Pipelines: In 2004 Turkey had 3,177 kilometers of natural gas pipelines and 3,562 kilometers of oil pipelines. In the early 2000s, controversial pipeline issues were Turkey’s role in new routes bringing oil and natural gas from the flourishing Caspian Sea region into Europe and the configuration of a new pipeline that would connect Russia with the Mediterranean and bypass the Bosporus. The potentially lucrative Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) line, 1,000 kilometers of which passes through Turkey, began bringing oil from the Caspian in 2005. That line is advantageous because it bypasses both Russia and the crowded Bosporus corridor. Because the BTC line is considered insufficient for future volume, Turkey is involved in international discussions of several other pipeline routes that would bypass the Bosporus.
Telecommunications: In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey’s telecommunications systems underwent substantial modernization, including nearly complete digitization and advanced intercity trunk lines. In 2004 some 19 million main telephone lines were in use. A satellite system links users in remote areas. The use of cellular telephones has increased rapidly since the late 1990s, reaching more than 50 percent of the population in 2004. In the early 2000s, three private mobile services, the largest with more than 20 million subscribers, were operating. However, in the early 2000s demand has exceeded the supply of Internet and data services. In 2005 an estimated 10.2 million people were using the Internet. Initial steps for the privatization of Turk Telekom, the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, were taken in 2005.