In an exclusive interview with Telecom Review during the 18th edition of the Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit, Ali Taha Koç, Chief Executive Officer of Turkcell discussed the company’s strategic initiatives in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G technologies to optimize network performance and achieve sustainability goals, while outlining Turkcell’s vision to position Türkiye as the digital hub along the Silk Road.
Turkcell has highlighted AI as a foundation for innovation and emphasized its role in the upcoming shift to 5G-Advanced. How does Turkcell plan to leverage AI and 5G to enhance customer experience and optimize network performance in the MEA region?
Turkcell has always been at the forefront of technological innovation in Türkiye. We use AI as the cornerstone to showcase the full potential of 5G networks.
By leveraging 5G-Advanced and AI at Turkcell, we provide our customers with seamless, intelligent, and personalized connectivity. We use AI to predict outages and pre-empt technology maintenance, delivering insights to our network operators and vendors so they know whether something will work or fail. We predict these insights in advance to provide our customers with uninterrupted 100% availability. Besides this, we use our AI tools to provide our customers with more suitable service plans.
Additionally, we are leading the AI-native initiative alongside the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and are working to provide standardized concepts for AI-native networks. In the GSMA domain, we are closely following its Responsible AI Maturity roadmap, with Turkcell being among the first companies to deploy it in the network.
At COP29, Turkcell shared ambitious plans for sustainability, including a USD 240 million investment in solar energy by 2026, and a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. How do these initiatives align with Turkcell’s broader digital transformation and operational strategies?
Turkcell started its business in 1994. The company began as a mobile operator, and over 30 years it has become a technology provider for the Turkish people. We provide our customers the best and most affordable technology, in an energy-efficient way.
We invested USD 240 million to build a solar panel energy plant with a total installed capacity of 300 MW to ensure these technologies have a minimal negative impact on the world, establishing a future where renewable energy is our foundation.
Turkcell’s vision of “turning the Silk Road into the Fiber Road” highlights significant investments in fixed broadband infrastructure. How do you see this expansion influencing connectivity and economic development in underserved areas?
Turkcell boasts 65,000 km of fiber connectivity, providing all cities across Türkiye with a fiber connection. We currently have 24.4 million fiber-connected customers and are working with over 150 international operators to provide connectivity and become an operator in this region.
Meanwhile, we are also working on our data center business to provide services beyond connectivity. Moreover, we are set to collect all this data and become a hub, delivering it to our customers as part of our data center business. We have invested over USD 300 million in data centers to date.
These investments will enable us to make Türkiye a digital hub along the Silk Road.
