Telcos troubled by increasingly anemic income growth

Weak voice and roaming revenue are to blame.

Lacklustre revenue growth was a key theme in the second-quarter results of Singapore’s three telcos.

A report by Barclays highlighted that underwhelming revenue trends persisted in Q2, despite rising wireless data usage on 4G and price hikes that went effective in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The sub-par growth can be blamed mainly on shrinking voice usage, coupled with weakening roaming trends.

“We believe that (still rapidly) declining voice revenue is the main reason for this lacklustre service revenue trend. At the industry level, voice revenue is still declining by a high single-digit rate y/y every passing quarter, and voice still remains a significant part of overall service revenue (c50% as of 2Q15),” Barclays said.