LG Uplus added a complete of 1.48 million 5G subscribers throughout final 12 months
Korean operator LG Uplus ended the fourth quarter of 2022 with 6.11 million 5G subscribers, up 32.11% year-on-year, in response to the corporate’s newest earnings assertion.
The telco added a complete of 1.48 million 5G subscribers throughout final 12 months, whereas complete web additions within the fourth quarter reached practically 378,000.
The Korean firm additionally famous that 5G subscribers accounted for 53.5% of the telco’s general cell base on the finish of 2022, up from 40.5% on the finish of 2021.
Internet revenue within the fourth quarter of 2022 totaled 159.4 billion gained ($127.7 million), in contrast with a web revenue of 101.8 billion gained in This autumn 2021. For full 2022, the corporate’s web income amounted to 662.6 billion gained, up 8.5% year-on-year.
LG Uplus’ This autumn revenues amounted to three.61 trillion gained, flat in comparison with the identical interval in 2021, whereas annual revenues totaled 13.90 trillion gained, up 0.4% year-on-year.
In the meantime, the service’s working revenue rose 81.1% year-on-year to 286.6 billion gained within the fourth quarter, For full 2022, working revenue reached 1.081 trillion gained, up 10.4% year-on-year.
LG Uplus additionally mentioned that gross sales from its wi-fi division reached 1.57 trillion gained within the fourth quarter, up 3.3% year-on-year.
In 2021, Nokia signed an settlement with LG Uplus to develop 5G protection by putting in small cell options from Nokia’s AirScale portfolio throughout the nation. Below the phrases of the deal, Nokia was anticipated to put in its small cell AirScale Indoor (ASiR) methods in a spread of indoor places, together with purchasing malls and workplace buildings.
LG Uplus additionally makes use of 5G tools from Huawei, Samsung and Ericsson. The operator launched 5G service in April 2019 together with rivals SK Telecom and KT.
In July 2022, LG Uplus secured a further 20 megahertz of spectrum to make use of for 5G, in response to Korean press experiences.
The Ministry of Science and ICT allotted the three.4-3.42 GHz frequency band to LG Uplus, along with the three.42 to three.5 GHz spectrum that the telecom firm purchased in 2018.
Final month, the Korean authorities introduced plans to award spectrum within the 28 GHz band to a brand new cell operator in a transfer to spice up competitors within the home cell market.
The brand new operator will probably be given the precedence to make use of one of many two frequency bands within the 28 GHz band, whereas the opposite band will probably be allotted three years after the primary operator launches the service, in response to the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The brand new operator would be the solely service supplier within the 28 GHz band throughout an preliminary three-year interval so as to have the ability to safe its market place, in response to the report. Monetary advantages, together with tax advantages and loans, will even be supplied to the brand new entrant, the ministry added.
The ICT ministry additionally highlighted that it’s going to begin the method to pick a brand new 5G operator within the second quarter of 2023.
Final month, the Korean authorities had cancelled the spectrum licenses within the 28 GHz band that had been beforehand allotted to native operators for 5G deployments, because of the lack of funding and missed rollout necessities.
Because of this, native operators KT and LG Uplus misplaced the appropriate to make use of the 28 GHz frequencies that they had gained in a spectrum public sale in 2018. In the meantime, South Korea’s largest cell operator, SK Telecom, had its use time of the 28 GHz spectrum diminished by six months.