Turkey's government has said it plans to finally launch 5G services in the country next year.

In an announcement this week, the government outlined plans to hold a spectrum auction as soon as October.

Turkey's transport and infrastructure minister, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, said the government is hoping to complete 5G specifications by the end of this month.

"As I said, we will hold the tender in October. By starting to receive signals in 2026, we will have expanded 5G across our entire country within a few years."

The technology has already been trialed in Turkey, with 5G tested at some of the country's biggest football stadiums and at Istanbul Airport.

Turkish carriers Turkcell, Turk Telekom, and Vodafone are all set to take part in the tender.

Earlier this week, Uraloğlu noted that 400 MHz of frequencies in the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands will be made available during the auction.

Turkey's official gazette noted that the tender will include 11 frequency packages across the two bands, valued between $50 million and $425m, while the presidential decree set the minimum price for the available frequency packages at $2.13 billion.

"We've also conducted research on the conditions under which 5G implementations are implemented globally, particularly in Europe. As a result, we're developing the specifications, as required, both by considering the public interest and by setting forth conditions that won't hinder these operators' investment reflexes or abilities," he said.

Although 5G first launched commercially in some markets in 2019, other markets haven't been as fast with the take-up of the technology. India only launched the service in October 2022, while other countries, including Ukraine and Russia, are also yet to launch the service.

Indeed, Turkey was late to 4G as well, only launching the service in April 2016.

Regulatory hurdles and inflation have led to the delay of 5G in Turkey, while the government has also been keen to develop its own 5G hardware and software.