US embassy cable - 05ANKARA395

UNCLAS ANKARA 000395 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EUR/SE, EB/IFD, AND EB/CIP 
USDOC FOR 4212/ITA/MAC/OEURA/CPD/DDEFALCO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECPS, EINV, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY'S TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONNECTIVITY 
WEAK, BUT IMPROVING 
 
REF: A. 04 ANKARA 6484 
     B. 04 ANKARA 6673 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary: The severing of a key fiber optic cable 
link with Europe shows continued weakness in Turkey's telecom 
infrastructure and connectivity.  Turk Telekom's progress in 
building up alternative links appears to have lessened the 
impact of this outage, but the system remains vulnerable and 
lacking in back-up capacity.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU)  A key fiber optic cable passing under the Sea of 
Marmara to Europe was severed about two weeks ago, negatively 
affecting Turkey's international telephone and internet 
service from the state owned monopoly Turk Telekom. 
According to various sources, service capacity had been 
reduced 30-40 %.  The cause of the cable break was unknown, 
but may have been caused by earthquake activity.  One major 
Istanbul-based corporate user told EconOff that their 
internet connectivity had been down for a full day, and they 
still were not comfortable with reliable connectivity for 
their offshore IT functions.  This user said they would keep 
their satellite connection as a back-up.  Turk Telecom has 
been unable to tell users when repairs would be complete. 
 
3.  (SBU)  This is not Turkey's first wake-up call for the 
need for greater alternative links to assure connectivity for 
international telecom users.  Turk Telecom appears to have 
suffered less loss of service this time compared to the 
outage last year when an earthquake in Algeria disrupted 
internet access for nine days, including access blackouts for 
several days throughout Turkey.  Turk Telecom has been 
investing in increased back-up capacity, but at the same time 
faces increasing demand.  One Turk Telekom employee told 
EconOff that despite fears that high-speed ADSL users would 
face problems, in fact these users were experiencing minimal 
negative impact.  He asserted that Turk Telekom was making 
needed improvements.  He also claimed that - like in the U.S. 
- realization of full liberalization and competition would 
take time. 
 
4.  (SBU)  Comment: The absence of reliable, affordable 
international telecommunications is one of the many 
impediments to increasing foreign investment and more fully 
integrating Turkey into the global economy.  Increasing 
liberalization and competition, albeit slower than expected, 
in combination with potential privatization, is providing 
incentive for Turk Telekom to become more customer service 
oriented.  A few companies are starting to compete with Turk 
Telekom for long distance and international service, but they 
rely on inter-connection to the Turk Telekom grid.  Satellite 
service provides back-up for corporate users, but individual 
consumers must still rely on the monopoly infrastructure. 
End Comment. 
EDELMAN