The East African Submarine System, the second high-capacity fibre-optic cable along Africa’s east coast, is live. However, local Internet users will have to wait until at least August to enjoy any benefits. The West Indian Ocean Cable Company, the largest shareholder in Eassy, announced this week that the cable is ready to be tested by its owners.

The world’s largest chipmaker Intel has not turned its back on WiMax, saying the technology still has strong potential in Africa. New Intel SA country manager Videsha Proothveerajh says the company is still committed to the wireless technology despite its decision to shut down the WiMax programme office in Taiwan last month.

JSE-listed Pinnacle Technology Holdings has offered to buy distribution business Axiz Technology for R170m in a deal that could see it become the largest IT distributor in the country. In a statement to shareholders on Tuesday morning, Pinnacle revealed its decision to make the offer to Axiz, which is expected to merge with Pinnacle’s Workgroup business.

The fixed-line telecommunications market in SA is set for a turnaround, in part because of declining mobile termination rates, says technology research and advisory firm BMI-TechKnowledge. A new report, SA Voice Services Market Forecasts and Analysis, shows that between 2009 to 2014, fixed and mobile revenues are forecast to grow at compound annual growth rates of 3% and 7% respectively.

The fate of valuable broadband spectrum will be decided on Tuesday when the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA, meets to discuss whether to go ahead with a planned auction. Industry insiders say the auction, for radio frequency spectrum in the 2,6GHz and 3,5GHz bands could be canned. The spectrum is ideal for providing the next generation of wireless broadband services.

Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle talk their way through an interesting tech news week with acquisitions, much-ados about nothing and veins of awesomeness. They chat about the iPhone 4 problems, the acquisition of DImension Data, BlackBerry 6 and much more

When former head of the SA National Defence Force, Gen (Ret) Siphiwe Nyanda, was appointed as minister of communications last year, there was much grumbling. “What does a military man know about communications?” quickly became the general sentiment.

Choosing a database product to keep all your important data safe can be a very simple task, or a tremendously complicated and fractious ordeal. It is easy when you don’t have a choice. Many applications are written to work with only one database. When you choose the application, the database is chosen for you.

The Seacom submarine fibre-optic cable system should be back online by late next week after a repair ship arrived at the site of the fault in the Indian Ocean. “The designated ship has been deployed to the location of the fault where it will proceed to locate the cable on the seabed,” a Seacom spokesman says.

Episode 2 of TechCentral’s TalkCentral podcast is live. SA’s first business technology podcast is hosted by TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod and deputy editor Candice Jones and is a weekly wrap-up of the big technology stories we’ve covered over the past week. In our second episode — the show now has its own jingle — we talk about what was arguably the busiest news week on the tech front this year.