Evolution to 5G: Turkcell Tests Massive MIMO Technology in Antalya

Offering a unique experience to its customers with its powerful 4.5G infrastructure, Turkcell continues to work to make its network ready for 5G, the technology of the future.

As Turkcell aims to offer an experience beyond the expectations of its customers, it has tested the “Massive MIMO” technique developed to meet the high speed experience in dense areas with 5G.

Turkcell, bringing one of the strongest 4.5G infrastructures in the world with the investments they have made, continues to work towards the technology of the future 5G as the first operator to test the “Massive MIMO” technique, which is one of the major solution from the way of 4.5G evolution towards to 5G, in Europe and Central Asia on a real network.

With the cooperation of Huawei, Turkcell completed the first live FDD Massive MIMO product set-up using the 1800 MHz frequency band in Antalya, Turkey. Test results show that 480Mbps Cell Throughput could be achieved by using 8 commercial test terminals on the 20MHz spectrum with live network traffic.

Cell Throughput increased more than 5 times compared to practical monitored Throughput level in the same live network test area by serving traditional LTE 4x4 MIMO configuration. This collaboration is another innovative practice based in the TechCity project with Huawei. Turkcell has also strengthened its experience with the TDD Massive MIMO test, which was previously demonstrated in Ankara with a 6-fold increase in cell throughput, with the FDD Massive MIMO test.

“Massive MIMO” technology, developed in preparation for 5G, allows for a large number of people to connect to high speed internet at the same time in dense areas (shopping centers, hotels, concert halls etc.). Massive MIMO adopts large-scale antenna arrays and allows precise control of both horizontal and vertical beam widths and angles to realize user-specific 3D beamforming, channel estimation, and a user algorithm to multiplex time-frequency resources for different users. These collective activities help to maximize spectral efficiency, further enhance network capacity and improve overall user experience. Turkcell will have significant advantage with Massive MIMO in addition to having the widest spectrum in Turkey.

Sezgin: “In oder to provide the best experience for our customers, we are using tomorrow’s technology, today”

Gediz Sezgin, Chief Network Officer responsible for Turkcell Network Technologies, providing information about the first test carried out in Europe and Central Asia, said; “We continue to work intensively on our network in order to offer our customers the technology of the future. Thus, we aim to provide the best quality experience to our customers by offering the most innovative solutions. Again with the 'Massive MIMO' test we carried out in Turkey for the very first time, we are already preparing our network for 5G technology. “Massive MIMO”, which will be an indispensable application when 5G comes into our lives, will allow customers using the internet at the same time in crowded environments to experience high speed internet without feeling this density.

We are taking an active role in the development of 5G technologies in order to maintain our leadership in 4.5G with 5G and to maintain our leading role. With the national and international collaborations, we are playing a leading role in the development of 5G technologies in the world. As the mobile operator performing the first speed test with real 5G equipment in Turkey, the know-how and experience gained through the collaborations we have entered into, we wish to bring our country to the highest level by becoming one of the few countries developing 5G technologies. Our aim is to develop local technology in 5G while also being one of the first countries in the world to use 5G.”