Türkiye’s Turksat Targets Global Satellite Expansion in 2026

Türkiye’s sole satellite operator, Turksat, is targeting a global presence in satellite services and beyond next year, including expanding the e-Government system to neighboring countries, CEO Ahmet Hamdi Atalay said, The Caspian Post reports, citing Anadolu.

Atalay noted that the company focused on corporate transformation in 2025, carrying out infrastructure work to enable expansion into new areas.

“We have started an in-flight Internet connection (IFC) project, which will position us first as a regional and eventually as a global player,” he said. He added that Turksat signed an IFC project deal with Türkiye’s low-cost airline AJet, developing proprietary software that will be rolled out on AJet aircraft in the first quarter of next year.

Atalay stated that Turksat’s satellite internet connection service for AJet was done in collaboration with TCI Aircraft Interiors, a Turkish Airlines subsidiary.

“Previously, there was no internet service in the ‘low-cost, regional’ airline segment, so ours will be a first,” he said. “We established an infrastructure to provide internet connectivity at higher speeds than other airlines-many value-added services can be provided through this service.”

Atalay mentioned that the Turksat 7A will replace the Turksat 3A in orbit, as the latter completed its 13th year in 2023 and is currently operating on extended life.

“We also have a rapidly growing need for capacity in the internet and live broadcasting sectors, so we are implementing the Turksat 7A project, which has higher capacity and more features-we will send the new satellite by 2030 at the latest,” he said.

Atalay stated that data has become the most valuable asset for all institutions and countries, with the global data volume doubling in the last two and a half years. He emphasized the need for data centers in Türkiye.

“As Turksat, we serve many institutions, producing and hosting different types of services-we began a few years ago to deliver on the rapid demand for data centers, and we are in the tender process now; we will probably finalize our tender in January,” he said.

“The data center we will establish in Golbasi (a municipality in Ankara) will have a very high storage capacity, and it will be eight times larger than Turksat’s current data storage capacity. It will also contain servers with high data processing capabilities, and we are in the final stages of creating this data center that will be vital in services like artificial intelligence (AI),” he added. “The construction will begin next year.”