He said that the most optimistic estimate for 5G’s first use around the world would be 2020. “The hope is to use 5G at the Tokyo Olympics,” the expert said, adding that Erdogan’s estimate of two years “does not appear to be technically possible.” The lack of a 4G network would slow down every facet of the Turkish economy — business, industry, transportation, communication and government — and undermine Erdogan’s ambition to turn his country into one of the top 10 global economies by the next decade.

So why has Turkey waited so long to build 4G? And why does Erdogan, in all his wisdom and knowledge of a wide range of subjects, fail to see that his country would miss out on crucial technological advancements if it were to wait for 5G?