The Amending Regulation for Regulation on Authorization in Electronic Communications Sector (the “Regulation”) was published in the Official Gazette dated May 1, 2021.
The amendments made with the Regulation are as follows:
The conditions required for companies applying to The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (the “ICTA”) for authorization to provide electronic communication services have been changed along with the amendment made to the information and documents to be submitted to the ICTA.
If it is detected that an operator has not provided electronic communication services in the last three years, operator’s relevant authorization shall be revoked. However, in order to provide the operators a transition period within the scope of the new rules, it has been stipulated that this provision regarding the revocation of authorization shall start to be applied as of May 1, 2024.
A lower limit of 10,000 Turkish Lira has been introduced to the annual administrative fee regardless of calculation over the net sales of the operator from previous year.
Prior to the amendment, only operators authorized for limited numbers of right of use were obliged to inform the ICTA in relation to share transfer, acquisition and movements up to 10%, within two months following such transaction. From now on, all operators are obliged to inform such transaction within Corporate Law Turkish Commercial Code one month. Additionally, share transfer transactions of operators that executed Service and Concession agreements with the ICTA have been further regulated.
New obligations have been introduced to protect the subscribers of operators whose authorizations have been terminated or canceled.
In order to ensure the transition process for the current operators to meet conditions for the authorization application, as per the Regulation, all the current operators, who are authorized by notification or by being granted with unlimited numbers of right of use along with the notification, are requested to apply to the ICTA until December 31, 2023 with the requested information and documents, otherwise it has been regulated that the authorizations of such operators will be revoked by the ICTA.
