Telco Optus is looking at investment in two key current uses of the metaverse, gaming and entertainment.
Optus Head of 5G Harvey Wright told Sydney L!VE: "One thing is certain that the metaverse will run over our network,
“Our primary focus at the moment is to make sure that things like 5g are rolled out, and customers have that fast, high bandwidth, low latency productivity.
“The second thing that we're doing is, in addition to being an infrastructure company, we are a content company.
“The two major on ramps to the metaverse are going to be around immersive entertainment and gaming.
“The hyper realistic nature of games -- you've got things like robots, things like Fortnite -- environments where people are competing, socialising, digitally interacting.
“In addition to building out service propositions, we are innovating, we are looking for partners looking to demonstrate and showcase how their technology could look, both today, but also the future.
“For example,the Grand Prix and the notion of a virtual reality tour of the track, being able to show customers not only the experience itself, but the extent to which that experience is enhanced.
“In the case of gaming, you're seeing some massive changes in that space, cross platform play, virtual reality, augmented reality in terms of the gameplay itself, and the rise of cloud gaming.
“A customer can start and finish, play on whatever device at home on TV, on the mobile and have that sort of continuous presence.
"And we're looking at propositions around that.
"We are at a point where going to an event and actually literally being at the event are starting to converge.
“So if we can offer customers pitchside seats or courtside views, or whatever, it is a new sort of entertainment experience to the next level. It's hugely exciting.”
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