SK Telecom to increase LTE investment in 2016

SK Telecom and first Tri-band LTE-A Service
SK Telecom today said it has increased its Capex (capital expenditure) for the year 2016 to KRW 2.1 trillion from KRW 2 trillion.

SK Telecom announced its additional investment in LTE network using the 30MHz bandwidth in the 2.6GHz band. SK Telecom has bagged a pair of bandwidth blocs in the 10MHz bandwidth + 20MHz bandwidth in the 2.6 GHz band at the spectrum auction held in Korea on May 2, 2016.

SK Telecom aims to offer LTE services in the 2.6GHz band in Seoul and six metropolitan cities by the end of 2016, main areas of 85 cities nationwide by the end of 2017, and all areas of the 85 cities by the end of 2018.

LTE subscriber base of SK Telecom has reached 20.03 million, representing over 68.7 percent of the company’s total mobile subscriber base.

SK Telecom has finished building LoRaWAN across the country by end of June, covering 99 percent of the population. The company had also completed nationwide LTE-M rollout in March, 2016.

SK Telecom has posted revenue of KRW 4.267 trillion (+0.3 percent) in the second quarter of 2016 and net income of KRW 291 billion (–26.9 percent).