what3words reaches Mongolia and Australia

By on 21 June, 2016
suburbs of ulaanbaatar

The suburbs of Ullaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Source: Pixabay

 

what3words has garnered widespread attention of late, following the adoption of the innovative addressing system by the Mongolian national postal service. The adoption by Mongol Post marks the largest scale adoption of the addressing system to date.

what3words uses a unique combinations of three words for each 3mx3m square on Earth. The adoption of what3words by Mongol Post makes a lot of sense in a nation where addressing is notably inadequate for the needs of its citizens. A large proportion of the Mongolian population live nomadic or semi-nomadic lives, meaning that their postal addresses will shift wildly over time. For these purposes Mongolia’s existing addressing is inadequate across its huge geographic area of 1.6 million square kilometres- almost the size of Queensland. Even in urban areas, the addressing is often insufficient and based by a means of reference to nearby features.

what3words and Mongol Post have addressed this issue (excuse the pun) using what3words to provide a unique address for every 3m x 3m square across the nation. Mongol Post will be making the address system integral to its service. It is expected this will help drive the country’s economic development, especially as it is adopted across other applications such as emergency services, logistics and personal navigation.

The move is perhaps a part of a larger wave of adoption of what3words, whose popularity is driven by the universal simplicity of the system.

what3words claim that its addressing system is already being used in over 170 countries by logistics firms, navigation apps, travel guides and NGOs.

Closer to home, Australian firm Mercury Project Solutions this month partnered with what3words in anticipation of the demand for implementing location-based solutions where traditional addressing does not exist or is inadequate. Mercury’s local spatial business consulting services will be utilised for integration of what3words across Australia and New Zealand.

The system has already been adopted by Land Tasmania, which has integrated what3words search capability into LISTmap. In Tasmania, many areas in the south-west of the state have inadequate addressing and people struggle with communicating a precise location easily. To overcome this, the ‘Locate Me’ of LISTmap now includes what3words addressing in addition to traditional coordinates.

what3words can be used by anyone by using the online map or downloading the free app (Google Play/iTunes).

sw-tasmania-what3words

LISTmap showing the what3words location demise.converting.folders (highlighted in blue) in the south west of Tasmania.

 

 

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