ICTA exempts FTTH from ‘market analysis’ for five years

Turkish telecoms regulator the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) has declared that fibre-to-the-home (FTTH)/fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) broadband services will be excluded from ‘market analysis’ for a period of five years – or until FTTx represents 25% of the country’s broadband subscriptions – to allow fibre-optic broadband services in Turkey to develop unimpeded. The telecoms watchdog hopes that the move will encourage ‘new investments … the development of new fibre internet services … and infrastructure development-oriented competition’. As a result of the decision, a number of minor amendments have been made to Electronic Communications Act No. 5809.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, at end-June 2011 fibre-optic solutions represented just 1.8% of the country’s broadband connections, with Turkcell-owned ISP Superonline the sole provider of FTTH technology. In May 2011 Superonline announced the launch of its ultra fast 1Gbps internet service, making Turkey one of only five countries to offer the advanced transmission speed at that date. Superonline currently has a presence in 73 cities, with over 25,000km of fibre infrastructure, which passes around 700,000 homes. By the end of 2011 the company’s fibre backbone is expected to reach 28,000km, with at least one million homes passed.