Seoul, Korea, 25 October, 2007 - SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) announced its earnings for the third quarter of 2007- revenue of KRW 2.8156 trillion and net income of KRW 776.8 billion. Both the revenue and net income rose by 3.8% and 70.1% respectively from the previous year.

Backed by a steady growth in the subscriber base, the revenue grew by 3.8% to KRW 2.8156 trillion over the same period last year. However, due to seasonal factors such as reduction in business days, revenue edged down by 1.0% from the previous quarter.

Revenue for wireless Internet went up by 4.5% from the same period last year to KRW 700.4billion. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, this was a slight decrease by 0.6% also caused by the seasonal factors. The wireless Internet revenue accounted for 27.5% of total revenue excluding interconnection fees.

As depreciation and marketing expenses increased, the operating income posted a 19%-decrease from the previous quarter to KRW 536.6 billion. The depreciation costs were expanded as WCDMA CapEx was executed earlier than scheduled.

An increase in other non-operating income from the conversion of China Unicom convertible bonds into shares boosted the net income to KRW 776.8 billion, gaining 92.6% quarter-to-quarter or 70.1% up from the previous year.  In addition, a growth in the demand for handset change, which includes changes to the WCDMA devices, the ratio of marketing expenses to total revenue, rose to KRW 710.7 billion, up 1.1% from the previous quarter and 38.6% year-on-year.

Affected by seasonal factors including reduction in business days, the average revenue per user (ARPU) declined 3.0% to KRW 43,769.

SK Telecom’s CFO Sung-Min Ha said, "We will maintain our market leadership and expand our portfolio of advanced services including wired and wireless interoperable services. At the same time, we will continue to build sustainable growth through reinforcing our globalization efforts in the United States, China and Vietnam."