Minister Uraloğlu: We have started the tender process for 5G

Minister Uraloğlu gave information about the recent work and projects to be implemented in his speech at the Transportation and Infrastructure Turkey Century Summit organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Transportation and under the leadership of the Albayrak Group.

Uraloğlu, who made evaluations about the contributions of investments in transportation and transportation structures to individuals and countries, said that Turkey has made important moves especially in terms of transportation and infrastructure since 2002.

Uraloğlu said, "We have invested approximately 290 billion dollars in our country in the field of transportation and infrastructure in 23 years. We have done and continue to do many things, from divided roads to increasing the number of airports from 26 to 58, to introducing the comfort of high-speed train operations to our country, to the level we have reached in maritime, to communications. We have done the right things, and we will continue to do the right things."

Uraloğlu, who talked about Turkey's future goals, informed the participants about the projects and work carried out in Istanbul .

"The Development Path will further strengthen Turkey's position as a trade corridor"

Minister Uraloğlu also touched upon the point reached in the Development Road project in his speech. Underlining that important work has been carried out in this area and the importance of the project, Uraloğlu noted the following:

" The Development Road Project is a valuable project. There is a seriously increasing trade load in the world, and this needs to be carried. Therefore, sometimes the following calculation can be made; 'Where will this load be taken on?' It does not even have to be taken on by a place, even if it takes on the increasing load, there is a capacity there. The Development Road will further strengthen Turkey's strategy and position as a trade corridor. These are not just corridors where a load is carried, but also structures that will strengthen our country or the countries it passes through in a strategic sense.

There is a group of four here, we started with Iraq first, then Qatar and the United Arab Emirates joined. We signed a memorandum of understanding, there are some minor deficiencies but I can say that the project is finished. Now we have focused on the management model and financing model, we are working on it. We are making an effort to bring in international financing, if we start this year we will have done a good job. Of course we will take a position according to the changing and developing conditions. Now we have Syria by our side, we think we will connect Syria to the Development Path corridor."

"We need a 1004-kilometer rail system for Istanbul"

Uraloğlu, who made evaluations about the latest situation and future work in Syria, reminded that after the new administration took office in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan instructed all ministers to do whatever was necessary for Syria's recovery and development.

Uraloğlu underlined that they will do all the necessary work within this framework, and said that they made the necessary determinations in Syria, made planning in aviation, and will do all the necessary work in other areas.

Providing information about Istanbul's subway network, Uraloğlu said: "We are talking about a megacity with a daily population of 20 million. We can say the same thing for all our cities, but this one is of course at its busiest, at its highest level. First of all, we need to correctly identify what we need. After making this determination, we need to do what is necessary. First of all, in a city like Istanbul, you can no longer solve transportation needs above ground, there is no such possibility, we need to go underground, we need to solve this need underground. Of course, we will build new highways, but the main solutions must definitely be our subway lines and rail systems. We approve all kinds of transportation plans in this sense. According to the study we conducted for Istanbul, we need a total of 1,004 kilometers of our rail system, let's say the current figure is approximately 380 kilometers, we need to build another 600 kilometers of subway on top of that so that we can solve Istanbul's problems."

Underlining that the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has no projects awaiting approval from the Ministry of Transport regarding the metro lines, Uraloğlu said that they have given the necessary approvals and that the approved projects should be started as soon as possible in order to solve Istanbul's traffic problem.

"We have started the tender process in 5G"

Minister Uraloğlu said regarding the point reached in 5G, "We are also talking about whether it will be 5G or 5.5G, but we have started the tender process. We will start receiving signals for general dissemination in 2026 by holding the tender this year. Our aim in waiting for this is to develop localization a little more and to purchase the equipment we will buy from abroad at a more appropriate price."

Uraloğlu, who reported that they had recently given 5G trial licenses at 34 points and that they had increased this number to 36 by adding 2 more places, explained that 5G technology would provide 10 times the speed in practice.

Uraloğlu said, "We have become one of the 11 satellite manufacturers in the world and we did it, Turkish engineers did it. We have also started our marketing efforts to manufacture and sell satellites not only for our country but for the whole world."

Uraloğlu pointed out that there is currently approximately 580 thousand kilometers of fiber infrastructure in Turkey and said that they are working on increasing this to 800 thousand kilometers.

Uraloğlu, in his statement on speed, stated, "In the upcoming process, we will make more investments in both the transition to 5G and the ongoing process regarding Türk Telekom's privilege, and we will bring the situation here to higher levels."

"Daily time spent on the internet in Turkey is approximately 7 hours"

Uraloğlu, who was asked about his views on some applications and games targeting children and young people, said, "While the average daily time spent on the internet in the world is 6.5 hours, in Turkey it is approximately 7 hours. All social media platforms in Turkey have appointed representatives, which is valuable but not enough. We have things to do to protect both our people and especially our young people."

Minister Uraloğlu stated that it is necessary to show a reflex to protect the society in this sense and said, "We are working not with a prohibitive attitude but with an educative attitude, taking into account the demands from the society and our cultural and religious values. I can say that we will make some progress this year."

Providing information about the point reached in the social media regulation for under 16s, Uraloğlu said, "We will have a meeting next week that is heading towards the final. We think that 16 is more appropriate than 13 in terms of the age at which an individual can more accurately evaluate the disinformation and misinformation made on social media and how to make a judgment. We have reached a general consensus on this point. In a study we conducted, 79.4 percent of families support and find the 16 age group correct, so we will make this regulation and we will implement it this year."

Uraloğlu stated that although there are some technical difficulties in how the platforms will implement this, these will be overcome, and that the authorities of social media platforms are more careful about Turkey's sensitivities, especially after the access ban on Instagram was imposed last year, and that Turkey's hand has been strengthened in making them do what they want.