Pan-European network operator Interoute has reported a 20 percent increase in year-on-year revenues for the first six months of the year to €167 million (US$228 million), while its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax and some other stuff) increased by 5 percent to €29.4 million ($40 million). The operator cited a surge in demand for its Unified ICT cloud service and renewed international demand for pan-European bandwidth services as the main reasons for its leap in revenues.

While Vodafone is set to receive a £2.8 billion ($4.4 billion) dividend from Verizon Wireless in January 2012, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam said the operator would not put in place a policy for an annual, recurring dividend payment, reports Reuters, citing an interview with the Financial Times. McAdam also did not rule out the possibility that Verizon and Vodafone might merge one day, though he noted this would not happen in the short or medium term. (See Vodafone to Get Verizon Dividend and Euronews: Verizon Stake Pays Off for Vodafone.)

Smartphones are now more popular in Europe than basic feature phones, according to a report in The Guardian that cites a second-quarter 2011 handset shipments report from IDC .

France Telecom/Orange is offering an FTTH-based version of its popular quad-play Open package (voice, broadband up to 100 Mbit/s, dual-screen IPTV and mobile) to Parisians at just €5 ($6.82) more than the DSL version (broadband connection up to 20 Mbit/s). The DSL-based package costs €49.90 ($68). The FTTH-based service will be offered outside Paris before the end of the year.

U.K. broadband service provider TalkTalk has accused BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) of trying to use its fiber-based broadband investment plan as a way to recover its monopoly position, reports The Guardian. (See BT Ramps FTTx Plans, Turns a Profit.)

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading