The metaverse has received a lot of attention over the past couple of years. While it might not seem to be living up to its projected hype, that doesn’t mean it won’t get there. There’s still plenty of opportunity for this to take off, and when it does, it will bring significant opportunity.
Over the next several years, I believe we’ll see early signs of the metaverse starting to appear in nearly everything we do — making purchases, visiting the doctor, and more. The opportunity to experience something virtually before you do it physically is too enticing not to take off. But what will it take to actually get there?
Where infrastructure needs to further develop
To make any emerging technology — the metaverse, 5G, the internet of things (IoT) — a reality, we have to start first with infrastructure. It’s no secret that our country’s current infrastructure isn't sufficient to handle the metaverse. But what exactly is necessary? The bottom line is that ultra-low latency is essential. But achieving ultra-low latency will require further investment in fiber infrastructure, data centers, and compute storage.
For tier-one metros, the reality isn’t so far out of reach, but the metaverse will still require more fiber and compute storage. Smaller markets, on the other hand, are a relatively long way from having the telecom infrastructure — the fiber, the data center, and the compute — close enough to that population to enable a near real-time experience. Over the next two to five years, I anticipate the infrastructure will be in place to enable this experience for a little over half the population across the country. But getting there for the other half of the population will take significantly longer as it will require a lot of time, money, and infrastructure.
The role of the telecom industry in building the metaverse starts with providing the infrastructure to power the metaverse and infrastructure to help the companies looking to use the metaverse to drive commerce. But the implications go beyond providing fiber. Here are my predictions for what the metaverse will mean for the telecom industry.
5G will benefit from the metaverse
More than $100 billion has been spent on 5G airwaves and network upgrades by mobile carriers alone. Despite 5G being a hot topic of conversation, there have been very few use cases of 5G making money so far. The metaverse will change this. Rather than the metaverse benefiting from the capabilities of 5G as many predict, 5G will benefit from the metaverse.
The core pillars of 5G are ultra-low latency, ultra-high throughput and ultra-reliability. These core pillars are all necessary for a functional metaverse experience. So the faster the metaverse materializes, the more relevant 5G will be because applications and use cases are what really drive investment in something like 5G. The metaverse offers a prime use case for 5G that can drive further investment and create value.
The telecom industry needs to eat its own cooking
Obviously there is an incentive for fiber providers to keep providing the fiber necessary for the metaverse to become a reality. But I believe the metaverse’s value extends beyond that. The telecom industry is often helping power some of the biggest innovations on the market, but telecom companies themselves tend to be rather behind the times. The metaverse is an opportunity to change this. It’s time for the telecom industry to start eating its own cooking.
The metaverse for the sales process
A few years back, you may not have imagined a world where most of your sales calls were taken remotely on platforms like Zoom. So how might the metaverse change our interactions with potential customers? The metaverse will help reduce the amount of business travel needed, even more so than the use of Zoom has. Instead of taking an airplane to meet with a prospect or getting on a video chat, we can log onto a virtual roundtable with VR goggles in the metaverse to provide a more interactive, virtual experience. The metaverse can create more and more realistic virtual meetings for the sales process.
The metaverse for customer service
The metaverse will provide telecom companies with a way to improve the customer experience. For example, similar to how doctors can use VR to oversee surgery remotely, an installation in a data center can be observed virtually. Managers can oversee the support staff doing fieldwork to make sure it’s completed properly and help address problems in real time.
The viability of the metaverse
Too often we tend to be overly aggressive in our short-term view of how things will change and under-aggressive in our long-term view. Over the next one to three years, we will likely see a slower adoption of the metaverse. But I believe in the longer term, we will see wider, more rapid adoption driven by a desire for more real-time, virtualized experiences.
Obviously, getting to a world where the metaverse is more ubiquitous will require continued investment in infrastructure. This will be worth it for the telecom industry as the metaverse presents a real use case for 5G and provides opportunities for telecom companies to innovate and improve their own customer experience.
