An analyst firm predicts that telecommunication companies in Australia will experience moderate growth in spite of optimism that the industry will rebound globally next year.

Research firm Ovum said that telecoms experienced "the worst growth in a decade" around the world this year. For the period, service providers only generated a 2.2 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue. Meanwhile, total revenue in Australia rose by just 3.6 per cent. Fixed line voice revenue in the country dropped by 5.4 per cent last year. Mobile voice, on the other hand, grew 1.1 percent while mobile data revenue rose by 26.8 percent.

Nichole McCormick, senior analyst for Ovum, said that Australian telecommunication firms would only see 1.7 percent growth this year in spite of the industry returning to "healthy growth" globally with a growth forecast of 6 percent. He also said that mobile voice revenues would drop for the first time in 2010.

"The minimal increase in telecom revenue in 2009 in Australia was due to underlying trends, such as declining fixed line revenue, that continued to manifest," McCormick said in a statement. "As a result, improved global macro conditions won't help things much in 2010 as voice revenue is still expected to dip in both the fixed line and mobile worlds."

The figures predict continued decline for fixed line services. However, Ovum says that telecommunication companies will increasingly depend on fibre connections for broadband services.