History

In order to meet postal needs, the Post Office was established, which started to provide telecommunication services in the following years.

With the addition of telephone services, the institution was transformed into the PTT (Post, Telegraph, Telephone) Directorate.

Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. was established on June 30^th, 1994.

On April 24^th, the telecommunications and postal services in the PTT were separated. All PTT staff, assets and liabilities related to the telecommunications services were transferred to Türk Telekom, which was fully owned by the Undersecretariat of Treasury affiliated to the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey.

On February 19^th, TT&TIM İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. was established following the merger of Türk Telekom’s GSM Operator Aycell and İş-TIM.

On October 15^th, the trade-name of TT&TIM İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. was changed to Avea İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. (Avea).

Work on the privatisation of Türk Telekom was completed on November 14^th, and 55% share of the company was transferred to Ojer Telekomünikasyon A.Ş.

On May 14^th, TTNET, a subsidiary of Türk Telekom, was established and started its operations after being awarded an internet service provider license.

On September 15^th, Türk Telekom purchased the 40.56% stake of İş-TİM for USD 500 million, and increased its stake in Avea to 81.12%.

15% of the shares in Türk Telekom were offered to public on May 15^th, and the shares started to trade on the İstanbul Stock Exchange. At the time, the transaction stood as the most successful initial public offering (IPO) to have taken place in Turkey over the last four years.

Türk Telekom’s subsidiary, Avea (renamed as TT Mobil) started to successfully provide 3G services.

Türk Telekom acquired and incorporated Invitel International (renamed as Türk Telekom International), the leading wholesale capacity provider in the Central and Eastern Europe region.

Türk Telekom became the first telecommunication company in Turkey to report carbon emissions to the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project).

Türk Telekom’s total share in Avea’s capital increased to 89.99%.

Türk Telekom’s bond issuance totalling USD 1 billion with maturities of 5 and 10 years got eight times oversubscribed by international investors. This transaction, which at that time was the largest corporate bond issuance ever made in Turkey, was also the first to be issued with two different maturities simultaneously.

TTNET A.Ş. purchased the broadcasting rights of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA European League games in Turkey for three seasons, starting with the 2015-2016 season. The games were broadcast on Tivibu, Türk Telekom Group’s broadcasting platform.

Türk Telekom got the full ownership of Avea İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. with the completion of the transfer of the shares of Avea owned by the İş Bank Group, to Türk Telekom.

Türk Telekom International became a full member of the SEA-ME-WE-5 submarine cable consortium, which would connect 17 countries.

The Company’s subsidiary Avea, participated in the Authorisation Tender for IMT Services and Infrastructures (known as the LTE Authorisation Tender) held by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) on August 26^th. Expanding its capacity with a number of packages that it had purchased in different frequency bands, Avea became the mobile operator to have the widest frequency per subscriber.

Avea, Türk Telekom and TTNET brands were all integrated under the single brand of “Türk Telekom” in order to offer mobile, internet, fixed voice and TV services from a single channel.

Türk Telekom’s subsidiary Avea (renamed as TT Mobil), started to successfully provide LTE services.

Türk Telekom became the first operator to integrate Turkey’s first domestic and national LTE base station ULAK into its network which was developed, with the support of the Undersecretariat of Defence Industries, by Aselsan, Netaş and Türk Telekom’s R&D subsidiary, Argela.

Türk Telekom introduced its new youth brand, Selfy, to young people.

Türk Telekom became the first operator to test the Narrowband IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology on its network in Turkey in cooperation with Nokia.

The SEA-ME-WE-5 submarine cable system, of which Türk Telekom International is a member, entered into service at the end of the year, which connected 17 countries from Asia to Europe over a total distance of more than 20 thousand kilometres.

Türk Telekom’s subsidiary, TT Ödeme Hizmetleri A.Ş. (TT Payment Services) obtained a payment services official authorisation from the BRSA (Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency) in order to provide next generation payment services to its customers.

A total of 6.68% of Turkish Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. shares held by the Undersecretariat of the Treasury of the Republic of Turkey (5% Group B, 1.68% Group D), were transferred to the Turkish Wealth Fund following the relevant decree of the Council of Ministers.

The 5G Centre of Excellence, which was designed by Türk Telekom’s subsidiary Argela for the development of national 5G technologies, was opened in Ankara.

Türk Telekom introduced TAMBU, a platform-enabled digital keyboard, which it developed in line with its vision of developing domestic and national technology.

Türk Telekom introduced its digital music platform Muud to its users, which it renewed with improvements to its technological infrastructure.

Türk Telekom rose to second ranking in Pay TV market thanks to its superior technology and rich content.

Türk Telekom became the first Turkish company to join the ONF (Open Networking Foundation) platform which particularly designs 5G and beyond technologies with a founding member status and it also involved in the management of the platform to which global technology giants are members as well.

Türk Telekom became a platinum member of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP), which brings global leading operators and technology suppliers together.

“Netsia”, the US subsidiary of Argela which is focused on R&D activities, successfully installed the test platform of “RAN Slicing” technology in Orange, Verizon and Telefonica.

Turkey’s largest Cyber Security Centre, which is home to the highest capacity DDoS protection infrastructure and the largest monitoring area in Turkey, was opened at Türk Telekom’s new headquarter building in Ankara.

Türk Telekom established TT Ventures, the first corporate venture capital company in the Turkish telecommunications sector, in line with its focus on investing in early-stage and scalable companies. The Company undertook its first investment in Doctor Turkey, one of the first ventures in the field of online health services in Turkey.

The trademark of Türk Telekom’s mobile communication company, Avea, was changed to TT Mobil İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. as of June 2018 in a way to support the emphasis on single brand perception.

A cooperation protocol was signed among Türk Telekom, Turkcell, Vodafone, Türksat and Telkoder on “Leasing of Fixed Electronic Communication Infrastructure”, which aims to ensure effective use of fixed infrastructure and minimizing duplicated investments.

The first pilot project for active mobile network sharing with Vodafone was successfully completed.

Türk Telekom brought the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) to life with its new MTN (Media Transport Network) technology infrastructure, which it established in Super League stadiums for the first time in Turkey.

55% shares of Türk Telekom held by Ojer Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. (OTAŞ), a shareholder in Türk Telekom, were transferred to Levent Yapılandırma Yönetimi A.Ş. (LYY) (renamed as LYY Telekomünikasyon A.Ş.), which was established as a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

In collaboration with Nokia, Türk Telekom became the first Turkish operator to test 5G Artificial Intelligence, the Cloud Radio Access Network (Cloud-RAN), Wireless PON (Wireless Passive Optical Network) and Industry 4.0 Smart Factory technologies.

Türk Telekom successfully completed a USD 500 million bond issuance. The transaction, which attracted interest from 264 investors from 39 countries and was 5 times oversubscribed, was the first transaction carried out by Turkish companies between April 2018 and the actual transaction date.

Together with Huawei, Türk Telekom implemented Turkey’s first 5G cloud application, where AR and VR based educational content was tested.

Türk Telekom’s corporate venture capital company, TT Ventures, became partner with MentalUP, which is Turkey’s first and only gamified digital education platform for children.

The Türk Telekom Group readied the technological infrastructure of the “Ankara City Hospital”, the largest public-private partnership in the field of health in Turkey.

Türk Telekom completed the first phase of its “İnternetle Hayat Kolay” (Life is Simple with Internet) project which it had been working on since 2014. During this period, 50 thousand participants were taught internet literacy via more than 300 volunteers.

Mr. Ümit Önal became the new CEO of Türk Telekom. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Mr. Önal successfully served in the positions of Assistant General Manager responsible for Sales, Marketing and Customer Care of the Company for three years.

Türk Telekom became the first Turkish operator to use 400Gbps Ethernet technology, which quadruples the speed of data flow to its subscribers.

Türk Telekom broke the world 5G speed record by reaching speeds of more than 2.9Gbps in the 5G speed test that it conducted with Huawei.

Türk Telekom became the first operator in the world to test the 5G New Radio Carrier Aggregation Technology with commercial devices.

In cooperation with the Red Crescent, Türk Telekom implemented the Subscription Donation System via SMS for the first time in Turkey.

For the eleventh time in a row, Türk Telekom was selected as “Most valuable telecommunication brand of Turkey” by Brand Finance, the international brand valuation company.

The first real time 5G live game broadcast of Turkey was conducted by Türk Telekom.

In January 2020, Türk Telekom became participating member to United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.

TT Ventures became a partner in the domestic software company, Virasoft by investing in the digital health field.

Türk Telekom adopted the motto of “Değerli Hissettirir” (Makes You Feel Valuable) as its corporate promise.

Türk Telekom held Turkey’s first “Online Cyber Security Camp”.

The next generation XGS-PON technology was tested by Türk Telekom for the first time in Turkey.

Türk Telekom’s lifesaving domestic eCall technology started to be used in Honda vehicles.

Türk Telekom implemented the e-Meeting system which digitalizes the Penal Execution Institutions.

Argela increased the total number of international patents obtained in the field of 5G to 40.

Argela signed a licensing and cooperation agreement with Juniper Networks, one of the leading network equipment manufacturers in the world, for the RIC product of its subsidiary Netsia, which is patented in the field of 5G.

After the successful Eurobond issuances in 2014 and 2019, Türk Telekom had the first domestic bond issuance of TL 150 million in December.