KT's 4th-qtr oper profit misses view, but in black

SEOUL Jan 28 (Reuters) - South Korea's second-biggest mobile carrier KT (030200.KS) posted lower-than-expected quarterly profit, as declining voice revenue and higher costs weighed on data revenue from Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone.

KT, which competes with SK Telecom (017670.KS), reported a 305 billion won (US$273.5 million) operating profit in the fourth quarter ended in December, below a consensus forecast of 432.6 billion won from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

KT, South Korea's top fixed-line carrier that merged with its mobile unit KTF in June 2009, swung to an operating profit in the October to December period from a year earlier, when it spent heavily on early retirement packages. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin)