High-tech snail-mail service What3words goes big in Africa

Friday, August 4, 2017

Nigeria has a snail-mail problem that creates serious issues, and it’s hoping a high-tech address system can deliver a fix.

The postal service of Africa’s most populous country is set to start using What3words, according to the the same-named company behind the system.

The technology uses an algorithm to carve up the planet into 3-meter squares — 57 trillion of ’em — and give each a three-word label. Times Square in New York is “bolts.native.year,” for instance, and Boston’s Faneuil Hall is “atomic.camera.poem.”

Source: CNET (link opens in a new window)

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