BTK counts 44.5 million 5G subscribers in Türkiye, 26.1 million able to use it

Türkiye's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) counted 44.5 million 5G subscribers at the end of June, the first quarter-end after commercial 5G service began on 1 April, but said only 26.1 million of them can actively use the service. The figures are in the regulator's second-quarter market data report, which BTK published on 30 September. In the report's foreword, BTK board chairman Mehmet Koçyiğit attributes the difference to devices or SIM cards that are not compatible with 5G.

Four counts, four meanings

The report gives several 5G figures that measure different things.

• 5G subscriptions, including machine-to-machine (M2M) lines: 44,487,035.
• 5G real users, which exclude M2M lines: 44,268,946. The difference of 218,089 is Corridor Signal's calculation of M2M lines on 5G.
• Active 5G subscribers: 26,102,884. BTK describes an active subscriber on the earlier 4.5G service as one whose device and SIM card are both compatible with the service, and its foreword gives the same reason for the 5G shortfall.
• 5G-compatible devices: 29,777,164. The report does not explain why this is 3.7 million above the active count, a gap Corridor Signal calculated.

By Corridor Signal's calculation, active subscribers equal 58.7 per cent of the 5G subscription count, leaving 18.4 million subscriptions that BTK does not count as active. Against BTK's total of 86,989,303 real mobile users, excluding M2M lines, the 5G real users are 50.9 per cent, the 40,451,151 users on 4.5G are 46.5 per cent and the 1,995,710 on 3G are 2.3 per cent, by the same calculation. BTK puts M2M subscriptions at about 15.2 million.

Mostly existing lines, recounted

The 5G count appears to consist largely of existing subscriptions recounted rather than new customers. BTK's table of 3G, 4.5G and 5G data shows 4.5G subscriptions, including M2M, at 92,611,786 at the end of March and 49,649,162 at the end of June, while 5G went from zero to 44,487,035. Together the two come to 94.1 million, which is 1.5 million more than the 4.5G figure in March, by Corridor Signal's calculation. BTK's footnote to the table says some data were updated because of operator systems. The passages on 5G in the report do not say how subscriptions are assigned to the new service.

Earlier counts came from ministerial statements. Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said on 12 June that about 21 million subscribers were on 5G on the first day and that the figure was close to 42 million, Aydınlık reported. Karar reported on 29 June that he said it had passed 43 million. The BTK report does not say whether those statements used the same definition as its own counts.

Who is on 5G, and how much data they use

Postpaid customers made up 78.9 per cent of TT Mobil's 5G subscribers, 90.7 per cent of Vodafone's and 79.6 per cent of Turkcell's, according to BTK's section on the mobile subscriber profile. Across all technologies, postpaid accounted for 83 per cent of mobile subscribers, up from 79.7 per cent a year earlier, the same section says.

Mobile data use was 5,578,135 terabytes in the quarter. That was 14.3 per cent more than in the first quarter and 39.9 per cent more than in the second quarter of 2025, by Corridor Signal's calculation from BTK's series. Subscribers on 4.5G and 5G generated 5,526,512 terabytes, or 99.1 per cent of the total. BTK puts average monthly use per mobile broadband subscriber at 23.3 gigabytes. Of 79,657,065 mobile broadband subscribers on 3G or above, 77,051,294 were on 4.5G or 5G, the report shows.

The report does not give the 5G count by operator. Its contents page lists annex charts of operator shares of 5G and active 5G subscribers on pages 98 and 99, but the published file ends at page 94. BTK's first-quarter report, which covers the period before 5G launched, carried no 5G count.