Telecom Lead Asia: KT, South Korea’s largest fixed-line operator and second-largest mobile carrier by subscribers after SK Telecom Co., will invest 1.3 trillion won in fourth quarter of 2012.

Its full year telecom Capex will be 3.8 trillion won. KT Corp on Monday said its yearly LTE Capex will be 1.3 trillion won.

Till now, the mobile operator has invested 2.5 trillion won as Capital expenditure.

In third quarter, the Capex was 592.3 billion won. In Q3, the LTE Capex was around 168.9 billion won.

ARPU increase from LTE subscriber expansion led to 0.8 percent q-o-q and 1 percent y-o-y revenue growth.

KT said smartphone subscribers recorded 9.79 million, representing 59.4 percent of total subscribers.

LTE subscribers stand at 2.49 million as of 3Q, representing around 15 percent of total subscribers.

LTE subscribers will continue to grow with our differentiated pricing plans, network competitiveness and long-waited LTE handset launching.

Due to decrease in telephony and line lease revenue, total Wireline revenue fell 2.7 percent q-o-q.

KT’s broadband subscribers reached 8 million.

Bundling rate of broadband subscribers reached 70 percent.

KT Corp.’s net profit in third-quarter rose 46 percent mainly because of stronger performances at its non-telecoms affiliates and in spite of increased network-upgrade spending and marketing costs for the faster service.

KT, South Korea’s largest fixed-line operator and second-largest mobile carrier by subscribers after SK Telecom Co., posted a net profit of 372.3 billion won (US$341 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30, down from KRW256 billion a year earlier.

Operating profit rose 4.3 percent to KRW538.8 billion from KRW516.4 billion while sales rose 30.6 percent to KRW6.519 trillion from KRW4.992 trillion.

South Korean mobile operators have seen their profit squeezed over the past year, largely because of spending on ultra-fast network technology nationwide and to attract subscribers to the new service.

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