It's thundering in surround sound here today as stereophonic circles of 100 Hz pressure waves rumble around my head--and the surrounding dozen miles. It's one of those midday summer storms that make it hard to pull away from the window. Besides, if I move from the window, I lose my signal--and that sucks. Feels like 1999.

Funny then, that Sprint succeeded this week in turning everyone's focus to 4G. What happened to 3G? Aren't we all still waiting to experience its full benefit? Aren't there several billions of dollars of return-on-investment that operators are suppose to enjoy first?

Now, we're all for rapid progress here--it makes for a lot of copy and provides us with tools that make it easier to do our jobs--so this may sound incongruous, but shouldn't we slow down?

Blasphemy, I know, but at times we all look like spoiled kids on Christmas morning who have so many gifts piled in front of them they barely notice the one they just opened (especially if it's clothes) before going onto the next one? Note, I am not talking about "we the consumer" here. Consumers should feel free to gobble up whatever technology helps them best get through the day. I am talking about "we the industry." And yes, the industry should feel free to produce as much new technology as consumers will gobble up at a reasonable profit. But profit is the key. Have we seen it from 3G? All of it? And even if we have, would it be so bad to keep sucking it up for a few more years? Shouldn't there be a longer, more sustained payoff? Aren't we still struggling to find ways to increase ARPU (average revenue per user) using 3G?

Obviously an operator can't let another get the jump on it, and that's what drives innovation, which drives the economy. And obviously operators are raking in the cash and can afford to keep investing in the network and may even be justified in returning to the "build it and they will come" attitude of the Internet e-commerce heyday. But there are a lot of storms brewing in this world, many in places without a cumulonimbus thunderhead in the sky. These storms create the kind of economic chaos in which an operator strapped with consolidation or other debt wouldn't want to be caught short of cash.

Maybe the rush to 4G is justified by all the wonderful and wonderfully profitable services and applications that are sure to come if only we build enough bandwidth? But where have we heard that before?