Weak Internet Won’t Hold the Metaverse

Phone companies are linking up in the metaverse. The term, which has become a trend in the technology sector since the end of last year, was the center of discussions at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022, held this week in Barcelona and which ended this Thursday (3).

The event, one of the main events in the technology industry, brings together industry leaders and is more focused on telecommunications.

Well, what, after all, is the metaverse? How will it work?

If the reader has these doubts, know that you are not alone: ​​the metaverse is also a weird business for experts – but, for your own good, avoid using that term around someone in the tech sector so you don’t have to listen a long speech with opinions on the subject.

In short, it’s one of those things that are everything and nothing at the same time. It indicates a change in the way people interact with digital content.

During MWC, Neeraj Roy, founder of Hungama Mídia, an Indian digital entertainment company, recalled the days of the internet’s inception. There was an idea, a concept, of computers connected by a network.

In the beginning, the contents in informatics were seen by the computer screen, clicking with the mouse and period. Then, the internet evolved, it started to support videos more easily, more images. Later, it went to mobile and gained more interactive features – zooming with your fingers, using audio, location.

The metaverse is not exactly a place, but a bet by the technology sector that this is where the progression of how content is consumed is heading. Greater immersion through, for example, virtual and augmented reality. Instead of seeing the content on a screen, inserting yourself in a certain way into that content, or putting it to interact with the physical world.

In the case of virtual reality, the user uses specific glasses to see the world as if he were in a digital environment. In augmented, using glasses or some other device —like a cell phone screen — elements are added to the real-world view. An example of this is the game Pokémon Go, in which the little monsters appear on the phone as if they were in the living room at home.

With that, in the metaverse idea (something imported from science fiction), it is as if a parallel universe was created. The concept already exists, mainly in games – Roblox and Fortnite are two of the most cited examples. And the tech companies’ bet is precisely that this will grow. Meta (ex-Facebook) talks about five years.

And since it’s something that happens in the future, why discuss it now? And what does the telephone industry have to do with the story?

With this trend identified – and, in parts, stuffed down their throats –, it is necessary to create the necessary tools and structure for the thing to become a reality.

“We need to think long term to be ready at the right time,” said Peter Jarich, head of the GSMA’s intelligence division, at MWC.

Last week, for example, Facebook announced innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), to make mechanisms more efficient. This is one of the foundational technologies of the metaverse idea. When using augmented reality, for example, they are AI engines that read what appears on the camera and make the interaction between the virtual and the real.

On Instagram, it’s such a system that identifies the parts of your face to apply a puppy filter, for example.

The same goes for telephony. To work, applications that use this metaverse concept have high demand for the internet. Not just in the amount of information downloaded, but in response time (called “latency”) and stability. Not to mention connectivity, since almost half of the planet still doesn’t have access to the web, according to data from the GSMA, an entity that brings together the telecoms.

“Tele companies are building the railroads that will allow these experiences [de metaverso] happen,” said Cathy Hackl, a futurist metaverse expert, at MWC.

Another change is in uploading files. Today, consumers receive much more information (download) than they send, and the current structure is set up to meet this type of demand. In the future, download and upload should be requested in more similar volumes.

“The pattern of Internet traffic is changing,” said Chris Weasler, head of special initiatives for Meta’s connectivity division.

At these points, 5G appears as the connectivity alternative that supports these needs – hence all the discussions at a telephony event. The attempt is to understand what will be the necessary structure for the applications to work.

On a video call, a delay can just be annoying and lead to the “can you hear me?” questions. With VR, an unstable connection can bring on nausea. And this is all happening at a time when 5G also brings a more connected physical world, so internet standards need to take care of it.

“When you’re controlling a self-driving car or robots in the real world, [um travamento da internet] is unacceptable,” said Ronnie Vasishta, senior vice president of telecommunications at Nvidia.

One of the useful capabilities of 5G at these times is called “slicing”.

With this architecture, using the same infrastructure, it is possible to create separate telephony networks. Thus, using the same physical structure, it is possible to provide parallel connections with different characteristics.

“You don’t want to be operated by a robot [controlado pela internet] in a hospital while your child is playing games in the next room [pela mesma rede]”, said Paul Scanlan, Huawei’s chief technology officer.

RESTRICTED ACCESS

One of the barriers facing metaverse applications is cost – devices with 5G connectivity and the ability to process the complex applications of this more immersive content are expensive.

Within technology companies, part of the discussions to make the metaverse possible involves integrating different types of connected devices. How to make someone with a cell phone with little processing power be able to interact in the same space accessed by a friend using a state-of-the-art computer and virtual reality glasses.

Other than that, there’s the cost of the connections themselves. In Brazil, the expectation is that “pure” 5G (in networks built exclusively for this technology) will cost BRL 250 per month upon arrival in 2023.

GSMA study points out the global inequality in the distribution of technology that appears with force in South Korea, China and the USA. It only reached all regions now, three years after the start of implementation, with the arrival in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

Differences happen even within geographic areas. By 2025, the GSMA estimates that 64% of mobile connections in developed Asia will be via 5G, 63% from North America. For comparison, rates should be 8% in the rest of Asia and 11% in Latin America.

The hole is not so much in the roof. Of the 3.7 billion people disconnected, only 500 million are in areas where the signal does not reach, points out Mats Granryd, director general of the GSMA. The rest are offline for other reasons like cost.

The journalist traveled at the invitation of Huawei