No more excuses, Sprint. It’s time to build the mother of all networks

[Commentary] With SoftBank’s $21.6 billion investment in Sprint -- Sprint, it’s time to build that network you’ve been promising.

Ever since Sprint began bandying about the term 4G back in 2006, it’s been talking a big game about networks. It’s boasted about its significant spectrum holdings, its willingness to take the lead in new technologies, and its desire to overturn the established business models of mobile telecom. But in those seven years, that promised game-changing network has failed to materialize.

Sprint now has the resources to create one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, LTE network in the country — one that would certainly put its current LTE efforts to shame. A small portion of its 2.5 GHz spectrum is currently being used in the old Clearwire WiMAX network, and some of that spectrum is in weird configurations, making it less useful for mobile broadband. But the companies still have a lot of airwaves to play with. With more capacity Sprint can support more mobile broadband connections and deliver that service at a much lower cost to the consumer.