History

During the Ottoman Empire, in line with the modernization efforts brought by the Gülhane Rescript of 1839 the first Postal Service Regulation entered into force in 1840 in order to establish an organized Postal Service similar to those in operation in Europe.

To this end, the Postal Ministry and the first postal authority, called the Postahane-i Amire were established.

In 1843, 11 years after the invention of the telegraph, telegraph services began in Turkey, and in 1855, a separate department, the Telegraph Department was established.

In 1871, the Postal Ministry and Telegraph Department were united under one roof and transformed into the Postal and Telegraph Ministry.

After bringing into service Istanbul's first manual telephone exchange on 29th May 1909, the Postal and Telegraph Ministry was transformed into the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephony in 1909, and then in 1913, was renamed the General Directorate of Post, Telegraph and Telephony.

Pursuant to Telephone and Telegraph Law No. 406, the duty of establishing and operating telephone services nationwide was granted to the General Directorate of the PTT.

Turkey's first automatic telephone exchange with 2000 line capacity was put into service in Ankara.

The first intercity communication through an intercity trunk was realized between Ankara and Istanbul.

The General Directorate of the PTT, under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the early years of our Republic, was placed under the authority of the Ministry of Public Works as an annexed budget institution in 1933, and thereafter under the authority of the Ministry of Transportation in 1939.

The first automatic telex exchange was established.

A multi-channel foreign communication service was provided via the first submarine coaxial cable with total of 480 channels, was and was put into service between Antalya and Catania.

Communication with 13 countries was provided over INTELSAT by using the satellites of the Atlantic region upon bringing the first satellite earth station into service.

Installation of pay telephone stations suitable also for intercity and overseas calls was started.

Turkey's first digital telephone exchange entered operation in Kavaklıdere, Ankara.

Fiber optic cable, increasing channel capacity, was installed underground between Ankara (Ulus) and the Gölbaşı satellite earth station for the first time, and a 140 Mb/s system of 1310 nm wavelength was put into operation.

The first radio link system was brought into service between Ankara and Istanbul.

The mobile telephony system was brought into service in Ankara and Istanbul with a paging system in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.

The first video conference in Europe over a satellite system was realized in Turkey.

The first fiber optic cable between the provinces was installed aerially between Aydın and Denizli.

A cable-TV service was brought into service for the first time in Çankaya, Ankara.

The first Packet Switching Data Network, TURPAK was installed.

• A contract for "TURKSAT Satellites" was executed with French Firm Aérospatiale.
• With the EMOS1 Project, communication via fiber optic submarine cable system was provided between Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East.

Low-capacity digital radio link systems were brought into service to enable the transmission of exchanges in rural areas.

Türk Telekom was established on June 30, 1994.

PTT's telecommunication and postal services divisions were separated on April 24, 1995. All personnel, assets and liabilities related to the telecommunications services of PTT were subsequently transferred to Türk Telekom then wholly owned by the Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Undersecretariat of Treasury.

• A submarine Fiber Optic Cable System covering Turkey-Italy-Ukraine-Russia (ITUR) was bought into service.
• The frame Relay service, which enables high speed data transfer over the TUPRAK network, was brought into service with the addition of passport modules.
• Turkey's National Internet Backbone network (TURNET) was brought into service.

NO 7, a signaling system between exchanges that constitutes voice, data and image transmission infrastructure, said Hello to Turkey.

Turkey's second satellite TURKSAT 1C was launched into space.

The contract establishing Eurasiasat, a joint venture company formed by Türk Telecom and Aeorspatiale, producing Türksat satellites, was signed.

The Frame Relay service, which enables high speed data transfer was brought into services

• The National Academic Web (ULAKNET) Project, connecting all universities in Turkey over the TURPAK network was realized.
• KAFOS (Black Sea Fiber Optic System) and TBL (Land Fiber Optic System for Trans Balkan Link) were brought into operation.

The GSM license was transferred to the two firms of Turkcell and Telsim for 25 years.

The wireless telephony system (KTS), which provides wireless access to local exchanges, was brought into service.

• Our company started to provide services such as 115, 121, 122, 123, 126, 131, 163, etc., which had previously been given through an operator, over Interactive Voice Response.
• Cable Internet applications commenced on Cable TV.

The KİT (State Economic Enterprise) status of Türk Telekom was canceled pursuant to Law No. 4502 published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey No. 23948, and it became a joint stock company subject to the provisions of private law.

Ordered for production by EURASIASAT, the joint venture formed by Türk Telekom and Alcatel, the TÜRKSAT 2A satellite was launched into space from Kourou in South America.

CLIP (Calling Line Identification Presentation) and CLIR (Calling Line Identification Restriction) features were brought into service over fixed lines.

The İLSİS Project was realized in order to enable Provincial Directorates of National Education to conduct their computing environment operations with internet access.

Total Quality Management (TKY) pilot project applications commenced at Telekom's Yalova and Balıkesir Provincial Directorates.

Our company became a member of International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and as a sector operator, a member of the following organizations; the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), and the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D).

Implementation of the MERNİS Project developed to conduct population studies in the computing environment, and the infrastructure of which was provided by our Company, commenced.

The first Metro Ethernet applications on a trial basis commenced.

A joint project with the Ministry of National Education was begun to provide 42,500 schools with internet connection via an ADSL service.

TT & TİM İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. was founded on February 19, 2004 through the merger of Türk Telekom's GSM Operator, Aycell, and İş-TİM.

The trade name TT & TİM İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş was changed to Avea İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. on October 15, 2004.

Avea successfully commenced 3G services.