History

The Post Office was established in order to meet postal requirements, and started to provide telecommunication services in the following years.

With the addition of telephone services, the institution was transformed into the PTT Directorate.

Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. was established on 30 June 1994.

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

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

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

Work on the privatization of Türk Telekom was completed on 14^th November, and 55% of its shares were transferred to Ojer Telekomünikasyon A.Ş.

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

On 15^th September, Türk Telekom purchased a 40.56% stake in İş-TİM for USD 500 million and increased its stake in Avea (renamed as TT Mobil) to 81.12%.

On 15^th May, 15% of the shares in Türk Telekom were offered to the public and the shares started to trade on the Istanbul Stock Exchange in what was, at the time, the most successful public offering to have taken place in Turkey over the last 4 years.

Avea started to successfully provide 3G services.

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

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%.

Sobee Yazılım Ticaret Ltd. Şti., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Türk Telekom, was transferred to TTNET A.Ş., alsoa subsidiary of Türk Telekom, with all of its assets and liabilities, through a merger.

Türk Telekom carried out bond issuances with maturities of 5 and 10 years, totalling USD 1 billion. The issuance was eight times oversubscribed. The transaction, which at that time was the largest corporate bond issuance in Turkey, was the first to be issued with two different maturities simultaneously.

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

Türk Telekom became the sole owner 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 underwater cable consortium, which would connect 17 countries.

Avea participated in the Authorization Tender for IMT Services and Infrastructure (known as the LTE Authorization Tender) that was carried out on 26th August by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA). Expanding its capacity with the packages that it had purchased in different frequency bands, Avea became the operator to have the widest frequency per subscriber.

Avea, Türk Telekom and TTNET brands were unified under the “Türk Telekom” single brand in order to offer mobile, internet, telephony and TV services from a single channel.

Avea (renamed as TT Mobil), a subsidiary of Türk Telekom, started to successfully provide 4G services.

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

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 own network in Turkey in cooperation with Nokia.

The SEA-ME-WE-5 underwater cable system, of which Türk Telekom International is a participant, started service at the end of the year, connecting 17 countries from Asia to Europe over a total distance of more than 20 thousand kilometers.

TT Ödeme Hizmetleri A.Ş. a subsidiary of Türk Telekom obtained a payment services license from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) in order to provide next generation payment services to its  customers.

A total of 6.68% of Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. shares held by the Undersecretariat for Treasury of the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey (5% Group B, 1.68% Group D) were transferred to the Turkish Wealth Fund following the related Council of Ministers’ decision.

The 5G Center of Excellence, which was designed for the development of national 5G technologies, was opened in Ankara by Argela, the R&D subsidiary of Türk Telekom.

Türk Telekom was selected as the most valuable brand in Turkey by the international brand assessment  company, Brand Finance.

Türk Telekom introduced Tambu, a platform-enabled digital keyboard that it developed with the vision of developing domestic and national technology.

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

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

Türk Telekom became the first Turkish company to join in the ONF (Open Networking Foundation) platform with a member status. ONF includes global technology giants and designs 5G and beyond technologies.

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

Netsia, the US subsidiary of Argela, successfully established “RAN Slicing” technology test platform in Orange, Verizon and Telefonica.

Turkey’s largest Cyber Security Center with the largest monitoring area in Turkey and the highest capacity DDoS protection infrastructure was opened in Türk Telekom’s new headquarters building in Ankara.

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

In order to increase internet penetration and diversify sales channels, collaborations were entered into with electricity companies in what was a first in Turkey. With this collaboration, Türk Telekom’s fixed broadband packages and electricity started to be offered from a single point.

The trademark of Türk Telekom’s mobile communication company, Avea, was changed to TT Mobil İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. to be in line with the company’s single brand perception.

A cooperation protocol was signed between Türk Telekom, Turkcell, Vodafone, Türksat and Telkoder for “Leasing of Fixed Electronic Communication Infrastructure”. The protocol is aimed at ensuring the effective use of fixed infrastructure, minimizing duplicate investments, accelerating new investments, offering a high-level customer experience and managing environmental issues more effectively.

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

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

55% of the shares held by Ojer Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. (“OTAŞ”) in Türk Telekom were transferred to Levent Yapılandırma Yönetimi A.Ş., a special purpose company (renamed as LYY Telekomünikasyon A.Ş.).

Türk Telekom, in collaboration with Nokia, became the first Turkish operator to test 5G artificial intelligence, Cloud Radio Access Network (Cloud-RAN) and Wireless PON (Wireless Passive Optical Network) technologies. The first Industry 4.0 tests were carried out on the 5G Smart Factory test network established at Ümraniye Teknopark in collaboration with Nokia.

As the only company to have been consistently included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Turkey Program since 2006, Türk Telekom’s technology solutions provider subsidiary, İnnova, won the “Big Star” award in the “Big League” category.

Türk Telekom successfully completed a USD 500 million bond offering. In addition to being the first transaction carried out by Turkish companies since April 2018, the bond issue was the first Turkish Eurobond issue reflecting fair value since May 2016, and was five times oversubscribed, attracting interest from 264 investors from 39 countries.

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

TT Ventures made its third agreement with an investment in the energy vertical by purchasing 11% shares of Eltemtek, a consulting and engineering company.

Türk Telekom Group built the technology infrastructure for the “Ankara City Hospital”, the largest cooperation between the public sector and the private sector in the field of healthcare in Turkey.

The Beta version of LAFF, a domestic and national messaging application developed by Türk Telekom’s R&D and technology company Argela, was offered on Android and iOS platforms.

Türk Telekom completed the first phase of the corporate social responsibility project, “Life is Simple with Internet”, carried out since 2014. During this period, Türk Telekom taught internet literacy to 50 thousand participants with over 300 volunteers.

Türk Telekom became the first Turkish operator to use 400Gbps Ethernet technology, quadrupling connection speeds to its subscribers.

Türk Telekom broke the world 5G speed record by reaching speeds of more than 2.9Gbps in the 5G speed trial conducted with Huawei. In the same test, Türk Telekom became the first operator in the world to test 5G New Radio Carrier Aggregation Technology with commercial phones.

Türk Telekom implemented the Subscriber Donation System over SMS for the first time in Turkey in cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent.

Türk Telekom won first prize in the IDC Artificial Intelligence Awards with its 100% domestic and national “Artificial Intelligence in Operation” project.

Through its subsidiary Netsia, Argela received a total of 31 patents in the area of 5G from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.