Wal-Mart's spread across the country is amazing to watch when plotted on a map.
I first saw this awhile back, but a Gizmodo article talking about Sprint’s WiMax (a.k.a. 4G) plans brought it back to memory.
An enterprising person (with some time to kill) created a time-lapse map of sorts showing the spread of Wal-Mart over the course of its life. It’s amazing to see how widespread the company has become.
The point of revisiting the map was to note the potential plus of Sprint placing WiMax towers atop Wal-Marts across the country. Especially in the eastern half of the country, that could practically provide blanket coverage. Given Sprint’s facing an uphill battle, as other carriers have standardized around an alternative technology called Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, having a partner that can facilitate growth might help even the playing field a bit, even if it’s simply offering prime tower locations. After all, there has been a lot of push back from neighbors who don’t like fake flagpoles or pine trees popping up near their homes.
