Türkiye approves northern Cyprus fibre protocol for 150,000 premises

Türkiye's government approved on 15 October an additional protocol amending its September 2025 fibre-optic agreement with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and committing the company it authorises to reach 150,000 homes and businesses within a year, according to Presidential Decision No. 11876.

The decision was published in Official Gazette No. 33402 on 16 October. The protocol, signed in Ankara on 19 August 2026, caps the wholesale price of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service at $18 a month for packages of up to 100 Mbps, the text shows. It does not name the company.

What the investor must deliver

The protocol calls the Turkish-authorised company the investor. Its first-stage commitment covers 150,000 independent units, meaning households or workplaces, in one year, and depends on TRNC institutions granting excavation rights, permits, tax and incentive arrangements without delay, the text says. If the target is missed, the TRNC Council of Ministers may allow one more year. If the miss is shown to result clearly from the investor's own breach or fault, the TRNC may ask Türkiye for a different investor, or authorise any other company, whether or not registered in the TRNC, to carry out and market the work. The text does not say when the first year starts.

The investor must plan, build, maintain and operate the fibre infrastructure for 25 years from the signing date of the protocol, then hand it over free of mortgages, complete and in working order to the TRNC Telecommunications Department or another public body that the TRNC government names, the amended text says. The base protocol was signed on 24 September 2025, so the term would run to September 2050 if measured from that date, by Corridor Signal's calculation. The TRNC has the same rights if there is a change of control, which the protocol defines as Türkiye's direct or indirect state shareholding in the authorised company falling below 50 per cent. Hiring is to give priority to TRNC citizens where possible, without a quota, and the investor is to train Telecommunications Department staff, the text says.

Wholesale caps and who sells what

The investor is to provide wholesale fixed broadband over the fibre access network, from the exchange to homes and workplaces. The Telecommunications Department keeps voice services and corporate data circuits such as leased lines and metro Ethernet, and sets the circuits' sale prices after obtaining a written opinion from the TRNC Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTHK), the protocol says. The wholesale price caps, before taxes, are:

• Unlimited FTTH packages up to 100 Mbps: $18 per subscriber per month.
• Faster packages: $5 per subscriber per month is added to the cap for each additional 100 Mbps.
• Wholesale fixed broadband connection and relocation: $50 each. Wholesale fixed voice connection and relocation: $50 each.

The caps are to be converted into lira at the TRNC Central Bank's effective selling rates on the date the protocol takes effect and updated every six months by the change in the TRNC consumer price index over the previous six months, the text says. For corporate circuits on the new fibre, the Telecommunications Department bills end users and shares revenue with the investor at 50 per cent, after deducting what it pays the investor for international internet exit, the protocol says.

Retail entry tests and Türkiye's money

The retail company in which the investor will hold shares in the TRNC may obtain an internet service provider (ISP) authorisation and sell directly if active fibre connections marketed by ISPs fall below set shares of the premises reached: 20 per cent in the first year, 35 in the second, 40 in the third, 45 in the fourth and 50 in the fifth. If the footprint stayed at 150,000 premises, those tests would equal 30,000 active connections in the first year and 75,000 in the fifth, by Corridor Signal's calculation. At the $18 cap, 75,000 connections would bring in $16.2 million a year in wholesale fees, before connection charges. The same company faces no special pricing or service-level requirements beyond those for other ISPs, though BTHK may apply significant-market-power obligations to it after a market analysis, the text says.

Türkiye is to invest $27 million in the Telecommunications Department's systems in the first two years and further sums as needed over 25 years. In return, no separate fee will be charged if Türkiye uses the department's backbone, the protocol says. Both governments also undertake that the arrangements will not reduce total revenue from the TRNC telecommunications sector.

The investor's FTTH systems are to be hosted inside the TRNC, with the TRNC responsible for supplying a Tier 2 certified data centre site and structure, and its company is exempt from TRNC limits on foreign capital for this investment, the text says. Either side may terminate with one year's notice if the protocol, other legislation or the public interest is breached. The additional protocol gives no total cost for the fibre build and names no investor. In Resolution 541 of 1983, the UN Security Council called on states not to recognise any Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus.