Our Hosts: Telecommunication Authority of the Republic of Turkey

Turkey's telecommunication sector is currently in a transition period. The Telecommunications Authority is the first sector-specific regulator in Turkey and was established by the Amending Law No. 4502 on 29 January 2000 as an independent authority responsible for regulating and supervising the telecommunica-tions sector including radiocommunications issues but excluding broadcast content regulation and licence.

The Authority has been operational since 15 August 2000 and it is independent in terms of management and finance. The Telecommunications Board is the decision maker of the Authority and comprises four members headed by the Chairman of the Board who is at the same time President of the Authority. The Chairman of the Board is the chief executive and is responsible for the general governance and representation. There are four vice presidents functioning under the President of the Authority. The Headquarters is situated in Ankara and there are main functional departments, consultative and auxiliary units and regional directorates in the Authority.

Following the establishment of the Authority, numerous studies have been initiated towards the smooth regulation and liberalization of Turkish telecommunication sector. Concerning the licencing regime, one of the major initiatives is the preparation of a draft secondary legislation covering principles and procedures for issuing Type 2 telecommunication licences and general authorizations.

In addition, official work has been carried out by the Authority regarding the renewal of the current licence regulation, namely "Telecommunications Services Regulation", developed by the Ministry of Transport on 28 March 2001 pursuant to the Amending Law no. 4502 before the enactment of the second Amending Law no. 4673.

Liberalization in telecommunications sector exists in GSM services, which are provided through the authorization/concession agreements between the mobile operators and the Authority as of today. Currently, four mobile GSM operators are operating in Turkey.

The Authority is responsible for setting the price caps and reference tariffs on a non-discriminatory basis. The studies related to tariffing policy for the dominant operators and operators with significant market power have been finalised and respective regulation "Tariff Regulation" has been published in the Official Gazette on 28 August 2001.

The Authority is also responsible for regulating interconnection arrangement and solving the disputes between operators on the interconnection agreements. Studies continue for the preparation of the interconnection agreement principles and reference tariffs.

To ensure the efficient utilisation of the numbering resources for all publicly available telecommunications services between the operators, the Authority has initiated regulatory studies for the management of the num-bering resources considering the new entrance to the sector with the full liberalisation.

Host Administration

Mrs. Sükran Aytekin (saytekin@tk.gov.tr)

Mrs. Aysel Kandemir (akandemir@tk.gov.tr)

Mrs. Güleser Aykara (gaykara@tk.gov.tr)

Tel:	+90 312 550 5068
550 5037
550 5291
Fax:	+90 312 550 5066
E-mail:	wtdc_02@tk.gov.tr
Web:	www.tk.gov.tr