The company’s ambitions to build a metaverse cannot be realized without significant improvements to today’s telecom networks, executives at Facebook’s parent company Meta said at Mobile World Congress (MWC) on Monday.
Metaverse is a buzzword in the tech industry recently, being hyped as the next big thing in tech that can rival the mobile internet. The so-called “metaverse” refers to a seamless virtual world in which people can work, shop and play with colleagues, friends and family.
Current home and mobile cellular networks are not ready for the Metaverse, Dan Rabinovitsj, vice president of Meta, said Monday at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) technology event.
We’re working closely with our colleagues to think about what’s next in terms of innovation, he said, adding that Meta is also working with cellular partners.
If you look closely at the speed of innovation in the telecom industry, it’s more difficult to go faster in this space than in other markets, Rabinowitz said. One of the things we’re trying to change is innovation. traces of.
While the real metaverse doesn’t exist yet, some early projects underway could give insight into what the metaverse really is. Meta sees its Oculus virtual reality headset as a gateway to a new metaverse experience for users. But getting this experience requires lower network latency and higher transfer speeds.
“We need to develop a common language around network performance, said Rabinowitz. In fact, we firmly believe that measurement metrics are the basis for the next phase of work.
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement Sunday, Creating a true virtual world presence for smart glasses and virtual reality headsets requires network connectivity Made great progress.
Zuckerberg said that would require “bigger changes than anything we’ve seen before,” adding that something like massively immersive streaming video would require a completely different kind of network.
In response, Marc Allera, chief executive of the British mobile network company BT Consumer, said on Wednesday that he expected the Metaverse to put pressure on the current network. Still, he said, the telecommunications industry is investing billions of dollars in new technology.
When you stop and think about what you can do with a smartphone today compared to ten years ago, it’s because the industry and the network operators have invested in it,” Allera said before meeting with Meta representatives. A lot of money, but those content companies don’t contribute anything to the network.
I’ll try to understand their role in supporting the ecosystem, not just have them ask what we’re doing, Allera added.
5G networks are being deployed faster than 4G, said David Christopher, executive vice president of AT&T. He added, There is a lot of investment by the operators.
Christopher claims that the network now provides low latency, stable high speed and high bandwidth. These will only continue to improve over the next decade to support many use cases across many industries, including immersive virtual reality experiences and metaverse experiences, he said.
No matter how the metaverse develops, it will depend on innovation and interoperability in many areas, and 5G network connectivity is an important element.