SK Telecom said it recovered performance by delivering results in its artificial intelligence business and strengthening its core competitiveness. It also returned to net subscriber additions in mobile lines. As the improvement trend emerged, it will resume dividends.

SKT said in a filing on May 7 that it posted first-quarter consolidated revenue of 4.39 trillion won and operating profit of 537.6 billion won. Revenue and operating profit fell 1.4 percent and 5.3 percent from a year earlier, respectively. Net profit for the quarter fell 12.5 percent to 316.4 billion won.

It was the first time since last year's USIM hacking incident that quarterly operating profit returned to the 500 billion won range, prompting an assessment that profitability rebounded. Revenue rose 1.5 percent from the previous quarter on a recovery in its wireless business and growth in its AI data centre business. Operating profit surpassed 500 billion won for the first time in a year, helped by efforts to improve productivity.

SKT stressed that it showed a clear rebound in the first quarter, aided by innovation in customer value and a recovery in trust. Its AI business, based on a selection-and-focus approach, also improved profitability and delivered results. On a separate basis, revenue was tallied at 3.11 trillion won, operating profit at 409.5 billion won and net profit at 332.7 billion won.

SKT said it achieved net additions of about 210,000 mobile subscribers in the first quarter. Mobile revenue rose 1.7 percent from the previous quarter. The company recently revamped its membership programme to expand customer benefits and improve ease of use. It is also pushing a rate-plan revamp to enhance customer choice.

It plans to avoid excessive marketing competition. SKT said, "With profit-focused business operations, we will continue to strengthen our core competitiveness and market share will naturally increase," adding, "In line with this stance, we will avoid competition that spends wasteful costs simply to increase subscriber numbers."

SK Broadband, which runs the fixed-line business, posted revenue of 1.15 trillion won and operating profit of 116.6 billion won, up 3.2 percent and 21.4 percent from a year earlier, respectively, helped by growth in high-speed internet.

The AI data centre business, a key growth driver, posted first-quarter revenue of 131.4 billion won, up 89.3 percent from a year earlier. Utilisation rates at AI data centres in areas such as Gasan rose, and GPU-as-a-Service revenue increased, giving the business momentum. SKT plans to absorb rising demand for AI infrastructure led by global big tech companies and strengthen competitiveness across the entire AI data centre value chain.

Park Jong-seok (박종석), SKT's chief financial officer, said, "Results in the AI business continued with a selection-and-focus strategy," adding, "We will build new AI data centres in areas such as Seoul to pursue additional scale-up."

It is also expanding entry into the AI business-to-business market. SKT plans to step up its push into the AI B2B market, based on its capabilities as a "full-stack" operator spanning AI infrastructure, models and services, and its experience in enterprise business. To that end, it recently set up an enterprise integration task organisation under the CEO.

In AI business-to-consumer, it will boost competitiveness by creating synergies between its AI agent business and the telecommunications industry. Its flagship AI service, A. (A.), plans to improve performance by linking its proprietary AI foundation model with a global-model level to strengthen its own competitiveness.

SKT will also resume quarterly dividends for shareholder returns. The first-quarter dividend is 830 won per share. The annual dividend size will be discussed and decided by the board, taking into account management performance, financial structure and other factors, when results become more concrete.

Park, the CFO, said, "The first quarter was a meaningful period in which we delivered results aligned with the goal of strengthening core competitiveness and restoring profitability through a streamlined AI business," adding, "We will continue to focus on recovering performance through sustained results."