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Turkey is considering adopting a unified fibre optic telecoms entity to expand its network, signalling it could create a separate manager for the expensive infrastructure investments, a senior official told Reuters.
The study is at an early stage and all options remain on the table, said the Turkish official, who has direct knowledge of government telecoms policy but requested anonymity.
Such a consolidation of telecoms infrastructure could help accelerate Turkey's broadband internet usage and speed, benefit smaller service providers and pose a challenge for the network's largest stakeholder, Turk Telekom.
"We are considering the unification of the fibre infrastructure and conducting a study on it," the senior Turkish official said when asked about some sector demands for infrastructure and sales to be separated, and for the establishment of a common infrastructure holding company.
"It is in early stages and not yet finalised. By establishing a common infrastructure, we aim to further strengthen our country's fibre-optics network," the official told Reuters.
(Additional reporting and writing by Can Sezer; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)