Statement from BTK on Communication Problem in Earthquake Zone

In the earthquakes that took place on February 6 and caused the death of more than 50 thousand citizens, GSM operators received a great response. In the most critical period, communication could not be established with the destroyed houses and the base stations that were destroyed after the earthquake.

While recent events have increased the pressure not to build cell towers on houses, today’s From the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) We have come to an important announcement. BTK Chairman Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu stated that the disruptions were not caused by damage to the base stations.

Making a presentation to the Earthquake Investigation Commission in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Karagözloğlu shared that the destruction of base stations is the smaller part of the problem:

“The fact that some of the base stations located on the buildings were physically destroyed and severely damaged by the earthquake constituted a relatively small part of the problem. The main problem has arisen due to the power cuts in the cities, difficulties in the supply of fuel and bad weather conditions.

There was no loss of core network service, and it continued to serve. In addition, no problems were experienced in the main connection switchboards between the networks of our operators. The radio access networks have been in trouble due to the collapse of the installed buildings and the failure of the base stations and collection areas, which are the most extreme points of the network, due to energy problems. Some of the field losses were due to damage to the transmission line connecting the radio access network to the core network.”

How did power cuts and fuel supply problems affect communication?

These problems have been By Vodafone and Turkcell CEOswas also mentioned after the earthquake. Both CEOs stated that the mobile base stations they delivered to the region could not work due to lack of electricity. The generators required for the operation of the base stations also needed fuel. However, with the problems experienced in the supply of fuel, generators could not be started either.

The outage was large enough to affect one in five mobile phone subscribers nationwide:

Karagözoğlu stated that the number of mobile subscribers in the earthquake region covering 11 provinces is 15 million 298 thousand, constitutes approximately 18.3% of the country expressed. He emphasized that the disaster on the night of February 6 was so great that it affected 1 out of every 5 mobile subscribers in the country.