In a strategic collaboration preparing Turkey for next-generation telecommunications, TÜBİTAK and Turkcell have successfully developed and tested the country’s first domestic 6G network prototypes across commercial-grade field environments.
In a landmark step toward the future of wireless connectivity, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and the country’s leading telecommunications operator, Turkcell, have entered into a strategic collaboration to design, develop, and deploy indigenous hardware solutions for upcoming sixth-generation (6G) cellular networks. The joint research initiative has yielded its first functional hardware prototypes, centered on cutting-edge smart surface architectures that constitute the fundamental building blocks of future mobile networks. Moving beyond controlled laboratory trials, the engineering teams have successfully evaluated these domestic solutions within live, commercial-grade field test facilities.
The initiative represents an important milestone in Turkey’s telecommunications roadmap. As telecom operators worldwide race to transition from 5G deployments to early 6G research and architectural prototyping, the ability to design indigenous hardware and intellectual property has become a strategic imperative. By verifying their proprietary designs in field conditions that simulate real-world commercial network environments, TÜBİTAK and Turkcell have demonstrated that their domestically designed technologies perform reliably outside academic test chambers, establishing an empirical foundation for future high-frequency wireless communications.
Bridging the High-Frequency Connectivity Gap
The transition toward advanced wireless standards, encompassing both mature 5G architectures and prospective 6G platforms, is fundamentally driven by exponential growth in user data consumption. Modern communication networks increasingly require wider bandwidths and unprecedented throughput to handle data-heavy consumer applications, mission-critical industrial automation, and dense device ecosystems. To provide this enhanced capacity, telecommunications infrastructure is steadily shifting toward higher frequency spectra, particularly mid-band frequencies around 3.7 GHz and millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands such as 26 GHz.
While high-frequency radio bands provide massive bandwidth, ultra-fast data speeds, and extremely low latency, they introduce significant physical propagation challenges. Electromagnetic waves at higher frequencies suffer from severe signal attenuation, shorter transmission ranges, and high susceptibility to physical obstacles such as buildings, terrain, walls, and even atmospheric moisture. In dense urban landscapes, financial districts, and crowded indoor environments, maintaining uniform signal coverage and robust link quality becomes exceptionally difficult. Signals struggle to penetrate structures or wrap around obstacles, resulting in rapid signal degradation and localized dead zones.
Traditionally, operators have addressed coverage limitations by deploying additional active base stations or dense arrays of small cells. However, this conventional approach entails significant capital expenditure, escalating energy consumption, and complex frequency coordination to prevent radio interference. The smart surface technologies developed through the TÜBİTAK-Turkcell partnership offer a transformative alternative. By dynamically manipulating electromagnetic propagation environments without adding power-hungry active radio transceivers at every blockage point, these advanced surfaces can manipulate, reflect, and guide radio waves directly into coverage gaps.
Validating Smart Metasurfaces in Commercial Infrastructure
The collaborative project successfully developed and field-tested Turkey’s first domestic prototypes across three critical surface categories: Smart Reflecting Surfaces (SRS), Smart Transmitting Surfaces (STS), and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). These components include both static designs—which utilize fixed passive geometries to redirect radio waves along predetermined paths—and adaptive designs, which can actively modulate their electromagnetic characteristics in response to changing wireless conditions.
Field testing was carried out at two primary locations equipped with commercial-grade telecommunications infrastructure: the Turkcell Kartal Plaza facility in Istanbul and the TÜBİTAK Gebze Campus in Kocaeli. During these trials, engineers evaluated the physical prototypes against live transmission parameters across two vital frequency tiers: 3.7 GHz, widely recognized as the core mid-band N78 frequency spectrum, and the high-frequency 26 GHz mmWave band.
The results of the field campaign confirmed that the domestic metasurfaces significantly improved signal reception and expanded coverage envelopes in previously obstructed zones. By establishing controlled reflection and transmission paths, the surfaces effectively bridged non-line-of-sight gaps, demonstrating measurable gains in signal strength and connection stability. The successful operation of the N78-band RIS prototype in a commercial-grade environment represents the first verified trial of its kind in the country, confirming that the technology can reliably enhance carrier-grade wireless links.
