Turkcell, Huawei sign deal on smart cities in Turkey

Turkey's leading mobile phone operator Turkcell and Chinese technology giant Huawei have signed an agreement to collaborate on smart cities, Turkcell announced Tuesday.

The deal aims to set up collaboration on improving infrastructure for smart cities in Turkey, Turkcell said in a statement.

Turkcell Board Chairman Ahmet Akça said cooperation with Huawei is "a great step" for Turkey to have new generation communication technologies and to play a pioneering role in 5G (fifth generation technology).

"This cooperation will enable our cities to become smarter through being equipped with 5G technologies," Akça said.

Li Dafeng, Director of the Huawei ICT Infrastructure Managing Board Office, said the agreement will pave the way for digital transformation in Turkey and Central Asia.

The concept of "smart cities" seeks to integrate sustainable solutions offered by new-generation technologies into all urban management processes to solve the major problems facing metropolises.

Earlier in September, the two companies had signed a Smart City cooperation protocol with Turkey's Samsun province.

With this project, the parties are looking to enable the people of Samsun to experience the most up-to-date smart city technologies before anyone else and to make digital transformations at different points in the city, where traffic is one of the biggest problems.

As part of the protocol, Turkcell and Huawei will develop cooperation and smart technology solutions for Samsun, like smart transportation, agriculture, meters and parking.

Reports suggested that Turkcell will provide cloud computing services through data centers with fixed broadband (FBB), mobile broadband (MBB) and NB-IOT connectivity services required to implement the project. Huawei, on the other hand, will provide vertical solutions including smart transportation, smart water and smart parking solutions, as well as IP and IT products.