Turkey’s three major operators have spent €3.36 billion securing spectrum in the country’s much-anticipated 4G auctions.
The auctions were delayed by 3 months after President Tayyip Erdogan asserted his belief that Turkey should leapfrog from 3G directly to 5G.
Market leader Turkcell spent €1.62 billion to acquire 172.4 MHz across several frequencies, including 20MHz in the highly desirable 800MHz band for €372.9 million. Additionally, the operator spent €430 million on 59.6MHz in the 1800MHz band as well as €384 million on 2 x 25 frequencies (50MHz) in the 2600MHz band.
Turkcell stated that by acquiring the most spectrum, it would become “the only operator in Turkey to provide the fastest speed of 375 Mb/s achievable with this technology through carrier aggregation.”
Vodafone is the second largest operator in Turkey. The British operator group is spending €778 million to obtain a total 82.8MHz of spectrum. Of this, it purchased two 10MHz blocks in the 800MHz band, giving it the same amount as Turkcell.
The group stated that “the spectrum acquired will enable Vodafone Turkey to improve significantly the speed, coverage and capacity of its mobile data services”.
Avea, the local unit of Turk Telekom, is spending €995 million on spectrum. However, it has not revealed any official details of its licences.
The auctions raised more than expected, with the regulator initially predicting that the bids would not exceed €2.3 billion.
