SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile phone operator, posted a 49 per cent rise in quarterly profit as more customers downloaded songs and games and the company booked a gain on the sale of a subsidiary. Net income rose to 588 billion won ($563 million), compared with 396 billion won a year earlier. Operating profit, which excludes gains from the sale of 60 per cent of SK Teletech, increased 10 per cent to 671 billion won. Sales increased 6.6 per cent to 2.6 trillion won. As of September, SK Telecom’s market share fell to 51 per cent from 53.8 per cent when number portability was introduced, while KT Freetel’s share rose to 32.4 per cent from 31.8 per cent and LG Telecom’s share climbed to 16.6 per cent from 14.5 per cent, according to government figures.
