April 20, 2024

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SK Telecom said on May 7 its first-quarter operating income slightly fell compared with a year ago due to its tepid mobile business.

Its operating profit came to 323 billion won ($275 million) in the January-March period, down 0.9 percent from a year ago, the nation’s leading mobile carrier said in a regulatory briefing.

SKT said its sales gained 3.7 percent on-year to 4.3 trillion won, led by solid profit growth from its media business.

The firm’s net income tumbled 46.1 percent to 374 billion won over the period due to losses from equity ties with affiliate SK hynix. The telecom giant holds a controlling 20 percent stake in the major chipmaker, which posted sluggish earnings in the first quarter.

SKT’s capital spending reached 331 billion won in the first quarter, nearly four times more than a year earlier, as the company expanded investment in the 5G network infrastructure.

The carrier’s mainstay mobile service revenue decreased 6.1 percent in the first three-month period as the company widened discount rates for its subscribers to comply with the government policy.

“The mobile network operator business continued to feel the pinch of the tariff cut, but solid growth in its handset subscriber base and data demand led to a slower revenue decline,” SKT said in a release.

Its IPTV business continued to grow this year on the back of a series of mergers and acquisitions.

Its IPTV service drew 119,000 new subscribers in the first quarter, which raised the total number to 4.9 million as of March, the company said

SK Broadband, its fixed broadband subsidiary, agreed to merge with No. 2 cable TV operator t-broad in a deal worth 4.7 trillion won, paving the way for the expansion of the telecom firm‘s media business.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)