South Korea-based SK Telecom (SKT) committed to continue expanding 5G coverage, earmarking around KRW3 trillion ($2.4 billion) in capex for 2022, a similar level to the past four years.

The operator’s Q1 capex of KRW279.4 billion was 27 per cent higher than a year earlier.

In a statement, SKT explained 5G subscriber growth and cost stabilisation were drivers in the recent period, though net profit dropped 61.5 per cent year-on-year to KRW220 billion due mainly to a one-off gain in Q1 2021 of KRW216 billion from the sale of assets.

Consolidated revenue increased 4 per cent to KRW4.3 trillion, with mobile service up 2.2 per cent to KRW2.6 trillion.

SKT closed the quarter with 10.9 million 5G subscribers, a net gain of more than 4.1 million. Its total user base rose 1.8 per cent to 29.8 million. ARPU was flat at KRW30,401.

Media revenue grew 10.3 per cent to KRW390.8 billion and enterprise 17.4 per cent to KRW360.1 billion, driven by demand for data centre and clouding services.