South Korea's largest mobile operator, SK Telecom reported a 28.1% drop in Q3 net income compared to a year earlier, attributable to government’s requirements to eliminate activation fees and a cut in interconnection fees. The operator recorded a net income of 381.8 billion won (US$334.6 million) during the period, compared to 531 billion won the previous year.
SK Telecom said that its customer churn rate for the third quarter however, fell to 1.4%, the lowest level in the industry. In addition, SK Telecom said that its ‘Band Data’ plans launched in May 2015 have been attracting subscribers at a record pace - as of the end of the third quarter, Band Data plans have attracted over 4.79 million subscribers.
With the continuous spread of LTE services, as of the end of September 2015, the number of SK Telecom’s LTE subscribers reached 18.46 million, taking up over 64.8% of the company’s total mobile subscriber base.
Earlier in this week, SK Telecom announced its plans to buy CJ Hellovision, the country's top cable TV channel provider to bolster its competitiveness in the media business as means to augment its revenue.
