Telkom will take the wraps off its new mobile telecommunications network in just three weeks from now, on 14 October, and in the process launch SA’s fourth cellular operator. That’s the obvious conclusion to be drawn from an invitation that the JSE-listed telecoms group issued on Tuesday, in which it has invited media and VIPs to an event at Lanseria airport, north of Johannesburg.

Cell C will launch its new high-speed 3G network in Cape Town on Thursday, a city that has proved notoriously hard for operators to deliver wireless services. At the same time, Cell C is launching its so-called “4Gs” network in coastal city East London today (Tuesday), following the company’s introduction of broadband services in Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein.

The department of home affairs has less than a month to decide on a last ditch proposal presented to it by JSE-listed IT services group Gijima over the disputed “Who am I Online” technology project. Gijima CEO Jonas Bogoshi says the group now has an idea of what government’s needs are and it has presented a final proposal to the department.

JSE-listed technology group Gijima has its sights on the local telecommunications market. It says it will either acquire or partner with a company that has its own network. CEO Jonas Bogoshi says Gijima has decided to play a more direct role in cloud computing, including hosted services and voice and data technologies.

Twitter’s traffic celebrity PigSpotter has hired a lawyer and approached the director of public prosecutions to have charges against him dropped. The Twitter user, who faces trouble with the law for warning motorists about speed traps, is being represented by lawyer Karl Schuler.

Zimbabwe cellphone subscribers have increased four-fold since a unity government took office last year, but local firms say they battle to attract investors who worry the political truce won’t last. In 2008, when the local currency was ravaged by world-record hyperinflation, Sim cards were selling for up to US$220 — not including a phone.

JSE-listed technology group Altech saw its profit fall for the six months ended 31 August 2010. Releasing its interim results on Tuesday, the company reported a decrease in headline earnings per share to 206c from 292c a year earlier.

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has finally shown its hand in the tablet computer market, taking aim at Apple’s iPad with the PlayBook, a device with a 7-inch touch screen running the new BlackBerry Tablet OS. Aimed squarely at the corporate market – and thereby differentiating itself somewhat from the iPad – the PlayBook weighs 400g, has a screen resolution of 1024×600, sports a 1GHz dual-core processor, and supports true symmetric multiprocessing.

Gijima’s top line has slid 2,4% in the past year, reflecting tougher trading condition in the SA’s technology industry, says analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. Growth in managed service revenue did not quite compensate for a decline in professional service revenue.

Sub-Saharan Africa will soon be drowning in international bandwidth. France Telecom’s Orange has announced an extension to the Lower Indian Ocean Network (Lion) cable, adding yet more capacity to the east coast of Africa.