South Korea’s largest mobile operator, SK Telecom has raised its capital expenditure budget for 2011 by 15 percent to cope with the surge in data traffic on its networks from smartphone and tablet subscribers. The company said it will spend an additional 300 billion South Korean won (US$280 million) this year, bringing its total capex to a record annual high of 2.3 trillion South Korean won (US$2.1 billion).
SK Telecom, which has more than 25.7 million subscribers, said the increased capex spend for 2011 will be the highest ever for the company, representing a record 17.3 percent of the company’s estimated revenues for the year.
The extra network investment will be spent on expanding capacity in its 3G network as well as accelerating the migration to next-generation networks, including Long Term Evolution.
Though fourth-generation networks are getting increasing traction around the world, and especially in North America, on a global basis, most mobile broadband consumers use some form of 3G.