The CEO of Turkcell said countries are exploring different strategies to strengthen control over their digital infrastructure
In sum – what to know:
Connectivity as sovereignty – Turkcell CEO said telecom networks have become a pillar of economic resilience and national independence as connectivity infrastructure underpins security and digital governance.
AI infra concentration – GPUs, high-bandwidth memory, and advanced manufacturing are emerging as strategic resources, but their production remains concentrated in a limited number of regions.
Sovereign cloud strategy – Turkcell is partnering with Google Cloud to bring AI and cloud infrastructure to Turkey while maintaining local governance and user-controlled encryption.
Digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence are reshaping the role of telecom networks in the global economy, according to Ali Taha Koç, CEO of Turkcell, who said connectivity is becoming a pillar of economic resilience and national sovereignty.
Speaking during a keynote session at Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Koç argued that the telecom sector is moving beyond traditional connectivity toward a broader role in digital infrastructure and AI ecosystems.
“Our sector is no longer solely the provider of the connectivity, it has become a pillar of strategic resilience,” Koç said. “We are witnessing the emergence of a new role for our industry, one that extends beyond enabling communication to underpinning the security and sovereignty of the digital world,” he added.
Koç said connectivity infrastructure has become central to both economic development and national security. “The global system for mobile communications is no longer a technical standard. It has become a system of independence.”
For decades, the global digital economy assumed that technological innovation, digital access and data flows would become increasingly integrated and affordable. According to Koç, that assumption is now being challenged.
Referring to discussions taking place in forums such as the World Economic Forum, he said the shift is increasingly described as geopolitical fragmentation.
“In this emerging order, connectivity itself is no longer a mutual utility,” Koç said. “Whoever builds and operates the fastest, most resilient infrastructure will define the terms of digital cooperation.”
As a result, connectivity networks are becoming a new geopolitical frontier. “In such an era, data sovereignty is emerging as a new economic reality,” he said.
Koç added that countries that do not control the infrastructure used to process data risk becoming dependent on systems controlled elsewhere.
“If you do not control the engine that processes the data, today, nowadays, it is AI. And the chassis is needed. And today, that’s the infrastructure. You remain a passenger moving along the road defined by others.”
The growing importance of artificial intelligence infrastructure is also reshaping global technology dynamics, Koç said.
“The AI revolution, in particular, has transformed GPUs, high bandwidth memory, and advanced manufacturing capabilities into strategic resources,” he said.
However, the production and distribution of those technologies are concentrated in a limited number of regions.
“Yet the production and distribution of these resources are concentrated within a narrow geography. And this concentration is creating a new form of vulnerability for all of us.”
Koç argued that the world is increasingly dividing between countries that build digital infrastructure and those that depend on it.
The CEO of Turkcell also said countries are exploring different strategies to strengthen control over their digital infrastructure. One concept gaining attention is “geopatriation,” which he described as relocating data, workloads, and digital infrastructure from global environments to sovereign national domains.
“Geopatriation refers to the relocation of workloads, data, and digital infrastructure from global, diffused, and uncertain environments back to the local sovereign domain,” he said.
Koç also said many countries are pursuing partnerships between global technology providers and national telecom operators to develop sovereign cloud environments.
“At Turkcell, in partnership with Google Cloud, we are bringing Google Cloud’s advanced cloud and AI capabilities to Turkey,” Koç said. Organizations will be able to encrypt their data with their own encryption keys and store it on infrastructure designed for high levels of security and control.
In his keynote speech, Koç also described a broader transformation of the telecom industry. “Telecom operators today are no longer just connectivity providers,” he said. “We deliver the complete power behind AI. We operate cloud infrastructure. We analyze data at scale.”
According to Koç, this evolution reflects a shift from traditional telecommunications toward what he described as “technocommunications.”
“We are entering an era where networks become autonomous, anticipate human needs, and deliver seamless digital experiences,” he said.
During MWC 2026, Turkcell selected Ericsson to jointly develop, integrate, and deploy advanced Radio Access Network (RAN) solutions. The pair said that the collaboration will fast-track the evolution toward 5G-Advanced capabilities in the country, leveraging the recent commercial launch of 5G services in Turkey.
During the event, Turkcell also signed an MoU with Mavenir to accelerate the mobile network operator’s deployment of voice and messaging AI applications.
