Turk Telekom seeks to sell off unwanted copper cables

According to local media reports, Turk Telekom is planning to sell off its copper wireline infrastructure as its nationwide fibre-optic deployment gathers momentum. Turkish daily Sabah reports that the telco will begin auctioning off its copper lines in April, potentially generating as much as USD10 billion in ‘scrap’ materials. The newspaper claims that the auction-ready cables it has in storage across 81 provinces includes 160 grades of conductive wire, and represents just a fraction of the estimated 35 million km of copper wire in Turkey’s phone system. Following the initial press reports Turk Telekom released the following statement: ‘With these fibre investments, some of the copper cables in our network become idle. With the aim of optimum resource utilisation, our company sells idle copper cables and proceeds are used to finance our fibre investments. The goal is to invest efficiently in better technology and make it available for our customers. The monetary amounts of the proceeds mentioned in the media are inaccurate’.