SK Telecom reported operating revenue of $3.82 billion.
South Korean operator SK Telecom said it ended 2016 with 21.07 million LTE subscribers, surging 11.1% year-on-year, according to the telco’s earnings release. SK Telecom also said 21.87 million of its customers were using smartphones at the end of Q4 2016, climbing 6.1% year-over-year.
The carrier launched LTE service in July 2011; commercialized 150 megabit per second updates in June 2013; and 225 Mbps LTE-Advanced services in June 2014 through carrier aggregation. The telco more recently launched 300 Mbps triband LTE-A capabilities in mid-2015.
The carrier ended last year with 29.6 million total connections, climbing 3.4% year-over-year. During the last quarter of the year, SK Telecom recorded 144,000 net additions.
SK Telecom recorded operating revenue of 4.35 trillion won ($3.82 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2016, flat compared to the year-ago period. Net profit for the period amounted to 474.7 billion won, compared to 293.5 billion won in the year-ago quarter. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization totaled 1.10 trillion won for the quarter, while capital expenditures for Q4 totaled 1.12 trillion won.
During 2017, SK Telecom said it will continue to create more value in the media and internet of things business areas based on its position in the mobile network operation business. At the same time the company plans to secure new growth engines by converging artificial intelligence platform and commerce with other industries.
KDDI ends 2016 with almost 48 million mobile subscribers
Japanese telco KDDI ended December with 47.8 million mobile subscribers, compared to 45.2 million connections at the end of 2015.
For its fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, mobile revenues grew 1.7% to 449 billion yen ($3.98 billion), and the company added 25.66 billion mobile users between its own Au mobile brand and mobile virtual network operator services provided by subsidiaries.
KDDI services include managed networks, data centers, cloud, security and system integration.
