Behind the scenes of poor coverage performance in earthquake

The public continues to examine the communication disruptions experienced in the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes in order to use the communication infrastructure effectively in the first critical hours at the time of disaster.

While the disruption experienced in the first days after the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes drew attention to how critical the issue was, the emergence of the same problems in the Hatay-centered earthquake that occurred two weeks after these earthquakes pointed out the urgency of the issue.

In the first days of the earthquake, low orbital satellites, unmanned aerial technologies and other alternatives could not be used effectively, and sufficient efficiency could not be obtained from mobile base stations, which is one of the most basic solutions in case of disaster.

Along with the shortcomings in the capacity of these stations, the disruptions experienced in the energy supply to the stations in question also caused this communication alternative to not meet the intense communication needs at the time of the earthquake.

Speaking to Bloomberg HT, experts drew attention to some aspects of the coverage problem that emerged at the time of the earthquake, dating back to the pre-earthquake.

Coverage issue agenda at sector council

Experts stated that before the earthquake, the issue of coverage throughout Turkey came to the fore at the telecommunications sector assembly meeting of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).

Stating that cloud companies report on access to companies such as Twitter, Youtube and Netflix, telecommunications experts stated that they provide information about which country, how many users access these platforms, when and how, and a coverage-speed map is formed in the report that emerges with this data.

Stating that there is a global coverage map published by the GSM Association (GSMA), which consists of mobile operators and companies related to the telecommunications sector globally, experts pointed out that Turkcell’s map was different before the earthquake, and that there was no coverage everywhere on this map.

It was stated that with the emergence of criticism after the disruptions experienced after the earthquake, the companies reported that this time they covered all of Turkey on the map sent by the companies.

What happened to the universal service funding source?

One of the issues on the agenda regarding coverage is the name of the universal service fund. under collected resources.

It is aimed to ensure communication in places that are not covered by the fund regulated by the Universal Service Law.

In the relevant law, the purpose is expressed as follows:
Providing, carrying out and maintaining a universal service that is financially difficult to meet by
universal in the electronic communications sector and other areas determined under this Law.
fulfillment of service obligation.

Where and how the fund, which came into force in 2005, was used, and whether the resources cut from GSM operators were used in accordance with its purpose, came to the fore as question marks.