Eurobites: Tele2 powers on in face of rising energy costsEurobites: Tele2 powers on in face of rising energy costs

BICS, the international services arm of Belgium's Proximus, has launched its take on a communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS), with the claim that it will give enterprises a "customizable toolbox" that they can use to integrate communications services such as voice, SMS and WhatsApp messages into their workflows, via APIs. A recent report from Technavio predicts that the CPaaS market will grow by more than 17% over the next four years.

UK altnet GoFibre has landed a £7.3 million ($8.2 million) government contract to upgrade broadband services for more than 3,750 premises in the wild and windswept region that is north Northumberland. The project forms part of the UK government's Project Gigabit scheme. (See Project Gigabit, or how to waste £5B of UK taxpayers' money.)

UK communications regulator Ofcom says that smaller UK-based "adult" websites need to put more robust measures in place to stop under-18s accessing pornography. A 12-year-old "self-declaring" that he or she is 18 shouldn't be enough. It has produced a report into the whole unsavory area as it prepares itself for new duties conferred on it by the government's forthcoming Online Safety Bill.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading