Turkey's fifth-generation communication satellite Turksat 5A entered into service on Monday with a commissioning ceremony in the capital Ankara.
Launched by US-based space technologies firm SpaceX this January, the satellite orbits along the 31st meridian east.
Attending the ceremony online, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the satellite was ready to serve after tests and preparation efforts.
Turksat 5A will expand the country's communication capacity and protect Turkey's orbital rights, Erdogan stressed, adding that the orbiter was a very important project due to its high added value.
He also said tests for another communication satellite, Turksat 5B, were ongoing and that with this satellite, the country's data capacity would increase 15 fold.
Turkey's indigenous communication satellite project Turksat 6A is undergoing testing, he noted, adding that the satellite is scheduled for launch next year.
Erdogan said that Turksat 6A would make Turkey one of the 10 countries in the world able to produce its own communication satellites.
"The world is entering a new era called the Digital Era, in which production methods are changing radically" along with political, social, economic, and cultural power balances, he said.
He said this new era was based on producing information and using data. "This digital production process, which extends to the capillaries in all areas of life, has reached a much different stage with artificial intelligence."
"Turkey firmly embraces the digital age, we're committed to further developing the critical digital infrastructure."
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