Turkcell and South Korea's leading appliance manufacturer Samsung signed a letter of goodwill to collaborate on 5G technology in Turkey, the Turkish telecommunication giant announced on Tuesday.

"Samsung and Turkcell will collaborate to assess and test the 5G network technology in 2018 in Turkey," it said in a statement.

Turkcell said the partnership would accelerate commercialization of 5G technology and support Turkey's digital transformation.

"We expand our joint works' extent of future generation technologies and commercialization of 5G in Turkey with the letter of goodwill," Turkcell Chief Executive Officer Kaan Terzioğlu said.

Companies will also collaborate on the Internet of Things (IoT), applications of smart devices, home security, energy consumption and automatization, Turkcell said.

"This partnership between Turkcell and Samsung is an important step that will support Turkey's innovation targets," DaeHyun Kim, head of Samsung Electronics Turkey, added.

5G refers to fifth generation, mobile wireless standard technology.

Turkcell spearheaded GSM-based mobile communication in Turkey when it started operations in 1994.

Since then, it has continuously expanded its services based on mobile, audio and data communication.