[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom said on April 26 that its first-quarter net profit increased by 1.95 percent from a year earlier.

Net profit came to 583.48 billion won (US$517.20 million) in the January-March period, the mobile carrier said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit came to 410 million won, also up 2.08 percent over the cited period. Sales inched up 0.14 percent to reach 4.2 trillion won.

SK Telecom said the strong performance came on the back of the rising number of subscribers to its LTE services. Its share in Korea’s No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix also helped in its improved net profit.

The company counted 29.8 million clients as of end-March, up 910,000 from the previous quarter. The subscribers of LTE services accounted for 21.6 million, or 72.6 percent of total customers.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)