BTK revises tender specifications; auction has not been cancelled

Turkey has revised its specifications for the country’s planned 4G tender, with the acting president of the Bilgi Teknolojileri ve Iletisim Kurumu (BTK), Omer Fatih Sayan, clarifying that the tender has not been cancelled, and will still take place on 26 August 2015, as planned. Going forward, the ‘4.5G’ frequencies are likely to be put into use from 1 April 2016. Operators will be obliged to achieve 95% population coverage within eight years of winning the concessions, the BTK has asserted.

Originally scheduled to take place on 26 May 2015, the long-awaited 4G auction was postponed until 26 August, in order to allow would-be bidders additional time to complete their financial and technical preparations. The decision followed a surprise statement from Turkey’s President Recap Tayyip Erdogan, in which he stated: ‘It is not necessary to waste time with 4G,’ before advising that the country’s mobile sector should move to 5G technology ‘within the next two years.’