Communications & Telecommunications

Independence could be completed not only in land and production but also in sovereignty over communications. In the Republic's first years post, telegraph and telephone were reorganised under a single administration.

Legal and Technical Steps

• Postal Law No. 376 (26 November 1923). The law set out the duties and powers of the postal administration in 57 articles.
• Telegraph and Telephone Law No. 406 (4 February 1924). All domestic and international communications authority was vested in the PTT Administration.
• Guarantee of communications secrecy (20 April 1924). Article 81 of the Teşkilât-ı Esasiye Law placed the secrecy of telegraph and telephone communications under constitutional protection.
• Ankara Automatic Telephone Exchange (11 September 1926). Türkiye's first automatic exchange entered service with a capacity of 2,000 lines.
• Ankara–Istanbul long-distance line (1 September 1929). The first long-distance telephone connection between the two cities was established.
• Radio broadcasting (1927). Türk Telsiz Telefon A.Ş. began regular radio broadcasts.
• Nationalisation of Istanbul Telephone Co. (1936). The foreign-owned company that ran Türkiye's largest telephone network was bought by the state, and Istanbul's local telephone network passed to the PTT administration.

The infrastructure the PTT built and the constitutional principle of communications secrecy formed the basis of today's communications institutions and legislation.