South Korea-based LG Uplus hailed the impact of 5G services on Q1 earnings, with an acceleration in uptake contributing to ongoing ARPU stability.

It added 579,000 5G users compared with 290,000 in Q1 2020, with 1.9 million in the year to end-March for a total of 3.3 million. Total mobile users, excluding MVNO, increased 3.5 per cent to 14.8 million: MVNO users grew 81 per cent to 2.2 million.

LG Uplus highlighted steady revenue growth across all business sectors during the quarter.

Consumer wireless service revenue rose 5.4 per cent year-on-year to KRW1.4 trillion ($1.2 billion) with ARPU flat at KRW30,892. The operator launched a number of new 5G tariffs, including one bundled with LTE and an online-only rate.

Handset revenue was up 1.4 per cent to KRW724.9 billion.

IPTV revenue grew 8.8 per cent to KRW300.7 billion; broadband 11.2 per cent to KRW229.3 billion; and enterprise 9 per cent to KRW341.5 billion.

Net profit grew 35 per cent to KRW200.9 billion, with revenue rising 4 per cent to KRW3.42 trillion.

Capex remained similar at KWR380 billion.