Google SA is sending out its Street View cars and tricycles again, with plans to photograph more of the country’s streets for the popular service. It even has plans to map out the Western Cape winelands. TechCentral has learnt that Google is expanding its existing Street View coverage by sending out its fleet of specially kitted-out cars.

Telkom will focus its energies on training new communications technology skills to keep pace with industry demands, says acting CEO Jeffrey Hedberg. Hedberg, speaking at Telkom’s annual Satnac conference, says Africa is a technology opportunity waiting to happen. However, he says the greatest challenge the continent faces is a lack of skills.

Local mobile security business FireID has raised €5m (about R48m) from Jersey-based capital investment firm 4D Innovative Capital (4Di Capital) International to help it expand internationally. FireID started in 2006 and over the past few years the company has been pushing into international markets, including the US and the UK.

If Mafia 2, the new game from 2K Czech is to be believed, life as a mob wiseguy in the 1950s was less like The Godfather and more like Driving Miss Daisy. After spending 12 hours completing the game, the memories that linger are those of driving from one side of Empire Bay to the other at 30 miles an hour in a car that handles with the finesse of an ocean liner.

JSE-listed telecommunications equipment and electronics company Jasco has made an offer to buy another fellow listed company, communications business Spescom. Jasco CEO Martin Lotz says the combination of the two businesses will create a business with annual turnover of R1bn.

Cell C, which launched its third-generation (3G) mobile network in the Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth on Friday, is playing up its launch offering of two broadband modems with 24GB and 60GB data bundles. But the company has also quietly introduced two new data-only products at prices that are significantly lower than the offerings that are bundled with modems and much cheaper than anything offered by rivals MTN and Vodacom.

In a bid to strengthen its own distribution business, London- and Johannesburg-listed IT group Datatec is making a play for local distribution business Comztek. Datatec says it has made a R97m offer to Comztek’s shareholders for 100% of the business. According to Datatec’s statement, part of the offer will be paid in cash and the rest in new Datatec shares.

Pay-TV licensee Super 5 Media has been granted another extension by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to launch a service. Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka says the regulator has granted the company another six months to get a service off the ground.

Cell C will begin upgrading its new wireless broadband network to 42Mbit/s within the next six to eight months, CEO Lars Reichelt says. On Friday, Cell C switched on the first leg of its third-generation (3G) cellular network in Port Elizabeth, offering peak speeds of up to 21Mbit/s. It is expected to expand the network to two more cities in September – probably Bloemfontein and Durban.

Cell C finally showed its hand in broadband pricing on Friday as it switched on its third-generation mobile network in the Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth. The company will offer two broadband packages.