Barely a month after SK Telecom launched LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), the number of subscribers to the superfast network has now topped 300,000.

The first operator in the world to launch LTE-A, which boasts theoretical peak download speeds of up to 150Mb/s and average download speeds “two times faster than that of LTE”, SK Telecom says the network covered the entire Seoul area and central areas of 84 cities nationwide on July 30 – a month ahead of schedule.

Plans are in place to expand LTE-Advanced coverage by deploying a total of 32,000 units of base stations. These will also cover 300 university areas.

SK Telecom provided the LTE-Advanced numbers at its 2Q earnings results.

Q2 sales rose 3.9 per cent, year-to-year, to KRW4.164 trillion ($3.74 billion). The higher turnover was helped by LTE subscriber growth and a solid performance from its enterprise solution business

As of 30 June, SK Telecom claimed over 11 million LTE subscribers, accounting for more than 40 per cent of its total mobile subscriber base.

Consolidated net income, quarter-on-quarter, jumped 35.2 per cent.

SK Telecom attributes the boost to lower marketing costs and improved operating income (up 34.8 per cent, quarter-on-quarter, to KRW 553.4 billion) and a much better performance from SK Hynix, a semiconductor supplier of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips in which SK Telecom has a majority stake.

Bouyed by growth in the smartphone and tablet markets, SK Hynix posted record earnings of KRW947 billion on revenue of KRW3.933 trillion during Q2.

Prior to its Q2 earnings statement, SK Telecom said it would launch seven LTE-A compatible smartphones during the second half of 2013. Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S4 LTE-A on the day the new network was launched (26 June).