Seoul, Korea, 29 October 2009 – SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) announced its earnings for the third quarter of 2009: revenue of KRW 3.057 trillion, operating income of KRW 618.8 billion and net income of KRW 415.9 billion.

The revenue climbed by 5.4% year-on-year backed by increase in the number of subscribers and wireless Internet revenue, but fell 0.4% quarter-on-quarter to stand at KRW 3.057 trillion as the company added a smaller number of new subscribers compared to the previous quarter.

The wireless Internet revenue expanded 7.0% year-on-year due to growth in flat-rate data plan subscribers.

Marketing expenses stood at KRW 834.1 billion, climbing by 14.6% year-on-year as the overheated market from the second quarter continued into July. Yet compared to the previous quarter the figure fell by 12.1% as costs of initial commissions greatly decreased beginning from August due to market stabilization. Against this backdrop, marking expenses took up 27.3% of total revenue, decreasing by 3.6%p compared to the previous quarter.

Operating income rose to KRW 618.8 billion, representing an increase of 22.7% year-on-year and 11.8% quarter-on-quarter. Despite a year-on-year rise in marketing expenses, the figure improved thanks to revenue growth and various cost cutting measures. Net income reached KRW 415.9 billion, growing by 24.7% year-on-year and 33.5% quarter-on-quarter.

The cumulative number of subscribers climbed by 6% compared to third quarter of last year to reach 24.14 million while average revenue per user (ARPU) marked KRW 42,413. While revenue from base fees and call charges declined KRW 423 per user from continued tariff cutting measures, ARPU rose by KRW 20 compared to same quarter last year as the wireless Internet revenue expanded KRW 141 per user.

Average monthly Minutes of Usage (MOU) per user stood at 196 minutes, remaining the same year-on-year while decreasing by 2 minutes compared to last quarter.

SK Telecom’s CFO Dong-Hyun Jang said, "Market stabilization in the third quarter is expected to continue until the year-end. Under such circumstances, SK Telecom will refrain from excessive marketing and deploy effective marketing policies based on our Customer Experience Management (CEM) strategy."

 "On September 25th, SK Telecom implemented various tariff cut measures including discount for long term subscribers, introduction of per-second charge system, lowering of subscription fee, lowering of prepaid tariff and introduction of heavy discount flat rate data plan. We believe our customers will soon be able to strongly feel the effect of these measures. We expect to minimize the counter effects of tariff cut on revenue as such measures lead to strengthening of SK Telecom’s core competitiveness through greater customer retention, increase in mobile usage and revitalization of wireless Internet services," said Jang.