Turkcell boasts of faster 4.5G than US, Europe

By Can Erozden

ISTANBUL (AA) - With cutting-edge speed, Turkish mobile phone operator Turkcell has leapfrogged leading providers in Europe and the U.S. to offer the fastest Internet to its customers, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Speedtest developer Ookla showed that Turkcell 4.5G connection offers the fastest Internet -- faster than mobile operators in Germany, the U.S., France, Britain, Spain and Italy.

The average download speed of Turkcell customers was 53.4 Mbps, while upload speeds reached 18.6 Mbps, the telecoms firm said.

Turkcell said it has 26 million 4.5G customers who use nearly 602 million GB of data a year -- a record-setting figure.

CEO Kaan Terzioglu said the company saved the Turkish economy huge sums by going directly from 3G to 4.5G.

"At our president's suggestion, Turkey moved to the advanced technology of 4.5G instead of 4G, saving the economy $10 billion," he said. "With this technology, it will be easier to graduate to 5G with less investment."

GSM-based mobile communication began in Turkey when Turkcell commenced operations in 1994.