March 3, 2022: -Meta, formerly Facebook, has said that its grand ambition of building the ultimate “metaverse” won’t be possible if there aren’t drastic improvements in the telecoms networks.

The metaverse is a buzzword hyped up as the next big thing in tech. The concept refers to a seamless virtual world where people can work, shop, and play with their colleagues, friends, and family.

On Monday, Dan Rabinovitsj, VP of connectivity at Meta, told CNBC at the Mobile World Congress tech event that home networks and cellular networks are not yet ready for the metaverse.

“We’re working closely with our colleagues to think about what’s the coming step in terms of innovation,” he said, which adds that Meta is also working with cellular partners.

“If you look at the pace of innovation in the telecom world, compared to different markets, it’s been harder to go faster in this space,” Rabinovitsj said. “One of the things that we’ve tried to change is that trajectory of innovation.”

While a recent metaverse does not exist yet, some early projects are underway that give an insight into what it’s all about. Meta’s Oculus virtual reality headsets are hailing as a gateway to a few of these new metaverse experiences. But the experiences require low latency and higher upload and download speeds.

“We need to develop a common language nearly the performance of networks,” Rabinovitsj said. “We’re big believers in measurement as foundational in this next phase of work.”

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, said in a statement on Sunday that “creating a true sense of presence in virtual worlds delivered to smart glasses and VR headsets will require huge advances in connectivity.”

Zuckerberg said this would need to be “bigger than any of the step changes we’ve seen before,” adding that things like wide-scale immersive video streaming will take entirely recent types of networks.

In response, AT&T Executive Vice President David Christopher told CNBC that 5G is being deployed faster than 4G, adding “massive investment across operators.”

He claimed that networks offer low latency, consistent speeds, and high capacity. “This will only improve over this coming decade to support many use cases across many industries, including immersive and metaverse-like experiences,” Christopher said.

“Although the Metaverse develops, it will depend on innovation and interoperability across many sectors, with advanced connectivity from 5G as an essential element.”