Under a new agreement, international digital services taxes will be around a little longer, but will count toward a new corporate minimum tax until those digital services taxes can be phased out.

The U.S., Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK have struck an agreement on transitioning away from digital services taxes, which Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK adopted before Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development tax reform talks resulted in a historic agreement on a minimum corporate tax of 15%.

The EU had been planning a digital tax, but held off given the ongoing OECD talks that resulted in that agreement.

The U.S., Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK all signed on to the OECD agreement but disagreed on how to transition from the digital taxes all but the U.S. had enacted before that agreement was struck.

Those countries agreed to withdraw those taxes and not impose any new ones. The new agreement gives countries that imposed digital taxes more time to withdraw those digital services taxes, but however much digital tax is collected from companies in the interim will count toward the 15% minimum corporate tax.

The agreement drew praise by computer companies.

"We welcome the leadership of the United States, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom in reaching a compromise that will lead to the removal of existing digital services taxes," said Computer & Communications Association president Matt Schruers.

“While today’s transitional agreement is a meaningful step, it is imperative that all governments urgently and fully withdraw their digital services tax measures,” said ITI’s president and CEO Jason Oxman. “The elimination of such measures is essential to provide much-needed certainty and predictability for businesses, and to prevent further negative ramifications for all industries that do business across borders. As we review the terms of today’s interim agreement, we strongly urge the United States to retain its focus on securing the removal of all unilateral tax measures.”

Customer care and billing services company CSG Systems has launched Ascendon, a digital services platform for its raft of services partners,  a group that includes cable operators.

CSG said Ascendon can be overlaid on existing business support systems, enabling service providers to rapidly launch new digital services without uprooting existing infrastructure.

Ascendon supports a number of digital hooks, including support for elements such as digital lockers and device management, enabling services such as electronic sell-through, transactional video-on-demand and potential pay-for-bandwidth applications.

According to Kent Steffen, CSG’s president of digital services, Ascendon has three primary target markets – communications service providers, retailers that are also digital content aggregators, and content providers that are going direct to the consumer.

Some initial adopters of Ascendon include Comcast, which is using it for the MSO’s new IP-based multiscreen Xfinity On Campus service, which allows students to log in with their university credentials. ESPN is also using it to manage premium services such as ESPN Insider and its fantasy products, and  Sony is tapping in for EST offerings in multiple countries, using Ascendon in support of digital lockers and the service’s ties to UltraViolet.

“Service providers worldwide are seeking a less disruptive way to enter, maintain and compete for position in the digital services market to help them take advantage of immediate opportunities,” said Ken Kennedy, CSG’s chief technology officer and senior vice president of product management and software development, said in a statement. “Ascendon reflects a multi-year effort, working with some of the world's most innovative brands, to deliver digital services through various business models.”