Nov 17 2014
Turkcell, Turkey’s leading telecommunications and technology company, hosted its 5th annual Technology Summit on 12-13 November 2014 in Istanbul. During the summit – the largest and most comprehensive technology event in Turkey – participants heard about and experienced the future of technology in Turkey and the wider world.
(Photo: Business Wire)
Introduction of 4G in Turkey: All eyes on 2015
Turkcell’s CEO, Sureyya Ciliv, spoke on the first day of the conference, emphasizing the value of team play and innovation in doing business in the new, techno-savvy world. He also broke the much-anticipated news on the introduction of 4G to Turkey. “From our talks with the government at the Ministerial level, we understand that 2015 will be the year for 4G in Turkey,” said Ciliv, “this is an absolute necessity if we are to meet the demand of increasing mobile traffic. Since the launching of 3G 5 years ago, mobile traffic has grown 200-fold – and demand continues to grow exponentially to this day. This is why we invest in 4G, and as Turkcell, we are ready for it.”
Turkcell was the first mobile operator to have introduced 3G to Turkey in 2009. It has been testing its 4G LTE readiness and has seen download speeds of up to 891.6 mbps in lab tests. It also launched Turkey’s first operator-branded 4G smartphone, the T50, earlier this year.
A Vision for the future: a global perspective by Michio Kaku
This year’s guest of honor at the Turkcell Technology Summit was world-renowned physicist and futurologist Dr. Michio Kaku. Addressing a full house of participants, Dr. Kaku suggested that the future wave of technological innovation – which will follow the steam engine, electricity, and hi-tech - will come in the fields of telecommunications, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence, empowered by mobile technology. “All industries will become digitized. This will result in “perfect capitalism” and the winner will be the consumer,” said Kaku, “The capital is shifting from commercial to intellectual. The winning countries will be those to have comprehended this fact. In this scenario the winners will be innovators, artists, designers, and dreamers; those who use science and technology correctly.”
A collective brainstorming for 12,000 participants
This year’s Turkcell Technology Summit welcomed 12 thousand participants and over 200 opinion leaders. Speakers tackled a broad range of issues, varying from connected life to mobile payments, from the future of energy with M2M technologies to real-time marketing, in 108 sessions staged over 2 days. Participants were able to experience first-hand the latest technology from Turkcell and its partner companies at the fair, which hosted booths dedicated to specific products.
Turkcell, which supports Turkey’s innovation ecosystem through programs such as its own “Developers of the Future”, also opened the doors of its Technology Summit to the “Maker Faire” – an independent global invention and creativity movement. In Turkey’s first “Maker Faire”, over 100 independently developed projects including drones, wearable technologies, local 3D printers and systems that read brain waves were introduced to Turkey’s technology and innovation elite.