Big Tech and Telecom Follow Facebook in Metaverse Ramp-Up

Less than two weeks after Facebook’s startling announcement that it was changing its name and focus to Meta, three heavyweights in the 5G space are piggybacking on the shift.

Also see: Facebook Rebrands as Meta in Push to Align With Metaverse

While many consumers and companies are still taking a wait-and-see approach to swapping real-life activities for virtual metaverse experiences, T-Mobile U.S. and its partial owner Deutsche Telekom have announced they are inaugural launch partners of chipmaker Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, which will allow developers to create new uses and otherworldly experiences for augmented reality (AR) goggles and glasses. 

“AR glasses will make a real impact for both businesses and consumers, but first we need to build the ecosystem of developers that will bring new applications to life, and Snapdragon Spaces is a critical step in making this happen,” Neville Ray, president of technology at T-Mobile, said in a press release. 

Developing New Products Enabled by 5G 

AR glasses will be one of the first 5G-enabled product categories, T-Mobile said, as high-bandwidth applications like AR require the low latency and high capacity the new network standard delivers. 

While extended reality (XR) is the collective term for all augmented, virtual and mixed reality endeavors, Deutsche Telekom explains on its website, AR focuses on overlaying digital elements onto the real world directly on a screen or via glasses. 

Qualcomm notes that AR creates “immersive experiences that seamlessly blur the lines between our physical and digital realities.”  

Creating Immersive Experiences for Retail Stores 

Both Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile say that AR and XR will create these immersive experiences for retail stores and sales in customers’ homes, as well as in gaming, entertainment and other industries. 

Deutsche Telekom said it is joining the other companies in supporting Snapdragon Spaces because it believes XR will bring “the next great technological revolution” and it is based on 5G. 

Qualcomm explains that Snapdragon Spaces simplifies the development and commercialization of AR applications by allowing developers to leverage existing smartphone distribution stores globally, as well as familiar tools and workflows. 

This effort is also being supported by leading smartphone and AR hardware OEMs including Lenovo, Motorola, OPPO and Xiaomi. Also joining in are global operators like NTT DOCOMO. 

Joining a Journey to Reimagine Reality 

“We welcome developers to join us in this journey to reimagine reality,” Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, said in a press release. 

The project comes on the heels of the October announcement that Deutsche Telekom’s research and development unit, T-Labs and T-Mobile U.S. are launching a worldwide competition seeking 5G XR solutions for retail. 

See also: Worldwide Competition Seeks 5G XR Solutions for Retail

Dubbed the T-Challenge, it invites startups, developers, researchers and designers to submit innovative research and solutions for using 5G networks and XR technology to develop innovations in how consumers shop, enabling immersive XR experiences in stores, at home and on the go. 

Of course, the metaverse also leaped into the headlines in October when Facebook announced its name change to Meta. 

“Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce and support jobs for millions of creators and developers,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter released on the day the name change was announced.