SK Telecom's net profit grew 5.7% year-on-year during the third quarter, thanks to LTE gains and a strong performance at chipmaker SK Hynix.
Net profit grew to 531 billion won ($504.8 million). Revenue meanwhile increased 5.9% year-on-year to 4.37 billion won.
SK Telecom's LTE and LTE-Advanced subscriber base exceeded 16 million at the end of the quarter, or more than 57% of the operator's total mobile customer base. The proportion is expected to hit 60% by the end of the year.
SK Telecom reduced its registration fee by 50% to 11,880 won last August, and plans to do away with the charge altogether soon. This and other promotional initiatives led to a marginal decline in operating income quarter-on-quarter.
“Throughout the third quarter, SK Telecom made strenuous efforts to solidify its competitiveness on products and services by further expanding customer benefits,” SK Telecom CFO Hwang Soo-cheol commented.
“Based on differentiated competencies in network, the company will pursue a market paradigm shift in a direction towards a service-centric competition with an aim to enhance customer value.”
Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom separately announced an 8.8% decline in its own net income for the quarter to TW$9.73 billion ($320.2 million). Revenue dipped 1% to TW$56.14 billion.