South Korea based Korea Telecom has announced that its second-quarter revenues rose by 8.1% to KRW5.77 trillion (US$5.1 billion), thanks to the increase in sales by its recently acquired credit card subsidiary, BC Card which was incorporated in the fourth quarter of last year.

KT's operating profit fell by 14% though to KRW 371.7 billion (US$328 million), due to a sharp increase in marketing cost to attract LTE subscribers.

By business type, the wireless business recorded the sales of KRW 1.74 trillion, down 1.9 percent year-on-year due to the 1,000 won reduction in basic rates starting from the end of last year. The average revenue per user (ARPU) took its first upturn in eight quarters and showed a positive growth driven by a growing number of LTE subscribers which surpassed 1.5 million in end-July.

The fixed-line sales also fell by 10.3 percent to KRW 856.9 billion due to the decline in both the number of fixed-line subscribers and traffic. Its media/content sales jumped by 32.6 percent to KRW 247.6 billion, thanks to the 49.3 and 14.8 percent growth of the IPTV and the KT SkyLife business.

"The sales of KT's wireless business turned around quiet rapidly and regained its market leadership by offering LTE WARP for the first time in the world, which is rooted in CCC (Cloud Communication Center) technology and achieving a goal of one million LTE subscribers in the short time," Kim, Bum-Jun, CFO of KT, said, "KT will continue its competiveness, which will lead to continuing growth, based on differentiated infra-network, premium content production, and reasonable rate plans."