Turkey to cooperate with Japan on 5G technology

By Arife Yildiz Unal, Fatih Erkan Dogan and Satuk Bugra Kutlugun

ANKARA

Turkey will cooperate with Japan on 5G technology, which makes use of the Internet faster, during President Erdogan's two-day-visit to East Asia's island country.

According to the information gained from Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), a joint declaration will be signed between the agency and Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The joint declaration will be mainly about increasing cooperation on 5G issues. It will also include the strengthening of social and economic ties between the two countries via science and technology.

The BTK said to Anadolu Agency that the declaration will play an important role for paving the way to 5G technology in Turkey, and mutually supporting the every aspect of society in Turkey and Japan.

The declaration will support the standardization of 5G infrastructure to international standards, and upgrading to the latest technology, the agency said.

On August 26, the BTK announced a tender for 4,5G technology, paving the way for Turkey to go for 5G technology.

The ‘fifth generation’ of telecommunications systems, or 5G, will be much faster than the current 4G network; by 2020 there will be more than 30 times as much mobile Internet traffic as there was in 2010 according to the European Commission.

Last April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey should skip 4G Internet technology and move directly to 5G instead.

"We would waste time with 4G technology and should move to 5G in two years, or else Turkey becomes a garbage dump for 4G technology," Erdogan had said.