Sk Telecom (SKMN) Q3 2026 Earnings Report

The call was broadly positive, with strong consolidated revenue and operating income growth, improving mobile revenue and ARPU, top customer-satisfaction rankings, progress in AIDC investments and customer development, and a defined 5G standalone commercialization plan. The main challenges were the decline in handset subscribers, the substantial funding requirements and interest-rate sensitivity of AIDC expansion, the slower expected timing of enterprise AI monetization, and the lack of a finalized future shareholder return policy.

SK Telecom plans to secure enough customer demand for initial operation by the first half of next year, obtain permits and build the SK Hyper data center to open in phases starting from the second half of 2029, while discussing concrete business terms with 3 to 4 global companies; SK Horizon is pursuing new data centers in Ulsan and Seoul with a target capacity of approximately 180 megawatts, including construction of 100-megawatt capacity in Ulsan, and the E2A submarine cable project is targeting commercial services in 2029. MNO revenue is expected to continue to recover, 5G SA is planned for commercialization in December 2026, 5G advanced will be introduced in phases, and 6G technology standardization is targeted for 2029 with commercial launch expected to happen after 2030. The company’s basic shareholder-return policy is to maintain minimum the current level of dividend, while its future policy is under review and DPS is determined as late as before the first quarter of 2027; AI infrastructure is expected to see rapid growth, enterprise AI services may take some more time before tangible results, and the company aims to monetize AI usage and operation through a Token Gateway based on more than 23 million subscribers.