Türkiye's 5G count passes 45 million, at least half a million more than in June

Türkiye's 5G subscriber count has passed 45 million, Mehmet Koçyiğit, president of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), told a transport and infrastructure summit in Istanbul, according to a BTK statement of 23 October. BTK's second-quarter market report counted 44,487,035 5G subscriptions at the end of June, so the new figure is at least 512,965 higher, an increase of more than 1.1 per cent in a little under four months, by Corridor Signal's calculation.

The June count was built in the first three months of commercial service, which began on 1 April, and Corridor Signal's analysis of that report found it appeared to consist largely of existing 4.5G subscriptions recounted. Because Koçyiğit gave a round number, only the minimum increase since June can be calculated.

What the new figure does not say

The statement does not define the count. BTK's June report gave two measures: 44,487,035 5G subscriptions and 44,268,946 5G real users, a measure that excludes machine-to-machine lines. It also counted 26,102,884 active 5G subscribers and 29,777,164 5G-compatible devices, and said fewer people could use the service than were counted on it because some devices or SIM cards were not compatible with 5G. The October statement gives no active count, so it does not show whether the number of people able to use 5G has changed since June.

Sources: BTK's second-quarter market report for the June column and its statement of 23 October for the October column.

The speed figure

Koçyiğit also said average mobile download speed had risen by 69 per cent compared with the period before 1 April, to 110.62 Mbps, according to crowd-sourced measurements. The statement does not name the source of the measurements, the period averaged or whether the figure covers all mobile technologies or 5G alone. A 69 per cent rise to 110.62 Mbps implies an earlier average of about 65 Mbps, by Corridor Signal's calculation. BTK's second-quarter report has no measure of mobile speed to check it against; its speed data describe the packages bought by fixed broadband subscribers. In his foreword to that report, Koçyiğit wrote that download speeds had been seen as more important in the past but that current developments suggested this could change.

Figures repeated from June

Two other figures in the speech, 100.8 million broadband subscribers and 720,000 km of fibre, are the end-June totals in the second-quarter report, which BTK announced on 30 September. The report splits the broadband total into 21.2 million fixed and 79.7 million mobile subscribers and puts fibre length 13 per cent above the 637,000 km of a year earlier. Koçyiğit also said 92.3 per cent of citizens use the internet, without giving a source, and that about US$355 billion had been invested in transport and communications infrastructure over the last 24 years, a total that does not separate the two sectors.

Operators and next dates

The published report does not give 5G subscribers by operator: its contents list annex charts of operator shares of 5G subscribers on pages 98 and 99, but the file ends at page 94. The next operator documents are the third-quarter accounts. Türk Telekom has scheduled its results for 4 November, according to its disclosure of 1 October, and Turkcell plans to publish on 9 November after the Borsa Istanbul close, Hisse.net reported, citing a Turkcell disclosure of 20 October. Neither document says whether 5G subscriber numbers will be included. Corridor Signal's preview of Türk Telekom's quarter sets out the guidance its results will be measured against, and its 5G Scorecard sets Türkiye's published 5G figures beside those of its neighbours. BTK has not announced a date for its third-quarter report; the second-quarter edition appeared 92 days after the quarter ended.