South Korean telco plans to launch the world’s first pilot of LTE-M technology
South Korea’s largest mobile telephony operator, SK Telecom, ended the second quarter of 2015 with 17.93 million LTE subscribers, climbing 16.6% vs. the year-ago period. LTE subscribers accounted for 62.6% of the firm’s overall mobile subscribers at the end of the period, up 7.4 percentage points year-on-year.
SK Telecom said it added 289,000 net customers during the latest quarter, pushing its total customer base to 28.66 million.
SK Telecom generated consolidated revenue of KRW 4.25 trillion ($3.63 billion) in Q2, down 1.2% year-on-year, due to a drop in interconnection revenue and sign up fees. Net profit for the quarter amounted to KRW 398 billion, down 20% compared to Q2 2014. The operator’s capital expenditures for the period totaled KRW 348 billion, a decrease of 32.7% year-on-year.
SK Telecom launched LTE service in July 2011, commercialized 150-megabit per second updates in June 2013 and 225 Mbps LTE-Advanced in June 2014 through carrier aggregation. The Asian telco also launched 300 Mbps tri-band LTE-A CA at the end of June 2015.
In related news, SK Telecom announced plans to launch the world’s first pilot LTE for maritime wireless communications network, as part of a research and development project led by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
This technology supports high-speed wireless telecommunications on ships located approximately 100 kilometers from shore. SK Telecom plans to deploy the test network by May 2016 in the East Sea of Korea. Radio signals transmitted from a high-gain antenna located at high altitude on the eastern coast will be received by an LTE-M router installed on a ship to be converted to Wi-Fi.
KT, LG Uplus’ quarterly revenue down 3.6% and 4.1% year-on-year, respectively
South Korean mobile operator KT and LG Uplus have also announced quarterly results. KT generated revenue of KRW 5.43 trillion in the second quarter, down 3.6% year-on-year. The telco’s net profits for the quarter reached KRW 321.8 billion, compared to a net loss of KRW 728 billion in the same period the previous year. KT ended Q2 with 17.7 million mobile subscribers after a net addition of 238,000 subscribers during the quarter. LTE subscribers reached 11.99 million at the end of the quarter, representing 67.6% of total subscribers.
Meanwhile, LG Uplus ended the second quarter with 11.57 million wireless subscribers. LTE subscribers totaled 9.1 million at the end of Q2, representing 78.6% of the operator’s overall mobile base.
LG Uplus’s quarterly revenue totaled KRW 2.66 trillion, a decline of 4.1% compared to Q2 2014. The company’s net profits for the quarter reached KRW 115.9 billion, up 245.3% year-on-year.
The operator’s capex for the quarter amounted to KRW 320.3 billion. LG Uplus’ wireless network received investments of KRW 81.5 billion in the period.
