[Edaily Reporter Yun Junghoon ]LG Uplus(032640)reported an operating profit increase of more than 80% year-over-year in the third quarter of this year, driven by a base effect in labor costs and business structure streamlining. Building on a stable subscriber base in its core telecommunications business, the company’s enterprise infrastructure business—led by AI data centers (AIDC)—drove double-digit growth, demonstrating an improvement in its profitability.

LG Uplus announced on the 4th that, based on its consolidated financial statements, it recorded operating revenue of 3.9813 trillion won, service revenue of 3.1021 trillion won, and operating profit of 297.6 billion won for the third quarter of 2026.

Operating revenue and service revenue each declined slightly by 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, due to a decline in revenue from subsidiaries. In contrast, service revenue on a standalone basis increased by 0.7% year-over-year to 2.912 trillion won, and cumulative consolidated service revenue for the first three quarters grew by 1.6% to 9.2156 trillion won, continuing substantial revenue growth.

Most notably, the company’s profit-generating capacity stood out. Third-quarter operating profit reached 297.6 billion won, an 84.1% increase year-over-year. This was driven by the base effect from one-time personnel expenses recognized last year, combined with the success of intensive efforts to streamline the business structure. Consequently, the operating profit margin also rose significantly by 4.4 percentage points year-over-year to 9.6%, solidifying the company’s robust profitability.

The key growth driver behind these results was the “Enterprise Infrastructure” segment. Revenue from Enterprise Infrastructure—which includes AIDC, solutions, and enterprise lines—totaled 472.2 billion won, a 10.4% increase year-over-year.

AIDC (AI Data Center) revenue surged 27.7% year-over-year to 131.7 billion won, driven by growth in colocation and DBO (Design, Build, Operate) sales, leading the overall growth of the Enterprise Infrastructure segment.

The Solutions and Enterprise Lines segments showed balanced growth, with solutions revenue rising 3.4% to 124.4 billion won and enterprise line revenue increasing 5.7% to 216.1 billion won, driven by the expansion of AICC (AI Contact Center) services, particularly in the financial sector.

Capital expenditures (CAPEX) totaled 569.8 billion won on a standalone basis, a 30.1% increase year-over-year, driven by expanded new investments in AIDC.

LG Uplus is currently constructing a 200-MW-class mega AI data center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and plans to sequentially bring a total of four buildings online by 2028. Building 1 (50 MW), for which customers have already been secured, is scheduled to begin full-scale operations following its completion in June 2027.

In the mobile segment—the company’s core telecommunications business—service revenue (excluding access revenue) reached 1.6232 trillion won, a 0.4% increase compared to the same period last year. The total number of mobile subscriber lines reached approximately 32,143,000, a 6.2% increase compared to the same period last year, and the proportion of 5G subscribers among MNO handset subscribers expanded to 85.5% (9,611,000).

The Smart Home segment (Internet and IPTV) posted revenue of 665.5 billion won, up 2.9% year-over-year, driven by growth in Gigabit Internet subscriptions and improvements in ARPU (average revenue per user). In particular, Internet revenue (328.3 billion won, up 5.4%) led the Smart Home segment’s performance, as net additions of ultra-high-speed Internet subscriptions surged by 59.1%.

Yeo Myung-hee, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of LG Uplus, stated, “Through the third quarter, we continued to achieve solid improvements in profitability based on stable growth in service revenue and the streamlining of our business structure.” She added, “We will continue to enhance corporate value by strengthening the structural competitiveness of our core telecommunications business while translating business opportunities in AI services into tangible results.”