KT sees operating income jump 30% backed by 5G and data centre services

South Korean telco KT said on Tuesday that it recorded 6.2 trillion won in revenue and 382 billion won in operating income during the third quarter this year, an increase of 3.6% and 30% respectively, from the same period a year prior.

The company saw growth across all of its businesses, including 5G, data centre, and content services.

KT said it had 5.6 million 5G subscribers as of the end of the third quarter. This led to its mobile service revenue increasing 3.8% year-on-year, the telco said, thanks to the increase in average revenue per user.

Its data centre business saw revenue soar 34.7% from a year prior, KT said, thanks to the opening of two new data centres during the quarter. It also said it saw high demand for its AI contact centres from business customers during the quarter.

For its content business, KT saw over 100,000 additional subscribers for its IPTV service. KT is planning a payout of around 35 billion won to its users as compensation for the temporary shutdown of its network last month, but this will be reflected on its fourth-quarter earnings, the company said.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Samsung announced that it has developed its first LPDDR5X DRAM which boasts a maximum speed of 8.5Gbps.

The South Korean tech giant said it applied its 14nm extreme ultraviolet process for the mobile DRAM, which is its first product to follow the LPDDR5X standard announced by JEDEC in July this year.

The latest DRAM offers a 1.3 times increase in speed and is 20% more power-efficient compared to its previous LPDDR5 DRAM, Samsung said. The company launched its first LPPDR5 DRAM back in 2018.

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