Information and Communication Technologies Authority
President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu made important statements about the sector in a live broadcast he participated in.
BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, who participated in the “Açık Açık” program moderated by ICT Media General Publication Director Murat Pehlivan, spoke about the regulatory studies they are conducting and the institution's goals. Starting his speech by answering questions about social media, Karagözoğlu stated that the outages experienced in recent days have made social media networks more discussable. Expressing that this outage shows the need to make regulations and take measures in very different areas, Karagözoğlu said, “With the latest regulation made, we have ensured that platforms with more than 1 million traffic appoint a representative and have a contact point here. Today, with this contact, we are in a new process of fighting disinformation. We are working with our stakeholders here as well. We are determining together what kind of regulation we need to make. On the other hand, we are also fighting issues such as account thefts. At this point, we support our citizens through the “Internet Help Center” and “Alo 141” channel and try to enlighten them. 141 is also a reporting line. Inappropriate content seen on the internet can be shared here.”
Drawing attention to the importance of safe internet use, Karagözoğlu described the work they have done on this subject as follows: “For this, with the ‘Safe Internet Truck,’ we go from school to school, directly interact with our students, and create awareness on how they will use the internet consciously. In addition, we provide trainings called educator training. We have done joint work with the Ministry of National Education. We are trying to instill the culture of correct internet use.”
President Karagözoğlu also spoke about infrastructure studies. Referring to some infrastructure problems that emerged with the pandemic, Karagözoğlu said, “In the past years, a small portion of the population lived in cities, but today approximately 93% of the population lives in cities. We need to pay attention to this point. We need to think about whether there was a return to rural areas with the pandemic and how much it was. This 93% figure gives us the following message: It shows that urbanization is increasing and that we need to invest in technology to meet the needs of this increasing urbanization.”
President Karagözoğlu: We Are Working with All Our Might to Reach Our Target in 5G Localization Rate
President Karagözoğlu was also asked about 5G. Sharing the information that a 23% localization rate has been reached, Karagözoğlu said, “We have not yet reached the target we set in terms of localization. However, we are working with all our might to achieve this target. The entire sector is working with all its might for this. When we achieve the rate we want in 4.5G, tomorrow when the time comes, we will become a country that can produce equipment for the 5G network and has components in the network. The issue is not only across our country. We are working to make it international.”
Reminding that localization conditions are also present in radiolinks, Karagözoğlu mentioned the successes of the relevant companies on this issue.
Stating that the risks that may be faced with 5G should also be well evaluated, Karagözoğlu said, “We have given trial permissions for 5G. Different regions and different authorities are experiencing 5G. Because 5G has very different vertical sectors. There are two very important points for us on the way to 5G. One of them is fiber, the other is IPv6. Actually, these two are the tools of transformation. If we are talking about low-latency networks today, we need fiberization.”
Noting that 5G is also very important for the Internet of Things, Karagözoğlu drew attention to the transformation of the industry with 5G.
President Karagözoğlu: eSIM Is a Very Serious Service
Reiterating the statement “Turkey’s data will stay in Turkey,” Karagözoğlu cited the eSIM regulation as an example regarding data centers. Karagözoğlu said, “eSIM is a serious service and we have opened the way for this service to be created entirely from domestic and national sources. And the more we ensure that these are done domestically, the more we contribute to domestic and national production.”
President Karagözoğlu also made evaluations regarding the cargo sector, whose star rose with the pandemic process. Referring to the fact that they made some regulations to prevent possible negativities during the pandemic process, Karagözoğlu said, “We launched the contactless delivery process specific to this process. We have studies for it to be permanent. In addition, it is very important that the data is secure, and we have facilitated this with contactless delivery.”
Also mentioning the studies they have done for safe internet use, Karagözoğlu said, “Everything can have good or bad sides. Here, we need to focus on the good sides and be able to distinguish the bad. We are trying to achieve this with the trainings we give to parents. We give trainings in schools. On the other hand, we provide the ‘Safe Internet Service’ completely as a public service. With this service, with the family and child profiles we offer, we try to protect them from the harms of the internet.”
President Karagözoğlu also mentioned the National Cyber Shield 2021 Exercise organized jointly with BTK and the Ministry of Transport. Karagözoğlu concluded his speech by saying, “We will repeat these exercises periodically. Thus, we will both reveal the newly emerging vulnerabilities and carry out studies to eliminate them.”