LG Uplus booked profit growth in Q2 2021, with 5G adoption fuelling an increase in mobile revenue and other business units posting gains.

The operator’s 5G user base more than doubled year-on-year to 3.73 million at end-June, accounting for 21.7 per cent of its total compared with 11.3 per cent at end-June 2020.

LG Uplus earlier targeted closing 2021 with 4.5 million 5G subscribers and stated on a Q2 earnings call it expects uptake of services to accelerate later this year with the release of more compatible devices.

Net profit grew 39.8 per cent to KRW210.5 billion ($183.8 million). Consolidated revenue rose 2.2 per cent to KRW3.35 trillion, as an 11.5 per cent drop in handset sales to KRW578.8 billion was offset by a 5 per cent rise in mobile service turnover to KRW1.42 trillion.

Its Smart Home unit, covering IPTV and broadband, grew 8.9 per cent to KRW538.7 billion and enterprise revenue 12.7 per cent to KRW388.8 billion.

Total mobile subscribers increased 8.4 per cent to at 17.2 million.

Service ARPU dipped 1.3 per cent to KRW28,044.

First-half capex fell 13.7 per cent to KRW863.3 billion, with spending on wireless infrastructure down 31.4 per cent to KRW356.8 billion.