Why Singapore telcos will see limited mobile revenue growth in 2014

Double-digit growth no longer within reach.

Singapore telcos will see "pretty limited" mobile revenue growth this year, "likely around the low- to mid-single-digit region," according to OCBC Investment Research.

The research firm reasoned that mobile penetration in the country is nearing a saturation point, which will stunt revenue expansion from new subscribers. This coupled with falling roaming revenues, as well as SMS and voice usage should blunt the recent hikes on data charges.

StarHub has revised its charges for every GB of data consumed above the free bundle, after SingTel and M1 doubled their excess data charges in Sep and Dec last year, notes OCBC.

"However, we note that these higher charges for excess data would only give a modest boost to mobile ARPUs, given that any increase in data usage will be mitigated by the structural drop in SMS and voice usage, and also lower roaming revenue."