South Korea's LG U+ swung back to a year-over-year net profit in Q3 on the back of higher service revenue and reduced costs.
The operator announced a net income for the quarter of 75.6 billion won ($71.2 million) and an operating income of 149.2 billion yuan. This compares to a net loss of 38.4 billion won and an operating loss of 10.3 billion won respectively during Q312.
Service revenue grew 10.3% to 1.99 billion won, but due to a 12.6% slump in handset revenue, total revenue was up only 2.1%.
Wireless service revenue for the quarter grew 15.2% from last year to 1.22 billion won. The operator's LTE subscriber base grew to 6.55 million, which compares to a total wireless customer base of 10.7 million. Total mobile net additions were 192,000.
Total wireline revenue grew 1.3% to 771.8 million won, with data revenue up 1.8% but telephony revenue down 2.8%.
LG U+ cut operating expenses for the quarter by 3.6% year-on-year and marketing expenses by 7.3%, due to reduced sales and subsidies of LTE and other mobile devices. Capex meanwhile declined 13% year-on-year as a result of decreased LTE rollout costs during the quarter.