In its quarterly financial report, SK Telecom announced plans to commercialize LTE-Advanced service during September 2013. The Korean operator said it has already conducted field testing under real network environment using smartphones. An upgrade of its existing LTE network to LTE-Advanced is currently underway.
As of 31-March-2013, SK Telecom had 9.33 million LTE subscribers. The carrier surpassed the 10 million LTE subscriber mark for the fourth time in the world on April 21. The number of LTE subscribers is projected to reach 15 million by the end of 2013.
Financially, SK Telecom reported Q1 revenue of KRW 4.113 trillion, operating income of KRW 410.6 billion and net income of KRW 345.9 billion. The revenue decreased by 2.0% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) due to the impact of shorter business days and business suspension in February. However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the revenue increased by 3.6% backed by strong growth of LTE subscribers and new businesses.
