BTK sets date for 4G frequency auction, confirms licence terms

Turkish regulator the Bilgi Teknolojileri ve Iletisim Kurumu (BTK) has announced a date for the country’s upcoming multi-band spectrum auction, confirming that the process will take place on 26 May 2015. Meanwhile, the expiration date for the licences has been set at 30 April 2029. The BTK has said that it expects commercial Long Term Evolution (LTE) services to be available from 1 January 2016, although previous claims from Turkcell, Avea and Vodafone Turkey suggest that they will be in a position to roll out their respective 4G networks far sooner.

As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, 20 spectrum lots across the 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz bands will be made available, with a total bandwidth of 390.4MHz going under the hammer. Meanwhile, a block of 2600MHz spectrum will also be reserved for a new market entrant, although the newcomer will not be obliged to launch GSM services. The combined floor price for the licences on offer has been set at EUR2.298 billion (USD2.433 billion).