KT registered continued mobile ARPU growth in Q3, with its 5G user base growing by 2.3 million to nearly 8 million, but profit fell along with its total subscriber count.

The operator’s 5G subscribers accounted for 57 per cent of its total subscribers, which fell 2.9 per cent year-on-year to 13.9 million. ARPU grew 2.5 per cent to KRW32,917 ($24.22), its fourth consecutive annual increase.

Revenue from its Digico B2C media and mobile platform businesses rose 3.6 per cent to KRW558.5 billion and broadband 2.6 per cent to KRW600.3 billion.

Corporate data and telephone sales were up 9.5 per cent to KRW546.4 billion, but enterprise services dropped 10.4 per cent to KRW482.9 billion on declining cloud business.

MVNO connections were up 21.2 per cent to 6.3 million.

Net income fell 3.4 per cent to KRW326.2 billion with revenue up 4.2 per cent to KRW6.5 trillion as the media and broadband units offset a 10.1 per cent decline in handset sales to KRW732.4 billion though wireless revenue was flat at KRW2.4 trillion.

Capex for the first nine months totalled KRW1.9 trillion: across 2021 it was KRW2.8 trillion.