Collaborative Engineering Across Industry and Applied Science
The project’s accelerated progression from conceptual design to operational field validation reflects deep inter-institutional cooperation. Development was directed by Turkcell’s dedicated next-generation research unit, 6GEN.LAB, working alongside multidisciplinary engineering teams from two specialized TÜBİTAK institutions: the Marmara Research Center (MAM) and the Informatics and Information Security Advanced Technologies Research Center (BİLGEM).
Within TÜBİTAK MAM, the Materials Institute and its Functional Materials Laboratory focused on developing specialized materials and electromagnetic metasurface structures required to manipulate high-frequency radio waves with minimal dielectric loss. Concurrently, researchers at the TÜBİTAK BİLGEM HİSAR Laboratory concentrated on high-frequency signal design, RF engineering, and the adaptive control algorithms required to dynamically reconfigure the surface elements. Turkcell provided the network architecture specifications, operator use cases, and live testbed environments necessary to benchmark performance against stringent commercial standards.
This combination of material science, radio-frequency design, and network deployment allowed the research consortium to overcome the engineering hurdles associated with millimeter-wave propagation, resulting in production-ready prototypes capable of operating in demanding urban environments.
Research Leadership on Global Standards and Commercialization
Emphasizing the strategic importance of the trial outcomes, TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Orhan Aydın noted that indigenous research and development is vital for securing a competitive role in the emerging global 6G ecosystem.
"As TÜBİTAK, we continue our efforts in collaboration with our research centers and industrial partners with the goal of building Turkey’s competence in 6G technologies and achieving a strong position in the global technology ecosystem," Prof. Dr. Aydın stated. "Through the collaboration of Turkcell with our TÜBİTAK BİLGEM HİSAR and TÜBİTAK MAM Functional Materials Laboratory teams, we are proud to have developed Turkey’s first domestic SRS, STS, and RIS designs tailored for high-frequency communications technologies."
Prof. Dr. Aydın underscored the strategic significance of the frequency band chosen for the primary intelligent surface: "The first domestic RIS prototype developed in the N78 frequency band stands as a significant R&D achievement aligned with our nation’s 6G vision. These endeavors carry substantial value not only for domestic technology development, but also for ensuring Turkey reaches a competitive posture in international standardization procedures. At TÜBİTAK, we will continue transforming the knowledge base cultivated within our research centers into technologies that can be verified in real-world operating environments and carry clear commercialization potential. Looking ahead, our focus will remain on engineering next-generation metasurfaces and RIS solutions for varied usage scenarios while actively supporting their path toward full-scale industrial commercialization."
Balancing 5G Investments with Long-Term Network Evolution
For mobile operators, the path toward future networking generations requires balancing ongoing capital expenditures on existing infrastructure with forward-looking research into upcoming wireless standards. Addressing this operational balance, Prof. Dr. Vehbi Çağrı Güngör, Turkcell’s Executive Vice President of Network Technologies, emphasized that developing 6G components today directly informs ongoing infrastructure planning.
"On the one hand, we are maintaining our 5G investments uninterruptedly; on the other hand, we are aiming to deliver the high-bandwidth, ultra-low-latency communication services that 6G will bring into our lives in the most efficient manner possible," said Prof. Dr. Güngör. "We are investing purposefully in new-generation technologies that will enhance coverage and efficiency, particularly in areas characterized by high device density, such as city centers, financial and commercial hubs, and large event spaces. In this direction, we are proud to have contributed to the development of Turkey’s first domestic prototypes through the collaboration conducted alongside TÜBİTAK teams. Moving forward, we will continue to support our country’s technology ecosystem and ongoing innovations."
As telecom standards bodies begin laying the foundation for 6G specifications, early empirical validation of intelligent surfaces positions domestic engineering teams to actively contribute to international standardization debates rather than merely adopting external hardware architectures. With field verification completed at Kartal and Gebze, the joint development teams are now focused on refining adaptive metasurface designs, exploring broader spectrum applications, and advancing these indigenous network solutions toward commercial production.
