Turkcell has unveiled new strategic partnerships with Ericsson and Mavenir at Mobile World Congress 2026, aimed at accelerating the operator’s transition toward 5G Advanced, advancing early 6G research, and embedding AI capabilities within its mobile core network.
Ericsson confirmed it has been selected by Turkcell to jointly develop, integrate and deploy advanced radio access network (RAN) solutions designed to fast-track the operator’s evolution toward 5G Advanced. The collaboration builds on Turkey’s recent commercial introduction of 5G services and focuses on enhancing network performance and enabling next-generation use cases.
As part of the partnership, Turkcell and Ericsson also signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate the adoption of cloud-native and automated network architectures. The agreement covers technology domains including Reduced Capability (RedCap), cloud RAN, service management and orchestration, and intelligent rApps.
Turkcell CTO Vehbi Çağrı Güngör said the company aims to evolve its network into a cloud-native, automation-driven platform capable of delivering new services faster. The initiative is expected to improve network reliability and latency while enabling applications such as augmented and virtual reality as well as industrial IoT solutions for enterprise and consumer markets.
Although Turkcell has not yet commercially launched nationwide 5G services, the operator and its competitors Vodafone Turkey and Türk Telekom secured spectrum in the country’s 5G auction in October 2025. The three operators collectively paid US$2.125 billion for 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum. According to Turkey’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, nationwide 5G services are expected to launch across all 81 provincial centres starting next month.
Looking beyond 5G, Turkcell and Ericsson also signed a separate memorandum of understanding to collaborate on 6G research and development in Turkey. The agreement will explore emerging technologies including agentic AI, autonomous network capabilities and digital twins for network operations.
Turkcell CEO Ali Taha Koç described the collaboration as a step toward the next generation of intelligent connectivity, noting that future networks will integrate advanced digital capabilities across sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and public services.
In a parallel development, Turkcell signed another agreement with Mavenir to accelerate the rollout of AI-powered services by embedding artificial intelligence directly into its mobile core network using Mavenir’s cloud-native IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture.
The partnership will enable the development of advanced services including AI-powered voice and messaging capabilities, intelligent customer care solutions and tiered AI subscription services for consumers.
According to Mavenir, the collaboration reflects the industry’s growing shift toward AI-native networks, where intelligence is embedded directly within core telecom infrastructure rather than delivered solely through external applications.
