Aimed to have a say in 5G technologies and beyond in the international arena, Turkey has taken another important step. Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry, which aims to increase mobile penetration in the country’s rural areas by resolving the coverage insufficiency problem through its Universal Service Project, signed a collaboration agreement with the US-based Open Networking Foundation (ONF), one of the world’s most important players in the development of next-generation communications technologies.
Cooperation between the Ministry and the ONF includes making the field work of open source M-CORD infrastructure, which offers solutions for 5G wireless networks, in Turkey within the scope of the Universal Service Project. Thanks to this agreement signed on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress (GSMA) in Barcelona, the next-generation communication technologies, developed at the ONF, which bring together giant technology and telecom companies among its members, will be tested and also implemented for the first time in Turkey.
Noting that as government, they aim to increase domestic and national technology production and export in the communications sector, as well as other sectors in Turkey. Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication Minister, Ahmet Arslan, said: “As government, we have realised a collaboration with the ONF through which we once again showed our determination to pioneer the world in development of 5G technologies and beyond. With this agreement, we will have the opportunity to develop the new technologies and standards and to apply them rapidly in Turkey for the first time in the world. As part of this cooperation, one of our country’s distinguished institutions, Türk Telekom will field test the new technologies and implement them.”
Türk Telekom CEO, Paul Doany, recalled that the ONF is seen as the Champions League of the world telecom sector in terms of its members and the projects it has realised so far and added: “Participating in such a world league and realising cooperation projects will bring great advantages to our country as well as our company. We will once again assume a key role in this new collaboration between our Ministry and the ONF and enable the next-generation open source communication technologies to be tested in Turkey for the first time in the world.”
