A rise in profit at Telekom Austria Group proved the only bright spot as it and rival Deutsche Telekom saw revenues fall in the first three months of the year.

Revenues fell 1.1 percent year-on-year to €14.4 billion at DT, while TAG registered a decline of 5.6 percent to €1.05 billion.

Worse for DT, net profit fell by over 50 percent y-o-y, although the operator said a series of special factors were to blame.

Profit rose to €46.9 million at TAG, which registered a loss last year, thanks in part to a €29.1 million reduction in operating costs.

René Obermann, DT’s CEO, said the quarter was “very satisfying”. He added: "We have made significant progress in many areas."

The US business saw revenue growth of two percent, while the systems solutions division grew by 0.7 percent.

There was also growth in the number of mobile, broadband and TV customers.

The CEO was also buoyed by a €3.2 billion reduction in the company’s net debt.

However, its main business units registered revenue decline: Germany was down 2.3 percent, while the rest of Europe was down 2.6 percent.

TAG CEO Hannes Ametsreiter also chose to accentuate the positive.

“The combination of our customer-oriented product portfolio along with our strict cost management procedures have contributed to maintaining and further expanding our market position in all our operating countries,” he said.

However, the company is facing some big problems, particularly in the emerging markets it operates in.

Revenues in its Belarus business unit, for example, fell 33 percent due to hyperinflation in the country.

The number of fixed and mobile customers grew to around 23 million, while markets in Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia saw a 16 percent increase in revenues.

Both TAG and DT said full year 2012 outlooks remains unchanged.