Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank stated that within the scope of the end-to-end Domestic and National 5G Communication Network Project, it is aimed to develop the critical components locally and nationally with public-private cooperation, he said:
‘’We are taking measures to encourage domestic and national production related to the 5G network.’’
Radiolink, the critical component of the domestic and national 5G network project has been successfully tested. The demo of “TR713-7Ghz Radiolink” developed as part of the end-to-end Domestic and National 5G Communication Network Project was held at Ostim Teknopark with the participation of Minister Varank.
Ali Taha Koc, president of the Presidency’s Digital Transformation Office, Omer Abdullah Karagozoglu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK), Mehmet Aslan, President of TUBITAK Technology and Innovation Support Programs (TEYDEB), Orhan Aydin Chairman of OSTIM and Mehmet Akif Nacar, General Manager of Havelsan also attended.
Prior to the event, Varank visited the R&D department of the Nanotek company located in Ostim Technopark and received information about the projects carried out here. Then, the presentation of the Radiolink device was made and the test was started. Within the scope of Radiolink’s demo, four 4K resolution videos were transmitted from the base station located 12 kilometres away, and a successful meeting was made over ‘Diyalog’, Havelsan’s video conference system.
‘’Critical components of 5G are being developed.’’
Minister Varank, stated after the demo that the end-to-end Domestic and National 5G Communication Network Project has been continuing for about 3 years and said:
‘’The project aims to develop the critical components of the 5G network, which will become very important in the future with public-private cooperation, locally and nationally.’’
Expressing that they successfully performed the test of the radio link, which is an important part of the project, Varank said that the Radiolink provides high data transmission over long distances by connecting structures such as base stations that cannot be physically connected to each other with radio frequencies.
Reminding that this product was developed in cooperation with different companies and public institutions, Varank stated that they have been carrying out the Communication Technologies Cluster (HTK) and TUBITAK’s TEYDEB project for a long time.
Solution to security problem
Pointing out that there are debates about the security of communication infrastructures in the world, Varank stated that countries impose embargo on each other and take various security measures. Varank, referring to the project for the development of domestic base stations, said:
‘’ULAK domestic base stations compatible with 4G network are currently produced locally and nationally, they are used in our country. We take measures to encourage domestic and national production regarding the 5G network. There are important decisions of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and BTK. Especially in the upcoming period, we will be able to produce 5G products domestically and nationally. Today, we have taken an important step. We have done a successful test; we have seen that 4K videos come from 12 kilometres successfully.’’
Pointing out that TEYDEB has made significant contributions to the funding of the project, Varank noted that the past capabilities of TUBITAK institutes were also transferred to the project. Stating that the Presidency Digital Transformation Office also provided coordination in the project, Varank made the following assessment:
‘’Our private sector and our universities are the main contractors of this business and they are achieving very important successes. We will resolve a significant deficit in Turkey and we will find a solution to a critical security issue by achieving such successes in our project in the upcoming period. Thanks to the successful products we have achieved with this project we will manage to use our local and national instruments in Turkey.’’
‘’We will question how domestic the products are.’’
Varank said that they wanted local and national products developed such as radio link to be used by operators and used the following statements:
‘’BTK agreed to the products being local and national. There are people using the products of foreign or global companies that have been produced in Turkey. We will interrogate how domestic these products are, whether they are produced in Turkey or they are integrated. We will continue the project on that path.’’
Giving the information that negotiations with the operators are continuing, Varank stated that in the next period, the radio link tender will be held especially for the rural areas that do not have internet, and all elements will be discussed here. Varank, pointing out that they will ensure the use of domestic and national products here, he said:
‘’Probably, the tender will be finalized with the completion of these negotiations in the first quarter of next year.’’
Indispensable part of 4G and 5G infrastructures
Presidential Digital Conversion Office Head coach also emphasized that the Radiolink is a part of the four layered project and said:
‘’Radiolink will be an indispensable part of all 4G and 5G infrastructures. This operation is very convenient to our motto of ‘Turkish data will remain in Turkey’. In this sense, we will continue to provide coordination. We will do our best to ensure that the other 3 layers are localized and used by all our operators. ‘’
Karagozoglu, the President of BTK pointed out that they are working on the organization of the business and the operators to incorporate the products produced within the scope of the project, and said that they are proud to bring HTK and companies together. Emphasizing that they will work for the companies in the cluster to achieve serious success in the international arena, Karagozoglu noted that they also made serious efforts to train human resources in 5G.
source: AA / translated by Melisa Karayusufoglu