Turkish Telecom Sector
Total broadband subscribers reached 92.6 million at the end of the second quarter of 2024. In Türkiye, fixed broadband usage has increased considerably thanks to the leadership of Türk Telekom’s infrastructural investments since 2005. Accordingly, the number of fixed broadband subscribers increased to 19.9 million. Fibre technology (FTTH/FTTB) increased by 16.4% year on year with number of subscribers reaching 7.3 million as of second quarter of 2024. Additionally, the number of xDSL subscribers was 10.5 million and there were also 1.4 million cable internet subscribers at the end of Q2’24. Compared to OECD average of 35.8% fixed broadband population penetration rate, Türkiye has important growth potential with its 23.3% penetration rate.
Investments for fibre optic infrastructure have increased in the country in recent years. Türk Telekom with its 449 thousand kilometre fibre network has the widest fibre infrastructure in Türkiye. Alternative operators’ fibre length was 128 thousand kilometre at the end of Q2’24.
On the mobile broadband side, the total number of users was 72.7 million corresponding to 85.1% population penetration rate at the end of Q2’24. Mobile broadband users via mobile phones reached 72.0 million while mobile broadband users via non-phone mobile devices were 684 thousand. Compared to OECD with average of 134.1% mobile broadband penetration rate, Türkiye has important growth potential in terms of mobile broadband penetration.
The total number of mobile phone subscribers in Türkiye was 93.3 million corresponding to 109.3% penetration rate at the end of Q2’24. Share of prepaid subscribers was 24% in Türkiye in Q2’24, it is also around 27% in Europe.
On 26 August 2015, the Auction for IMT Services and Infrastructures Authorisation was held by ICTA. Excluding VAT, total auction fee for 365.4 MHz of spectrum across 18 packages in 5 separate frequency bands (800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz) was EUR 3,356 mn. Following the auction, the current frequency allocated to mobile operators increased from 184 MHz to 549 MHz. Operators launched IMT services as of 1 April 2016. At the end of Q2’24, number of active LTE subscribers in Türkiye reached 71.8 million.
There were 9.4 million fixed voice subscribers corresponding to 11.0% penetration rate in Türkiye at the end of Q2’24. Given the average household size of 3.1, in Türkiye a significant portion of the population uses fixed voice services.