BICS, the international services arm of Belgium's Proximus, has teamed up with US-based Mavenir for a voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) offering powered by Mavenir's cloud-native IMS that is intended to help operators prepare for the "sunsetting" of 2G and 3G services around the world and preserve roaming interoperability between the different generations of technology. The idea is that customers of operators still providing 2G/3G services will still be able to complete calls even when visiting locations where these technologies have been phased out.

Cradlepoint, a Tel Aviv-based WAN and private networks company that falls within the Ericsson fold, has bought Ericom, a cloud-based security specialist. Ericom's SASE (secure access service edge) software offerings will form the basis of Cradlepoint's new NetCloud Threat Defense cloud service.

The UK's Public Accounts Committee has warned that tech firms may attempt to dodge the UK government's Digital Services Tax if international tax reforms are delayed. As City AM reports, the Digital Services Tax was introduced in 2020 but was only intended to remain in place until it can be replaced by reforms to international tax rules being prepared by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the first tranche of which is due next year.

The EU's Chips Act, which is intended to boost the European semiconductor industry by easing funding rules for new chip plants, is set to get the go-ahead from EU member states and lawmakers on April 18, Reuters reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The Act was prompted by global supply chain issues which brought into sharp focus the problems Europe faces when relying on US and Asian semiconductors.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading