Ericsson wins connected vessel contract
U-Ming Marine Transport, a Taiwan marine transportation company, awarded a contract to Ericsson to deliver connected vessel and voyage optimisation services for its bulk-carrier ships.

Ericsson’s Maritime ICT Cloud will enable U-Ming to collect near-real-time data on vessel location and movement, and to monitor vessel speeds against manually set planned speeds, allowing the company to optimise fuel consumption, the vendor said in a statement.

In addition, Ericsson will deliver its connected vessel offering, which will support ship-to-shore VoIP and email communications for personnel on board vessels.

KDDI introduces Apple SIM for iPad
Japan’s second largest operator KDDI introduced the Apple SIM, which allows travelers to select a prepaid data plan for their iPads from a local operator without having to change their actual SIM card.

KDDI is offering a 1GB prepaid data plan for JPY1,500 (about $12) at its ‘au’ retail shops.

The Apple SIM is available in 13 countries, including Australia, Canada and the UK, and it works with the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and mini 4, and iPad Pro.

Grameenphone launches MyStudy app
Grameenphone launched a pilot project of a mobile learning app developed by Telenor Digital.

The MyStudy app is targeted at 9th and 10th grade students and focuses on the national curriculum of maths and English. The operator said the number of subjects and year groups covered will gradually be increased.

Grameenphone plans to introduce a health services app in January.

Vinaphone taps Nokia to upgrade 3G network
Vietnam’s stated-owned operator Vinaphone contracted Nokia Networks to expand its service coverage area and upgrade it 3G network, which will double the peak download speeds to 42Mb/s.

Under the contract, Nokia will deploy its Single RAN radio access network and core network elements.

The operator is a subsidiary of the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT).

Alibaba launches HK entrepreneur fund
China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba set up a HKD1 billion ($129 million) Entrepreneurs Fund for Hong Kong to support startups that want to use its resources in e-commerce, logistics, mobile platforms cloud computing and financial services.

The not-for-profit initiative will invest in companies in the startup, growth and expansion phases of their life cycles.