Lutfi Elvan

Turkey's telecommunications regulator has set 2.3 billion euros ($2.44 billion) as the minimum price that mobile operators must pay to secure frequency bands for a new 4G network.

Individuals and families with low incomes in Turkey will receive free Internet access under a new government measure.

According to the Ministry of Development's 2015-2018 Information Society Strategy and Action Plan, the aim to provide free Internet is to reduce the digital divide in society by providing Internet access to Turkey's poorest, giving families with students the priority.

Turkey expects to complete a tender for fourth-generation (4G) mobile data services in May and be able to offer the service to consumers by the end of this year, Transport and Communications Minister Lütfi Elvan said on March 4.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has announced undersecretaries from relevant ministries would be appointed in order to replace the ministers of the interior, justice and transportation ministries, who have to procedurally resign from their posts as part of a constitutional obligation designed to ensure a neutral election environment.

The Turkish authorities are planning to name a major new bridge across the Euphrates River in the southeast of the country after President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, daily Hürriyet?s columnist Vahap Munyar reported on Feb. 6.

A commission at the Turkish Parliament has approved a much-debated omnibus bill giving authority to the prime minister or any of his ministers to block any website without a court order for a broad range of reasons.

A new and broad police operation into the so-called ?parallel structure,? members of the Gülen movement that had allegedly infiltrated the judiciary and security forces, was launched on Jan. 20.

An Istanbul prosecutor has demanded 13 life sentences in addition to 362 years in jail for four suspects, one of whom is on the run, in the case of a boat accident that took the lives of 27 migrants late last year.

Serkan Uyar, Do?an Odac?o?lu and Kerem Sinayi Çakan are under arrest in the case, while Afghan national Murteza Hashimi is still on the run.

TAV Airports has paid $139.87 million plus taxes for the operation concession of Istanbul Atatürk Airport and 28.97 million euros plus taxes for the operation concession of ?zmir Adnan Menderes Airport to the State Airports Authority (DHM?), according to the company.

Two people drowned and four were missing at sea and feared dead after two merchant ships collided in rough seas off the Italian coast on Sunday, Italian officials said.