Quick take:
- Singapore’s Singtel has launched its first metaverse event.
- The pilot project is part of Singtel’s partnership with Korean telco SK Telecom.
- The event was offered exclusively to Singtel customers to demonstrate the importance of 5G networks in supporting immersive experiences.
Singtel has launched its first-ever metaverse events in Singapore. The Singaporean telecommunications giant launched a pilot metaverse event dubbed “Destination:ifland” exclusively to consumers on SK’s ifland metaverse platform. The experience illustrated how 5G networks will be able to support and offer better immersive experiences in 3D virtual spaces.
About 130 participants were selected via a contest that took place in December on Singtel’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. The contest saw participants create personal avatars on ifland before attending a virtual room where they met with American singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin.
Commenting on the event, Ms Anna Yip, Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Singapore, Singtel, said, “The evolution of the internet is shifting towards a creator economy and immersive virtual worlds. This requires an ultra-low latency network with high-speed connectivity and higher bandwidth to enable the creation and delivery of an enhanced metaverse experience involving multiple users and augmented or virtual reality devices.”
“With SKT, we’re excited to showcase the capabilities of Singtel 5G in enabling innovative ways to engage consumers in the metaverse, such as new product launches, e-gaming, entertainment events and more. In keeping with our focus of delivering unique and meaningful digital experiences to our customers, we’ll be working with our partners to develop and deliver more such use cases that demonstrate the capabilities of our metaverse-ready network,” added Yip.
Destination:ifland is Singtel’s debut event in a series of metaverse experiential projects it is developing in collaboration with SKT. It is also one of Ifland’s inaugural projects since launching globally in November last year. SKT’s partnership with Singtel provides that the Singaporean telco spearheads Ifland’s southeast Asia expansion.
Singtel is particularly working to create digital Twins of places in Singapore and avatars customised to showcase local culture.
SK Telecom has also teamed up with e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group) for its expansion strategy in the Middle East, Africa and the rest of Asia.
The metaverse is a 3D virtual space comprised of immersive 3D worlds built on web3, a next-gen blockchain-based internet that prioritises user ownership, decentralisation and trustless communications.
Although current networks have shown that they can still support live metaverse events, experts believe that the improved latency and bandwidth provided by 5G will be crucial to accelerating the global adoption of the metaverse.
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