Tongamakes4 for what3words
The Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific has become the fourth country in the world to use the what3words addressing system. The kingdom is composed of 170 islands sprayed across 700,000 square metres of ocean. Thirty-six of those islands are inhabited; but there are only a few named streets on a handful of islands so the what3words system, which divides up the world into uniquely-named 3m x 3m squares, is a viable alternative.
According to a notice posted on the what3words’ website newsboard on Sunday (5 February): “Until recently, home delivery was restricted to express mail in the city of Nuku’alofa, the capital of the Kingdom. Any other mail would be delivered to centralised PO Boxes, with the recipient responsible for collection. That resulted in high volumes of undelivered mail, taking up space and incurring extra costs for Tonga Post.
“By using what3words, every location in the Kingdom of Tonga now has an instant address. By making this addressing system part of the country’s infrastructure, Tonga Post is helping unlock the region’s economic growth and social development.”
Tonga is the first South Pacific nation to use what3words as a postal addressing system. The other countries currently using what3words are Mongolia, Sint Maarten in the Caribbean, and Cote d’Ivoire on the west coast of Africa.