Singtel showcases its metaverse potential with SKT’s ifland, Digital Platforms and Services

Solely weeks after signing a metaverse development partnership deal with South Korean peer SK Telecom (SKT), Singtel has hosted an indication for a choose group of consumers to point out how its 5G companies can allow prolonged actuality experiences.  

On the “Destination: ifland” occasion held late final week at its headquarters, Singtel Comcentre, the Singaporean telco hosted round 130 Singtel clients (the winners of a particular competitors) to see how a mix of 5G and SKT’s metaverse app, ifland, can open the doorways to “richer and more immersive metaverse experiences” for shoppers.

Attendees have been capable of create and customise avatars of themselves earlier than getting into an “exclusive Singtel x ifland room” to satisfy US singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin and take heed to a efficiency in real-time. The demo additionally allowed them to take pictures of the performer’s avatar through “an interactive photo booth” and play video games utilizing augmented actuality (AR) headsets, amongst different actions within the digital realm.

In a statement detailing the transfer, the telco mentioned it intends to run a sequence of metaverse-themed occasions, dubbed Meta Guides, as a part of its union with SKT. The intention is to introduce new platforms and experiences within the metaverse which, a minimum of at this stage, are focused at client customers.

Along with attending in-person occasions to showcase the metaverse, Singtel’s clients can now take a look at what the immersive digital world has to supply utilizing the  ifland app, the place they will additionally unlock “exclusive benefits”, equivalent to digital merchandise and conferences between followers of the more and more well-liked Ok-pop music.

“The evolution of the internet is shifting towards a creator economy and immersive virtual worlds”, which requires an ultra-low latency community with high-speed connectivity and better bandwidth, defined Anna Yip, CEO of the buyer Singapore enterprise at Singtel.

She burdened the telco’s ambitions to showcase how its 5G, metaverse-ready community can allow “innovative ways to engage consumers in the metaverse, such as new product launches, e-gaming, entertainment events and more”, and pledged to develop extra use instances associated to this.

Singtel turned SKT’s essential metaverse ally for south-east Asia in November 2022, and their essential aim was to develop digital variations of locations in Singapore and avatars customised to the native tradition, earlier than increasing their choices to different markets wherein Singtel operates, together with Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Additionally they plan to companion in areas equivalent to superior knowledge encryption to construct “safer networks against emerging cyber threats” – see What’s up with… SK Telecom and Singtel, metaverse patents, Bullitt.

In addition to its deal with south-east Asia with Singtel, SKT – arguably essentially the most superior telco on the subject of metaverse-related developments, having launched ifland in its home market in 2021 – is constructing momentum round its global metaverse platform expansion plan by means of a lot of collaborations, together with one with Deutsche Telekom in Europe and one other with e& within the Center East.

Along with client purposes, Singtel regards the metaverse (when mixed with 5G) as a digital transformation enabler throughout trade verticals, equivalent to manufacturing, the place “emerging technologies and innovations such as automated robots can be deployed in the metaverse to test operations or train staff before such machinery is deployed in the real world”, famous the operator.

Whereas a lot of the early metaverse improvement and demonstration focus is on potentialities within the client sector, it’s the enterprise market that holds the best enterprise alternative, according to the team at ABI Research.

Final yr was notable for a number of metaverse-related plans, proposals, relationships and developments – see The most popular metaverse stories of 2022.

– Yanitsa Boyadzhieva, Deputy Editor, TelecomTV