NEW SKT AND NTT DOCOMO PARTNERSHIP TO FOCUS ON CONTENT, 6G, AND THE METAVERSE

FTHE DUO WILL COLLABORATE TO JOINTLY DEVELOP TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES RELATED TO THE METAVERSE AND 6G, AS WELL AS CONTENT CREATIONToday, two of the largest telecoms operators in South Korea and Japan are joining forces with a far-reaching strategic partnership, encompassing both their telecoms and media interests.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will see SK Telecom (SKT) and NTT Docomo work together to jointly produce original content for their respective video distribution platforms, as well as working together for global expansion.
Perhaps more interesting, however, are the pair’s plans to collaborate on the metaverse.
SKT already has its own metaverse platform – Ifland – which it has been enhancing through various acquisitions over the last year, including 3D modelling and video specialists. SKT has also been very clear that it views Ifland as an international opportunity, having already struck a deal with Deutsche Telekom to offer the service in Germany.
Docomo, on the other hand, also offers a growing range of metaverse services, though for now these are fairly limited. Nonetheless, the company’s commitment to this emerging market has been plain to see this year, with the company making a formal push into the metaverse space back in March, setting up an industrial metaverse development company with about 150 engineers.
More recently, the Japanese operator created a new business unit called Qonoq, backed by roughly $412 million and specialising on hardware and software for extended reality. Qonoq is set to build on the work already conducted by Docomo’s NTT XR unit, which was set up back in March.
Now, Docomo and SKT say they will work together to co-create metaverse content, focussing on 3D models, volumetric videos, and virtual cities. In the long-term, the duo could even look to link their respective metaverse platforms, theoretically allowing customers to move seamlessly from one to the other.

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