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Sony, NXP get official with Moversa joint venture

Chances are, you had forgotten all about Sony and NXP's little initiative to cooperate on a NFC (near-field communications) standard, but the two seem to have finally worked out all the kinks and are ready to move forward. The joint venture, dubbed Moversa, will seek to "drive global adoption of contactless smart card applications in mobile phones," and it's already planning to develop, produce and market a Universal Secure Access Module (U-SAM) that "incorporates both MIFARE and FeliCa operating systems and applications." Essentially, the duo is hoping to accelerate the adoption of integrated contactless support, which would enable users to make payments (among other things) easily via their handset. If you're curious about availability, we're hearing that samples should be shipped out in mid-2008, but commercial deployments aren't scheduled to happen until the end of next year.

[Via Yahoo / Reuters]

Sprint bows out of wireless spectrum joint venture

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.

SK Telecom, EarthLink dump $200 million on Helio

As Amp'd scrambles for life and limb and Palm sees its once tight grip on the market slipping away, Helio is being rewarded with a pair of checks worth $100 million apiece. Reportedly, SK Telecom and EarthLink are set to inject a substantial amount of cash into the MVNO, as it has supposedly burned through the initial $440 million initially put forth. Recent financial results from Helio have been less than encouraging, but obviously someone up the ladder thinks it's wise to forge ahead through treacherous waters. Of course, just about anything can survive with enough funding to back it, but unless things get turned around real quick like, Helio isn't likely breathe new life into the oft neglected MVNO universe.




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