Turkey behind OECD countries in fiber optic internet infrastructure

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Onursal Adıgüzel has prepared a report about Turkey's fiber optic internet infrastructure.

The broadband penetration rate according to the population is 19 percent in Turkey whereas the OECD average is 31 percent, according to the report.

The share of fiber optic internet in broadband connections is 22 percent in Turkey and 28 percent on average in the OECD countries.

The number of broadband internet subscribers is 15.8 million with 3.8 million fiber internet users in Turkey, a country of 83 million people.

The length of fiber optic cables in the country is about 413,000 kilometers with a 783,562 square kilometers surface area whereas South Korea, a country with a surface area of 100,000 square kilometers, has 574,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables.

İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, the three largest provinces of the country, have the highest number of fiber optic cable lengths in the country while Urfa and Hatay have the shortest length, according to the report.

"Broadband/fiber investments in Turkey are far behind developed countries," said Adıgüzel. "Unfortunately, the necessary importance has not been attached to internet infrastructure investments in our country in the 21st century where internet use is of vital importance as electricity and water and internet access is a basic human right."

"The internet is slow and expensive in Turkey because the infrastructure is inadequate. Because there is no investment. Studies show that the fiber infrastructure should grow approximately 200 times," he further said. (RT/VK)