SK Telecom boasts of broadband wins

SK Telecom has reported year-on-year quarterly increases of 1.8% and 3.9% for revenue and operating income, respectively, in what has turned out to be a relatively solid quarter.

SK Broadband and SK Planet were the star performers for the group, as revenues reached KRW 4.346 trillion and operating income grew to KRW 423.3 billion. On the mobile side of things, the company cited growth of mobile data usage per user as another area of success in the business, as well increased sales from new areas including IoT solutions.

“Despite the challenges in the mobile telecommunications market, SK Telecom posted improved results due to the strengthened performance of its main subsidiaries,” said Ryu Young-sang, CFO of SK Telecom. “SK Telecom will become a global leading ICT company by achieving meaningful growth in media and IoT, while maintaining leadership in the mobile network operations business.”

In terms of specifics for the group, SK Broadband’s revenue increased by 1.9% year-on-year to KRW 730.1 billion, as the number of its UHD set-top box subscribers surpassed 1.5 million and more customers purchased paid content. SK Planet posted sales of KRW 274 billion, up 5.4% from the same period last year backed by the growth of its e-commerce platform, 11st.

Moving forward, one area of notable focus will be artificial intelligence. The team highlighted it will be working to incorporate the technology into existing products such as mobile, media, commerce and T-Map (its mobile navigation service) to develop more customized products and services.