Sprint sure has been backing out of and sashaying into quite a few deals of late, and the schizophrenic trend is continuing as it opts out of SpectrumCo, one of two joint ventures with cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable (parent company of AOL, which owns Engadget), Cox Communications, and Brighthouse (Advance/Newhouse). Reportedly, the firm is still remaining a part of the Sprint/Cable venture (now known as Pivot) as it focuses on "integrating wireline and wireless services offered by the cable partners with itself." We're led to believe that Sprint simply had different plans for investing its capital, but it apparently sees value in hanging in there with the whole Pivot endeavor. Interestingly, when TWC's CEO was questioned over SpectrumCo's possible involvement in the forthcoming wireless auction, he casually proclaimed that "it would be inappropriate for him to make any comment on it one way or the other," but if you'll recall, it most certainly picked up a few licenses the last go 'round.

And you thought going away to college was the first step to freedom. Au contraire, students (and faculty, no less) entering Pennsylvania's Slippery Rock University will actually be faced with an RFID tag made for their handset, which will "allow them to pay for everything from laundry and copier services to movies and groceries in the surrounding town of Slippery Rock." The 13.56MHz tags were developed by Heartland Payment Systems and utilize NFC to make spending their parents' cash all the more simple. Of course, high rollers should be aware that their guardians can log in at any time and view their purchasing habits, so we'd be careful before pulling out the long face and car trouble story. The cards will reportedly cost around $1 apiece, but will be "available for free" to all of the SU students.

[Via Textually]

When you're already tracking every kid out there to make sure no one gets into too much mischief, you definitely need a way to make a call whilst in "mountainous areas or at sea," right? Apparently the Japanese government thinks so, as it's planning on bringing satellite calling to the masses by launching a bird that's 50-meters in diameter in order to enable "ordinary handsets" (you know, the ones without the mile-long antennas) to make satellite calls in times of emergency with just slight modifications. The aforementioned sat would be over twice the size of the 19-meter Kiku No. 8, which currently holds the crown for the largest launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, meaning that the newfangled equipment would fit nicely within the confines of today's increasingly shrinking cellphone and still find signal. Interestingly, the ministry isn't looking to get the service going before 2015, so we just might be looking at mainstream antenna-less iterations by that time anyway.

[Via DigitalWorldTokyo, photo courtesy of SatellitePhones]

Seeking to avoid the communication breakdowns that occurred as a result of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the Department of Homeland Security is developing an emergency network that would let officials email one another even in the absence of a cellular infrastructure. The DHS' Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is analogous to the Pentagon's DARPA, is looking at a number of options to keep the data flowing following an emergency, including widespread deployment of mobile mesh networking technology or re-purposing some of the government's legacy satellites to handle terrestrial communications. This latter option is particularly attractive because some sats could offer transfer rates in excess of 100Mbps, and in fact a trial program is scheduled for this summer that will employ modified BlackBerries and Treos to send secure, satellite-based email between Homeland Security officials and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

[Via Smart Mobs]