Information technology road passes through Turkey, minister says

Information technology road passes through Turkey, minister says

BARCELONA - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish Transportation Minister Yıldırım (C) attends the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Turkey has advanced in mobile technologies, he says. AA photo

The route of information technology is now passing through Turkey just like the spice and silk trade routes used to pass through Anatolia, Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said yesterday at a press event in Barcelona, where the Mobile World Congress is being held from Feb. 25 to Feb. 28.

“Turkey has advanced in mobile technologies. But we should open the way for our neighbors with our knowledge,” he said. Turkey should boost mobile accessibility to its neighbors, which have weak wide-band usage, in order to increase its own accessibility in the world, Yıldırım said at the press event organized for the CEO of AVEA and Türk Telekom, Hakan Kanafani, who was chosen for the board of the Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association (GSMA), which represents the interests of 25 mobile operators worldwide. 

Yıldırım said 1,900 villages have obtained infrastructure for mobile internet access in Turkey. “With these infrastructure investments, all villages and all places in the country would be in a coverage zone. As the spice and silk trade routes used to pass through Anatolia, the information technology route is passing through Turkey now,” he said.

Yıldırım stressed that Turkey has become one of the countries using low-cost, highly developed 3G technology. The ministry plans to invest in research and development activities to adopt 4G technology, he said, adding that the licensing process would be easy.

Turkish Company, Vodafone to ally

BARCELONA – Anatolia News Agency

Vodafone’s incubator in Silicon Valley, Vodafone xone, is planning to cooperate with Turkish Oksijen Ar-Ge for the mutual transfer of technology and know-how, the companies’ executives announced at the Mobile World Congress yesterday. 

In the deal, Oksijen Ar-GE, which was chosen as a “Global Innovation Center” two years ago to produce innovations for Vodafone’s worldwide operations, and Vodafone xone will aim to combine their experiences on research and development in a number of joint projects.