Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) saw its revenues and earnings head south during the first three months of 2011 because while its domestic business in Germany held firm, the carrier's operations elsewhere in Europe and its soon-to-be-offloaded T-Mobile US Inc. business suffered from tough competition, tax burdens and regulatory interventions. (See AT&T to Buy T-Mobile USA for $39B and AT&T/T-Mobile: Riddled With Regulatory Risk.)

The German giant's group revenues fell 3 percent year-on-year to €14.6 billion (US$21.2 billion), while its net income plummeted 43.3 percent to €480 million ($697 million). (See Deutsche Telekom Reports Q1.)

Analysts had predicted a rocky ride, though the net income was worse than the €572 million ($831 million) that had been expected. As a result the operator's share price dipped by just €0.03 to €11.14.

Deutsche Telekom's biggest problems currently are in Central and Eastern Europe, where revenues fell by 10 percent or more in Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, while sales also dipped in Austria, Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic and (in Western Europe) the Netherlands.

In North America, T-Mobile USA reported a 2.2 percent dip in revenues to $5.16 billion and a 68.5 percent decline in net income to $135 million as subscriber numbers fell by 99,000 to 33,635,000.

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading