The Kingdom of Tonga is getting a formal postal system for the first time.
The Pacific island nation has joined several other developing countries in adopting new geolocation technology developed by a British company to give everyone an address, just not one involving traditional street names or numbers.
The company, What3Words, developed an algorithm that can provide accurate location anywhere on Earth down to nine square metres.
Company spokesman Giles Rhys Jones said the developers wanted to simplify global positioning system (GPS) locations from a long chain of numerals to something people could remember — three random words.
"They realised that there were enough words in the English dictionary to give every three metre by three metre square on the planet a unique address," he said.
"We have a word list in English of 40,000 words ... 64 trillion combinations.
"Now, there are 57 trillion 3m by 3m squares in the world, so you can give every single one a unique three word address."
Deliveries in Tonga, like many Pacific islands, are usually made by a hit-and-miss series of directions using land marks and help from the locals.
It will be the first Pacific nation to adopt the What3Words system to develop a postal service, joining Mongolia, Ivory Coast, Djibouti and the Caribbean Dutch territory Sint Maarten.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-17/new-geolocation-system-opens-mail-service-to-billions/8278766
