Durban-based software developer and occasional TechCentral columnist Greg Mahlknecht has built a free map showing the world’s submarine telecommunications cable systems. The map, which took Mahlknecht several months to complete, is free of charge and will remain so. It’s available at cablemap.info.

Telecommunications research and training body, the Link Centre at Wits University, has called on the department of communications to scrap the proposed Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) Amendment Bill. The Link Centre says the proposed changes to the act will have “profound public interest implications and potentially a far-reaching impact on policy, governance and regulation across the entire communications technology sector”.

Technology billionaire Mark Shuttleworth has slammed government’s failure to fix problems at the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), warning ongoing capacity problems at the regulator are hampering economic growth. Shuttleworth, speaking to TechCentral following Icasa’s decision last week to postpone an auction of valuable radio frequency spectrum, says there is no “clear prioritisation of telecommunications as a vital source of growth in the SA economy”.

Axed communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala was planning to challenge her dismissal, Business Day reported on Monday. “There is no settlement. They dismissed me. And I will be challenging the dismissal,” said Mohlala.

Moments after we finished recording this week’s episode of the TalkCentral podcast, in which we speculated about the likely fate of communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala, the news came in that minister Siphiwe Nyanda had fired her. Fortunately — or, perhaps, unfortunately? — we weren’t too far off the mark in our pre-announcement speculation.

Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has fired his director-general, Mamodupi Mohlala, saying that trust between the two had “broken down irretrievably”. “In the interests of the department, the staff and the government, the minister has come to the conclusion that it would be best to release Mohlala from her position as director-general with effect from 23 July 2010,” Nyanda’s spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso said in a terse statement issued on Friday evening.

The first thing one notices when picking up the iPhone 4 for the first time is its slick design. Pictures don’t do it justice. Apple has gone for a minimalist look with its new smartphone. It’s a bit like the step up from the old, bubble-shaped iMacs to the modern, integrated, liquid crystal display-based machines they are today.

“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling,” is the advice that one character gives another in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. With this film, the director of The Prestige and The Dark Knight proves once again that no other big-budget filmmaker has dreams quite as large as his. Part existential spy film, part science-fiction epic and part heist movie, Inception is by far the boldest and best film in a disappointing Hollywood summer season.

Vodacom has lost one of its top executives to Kenya’s Safaricom. The JSE-listed cellular group announced after the markets closed on Thursday evening that its chief officer for corporate affairs, Bob Collymore, was leaving to take over as CEO of Safaricom. Collymore, previously a Vodafone executive, will join Safaricom in September. Both Vodacom and Safaricom have significant shareholding from the UK’s Vodafone. Like Vodacom in SA, Safaricom is Kenya’s largest mobile operator.

President Jacob Zuma on Thursday told a press conference in Pretoria that he had heard from his communications minister, Siphiwe Nyanda, that there was a “problem” involving the department’s director-general, Mamodupi Mohlala. “The minister in passing indicated there is a problem. He has not given a proper and formal report. Once this happens, we move in,” Zuma said.