With all the recent hubbub on Google’s potential 700 MHz play, and with Verizon, AT&T, and the CTIA crying foul accusing DC of dole distribution for Silicon Valley welfare, Sprint ‘s composure is quiet—perhaps confident. It should be. Even though some have bashed Sprint criticizing what they suggest is sluggish progress towards the upcoming WiMax launch, building a network takes time, as does the ecosystem strategy around an Open Mobile Platform like WiMax, which will likely rival any network arising from the 700 MHz auction—both in terms of speed as well as openness.

An indicator of Sprint’s confidence arrives today in form of a teaming announcement with Google [despite the noise] to launch a suite of mobility and location-enriched applications that will run across a myriad of connected WiMax devices [not just phones]. It’s an early indication of what to expect from Sprint during this intense build-out phase.  Plus, with LBS apps accounting for 1/3 of total data revenues today up over music and others, it’s also no surprise that Sprint also has plans beyond Google Apps with continued commitment to enable their existing developer community with APIs needed to build broadband mobility and location smarts into applications spanning consumer, business, and government super-group horizontals.  Yep, I'd say Sprint gets it...