South Korea's telecom titan KT Corp. said Monday that its third-quarter earnings dropped 41 percent from one year ago due mainly to currency loss and a decreased number of subscribers for mobile handsets and Internet services.

Net profit reached 256 billion won (US$229 million) in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 431 billion won a year earlier, the country's second-largest mobile carrier said in a regulatory filing.

Sales fell 6.2 percent to 4.99 trillion won over the cited period, and operating profit slumped 12.6 percent to 516 billion won, it said.

KT said sales fell due to a fall in numbers of subscribers for its services.

Increased costs for wireless networks and reduced profit from subscribers outweighed profit from wireless data sales and fixed-line Internet revenues, the company said.

Shares of KT were trading at 36,950 won on the Seoul bourse as of 9:44 a.m., down 0.40 percent. (Yonhap News)