Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu evaluated the "Turkey Electronic Communications Sector 3-Monthly Market Data Report" prepared by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority.
Drawing attention to the fact that the momentum in the communications sector did not slow down despite the contraction in the global economy following the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Karaismailoğlu stated, "It grew by 19 percent in the third quarter. The number of mobile subscribers approached 87 million. Fiber infrastructure length exceeded 455 thousand kilometers."
Karaismailoğlu emphasized that habits have changed with the COVID-19 outbreak, and digitalization in every aspect of life is dependent on informatics and electronic communications technologies.
Noting that every service moved to the internet is reflected as an increase in the amount of data used on networks and the number of connections, Karaismailoğlu expressed that the growth coming with demand needs to be turned into an opportunity in the coming days.
Karaismailoğlu drew attention to the need to transform new demands into investments, stating that the fact that no capacity problems have been experienced so far demonstrates the continuity in investments.
Recalling that short-, medium-, and long-term targets in the electronic communications field were determined with the sector at the end of the 12th Transport and Communications Council held in October, Karaismailoğlu emphasized that the growth in the sector and the acceleration in investments are vital for achieving these targets.
Minister Karaismailoğlu: 3.6 Billion Lira Invested
Drawing attention to the impact of the investments made on the sector, Karaismailoğlu announced that net sales revenues in the sector in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 19 percent to exceed 23.8 billion lira.
Pointing out that the total amount of investments made by operators in the third quarter of the year was around 3.6 billion lira, Karaismailoğlu stated, "The number of mobile subscribers was 86.9 million, and the subscription penetration rate was determined to be 104 percent. Of these subscribers, 80.8 million are 4.5G subscribers."
Stating that the number of machine-to-machine (M2M) subscribers reached 7.2 million, Karaismailoğlu announced that the total number of ported mobile numbers was 155.1 million.
Indicating that 2.6 million numbers were ported in this quarter, Karaismailoğlu said, "Our total broadband internet subscriber count rose to 87.5 million, including 69.7 million mobile. Broadband internet subscriber numbers recorded an 8.2 percent increase compared to the same period of the previous year. The highest proportional increase in subscriber numbers was 32.2 percent in 'Fiber to the Home' subscribers. This was followed by 'Cable Internet' subscriber numbers with a rate of 10.8 percent. Fixed broadband subscribers' average monthly data usage was 206 GBytes, while mobile subscribers' average monthly usage reached 11.3 GBytes."
Underlining that Turkey's total fiber infrastructure length increased by 10.1 percent annually to exceed 455 thousand kilometers, Karaismailoğlu drew attention to the expectation that the development in the sector will continue in the last quarter of the year.