Mobile carrier KTF Q1 net rises over 6-fold

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SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- KTF Co., South Korea's second-largest mobile carrier,
said Friday it posted a more than six-fold increase in first-quarter earnings
from a year earlier on the back of reduced marketing costs.

Net income stood at 127.4 billion won (US$95 million) in the January-March
period, compared with 20.5 billion won a year earlier, KTF said in a regulatory
filing.
Sales, however, fell 3 percent on-year to 2 trillion won, while operating profit
more than doubled to 243 billion won, it said.
Shares of KTF rose 2.15 percent to 26,150 won as of 9:53 a.m. on the Seoul bourse.
"Increased users of 3G WCDMA-based services overshadowed a fall in sales and
cost-cutting efforts helped spur the company's robust performance in the first
quarter," KTF said.
WCDMA, or wideband code division multiple access, is an improved communications
platform that promises faster and more seamless data service than
second-generation CDMA-based services, as well as voice telephony.
KTF's 3G service users increased 63.5 percent to 9.23 million in the first
quarter from the end of last year, while the number of its net users rose by
180,000 to 14.6 million during the same period, the company said.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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