Meta and Telefonica partner to create a Metaverse Innovation Hub
At MWC 2022 this week, Meta and Telefonica have announced a new partnership to build a Metaverse Innovation Hub in Madrid. The Hub will offer local startups and developers access to a 5G laboratory enabling them to use a metaverse end-to-end testbed on Meta and Telefonica’s networks and equipment.
The purpose of the hub is to accelerate metaverse network and device readiness by trials new network architectures, use cases and devices.
Participants at the hub will also have access to Telefonica’s open innovation ecosystem and Innovation and Talent Hub Resources, as well as Meta’s engineering resources.
Total Telecom caught up with, Chris Weasler, Director of Special Initiatives and Eran Tal, Director of Infrastructure Technologies & Ecosystems at Meta Connectivity at MWC this week to talk more about Meta’s vision for the future of connectivity. One message was clear; to deliver the metaverse, collaboration with partners across the ecosystem is going to be key.
Commenting on the partnership, Chris said: “We want to collaborate in every way with service providers but also, we want to encourage innovation from startups too. So, we announced yesterday a partnership with Telefonica to create a Metaverse Innovation Hub, which will be in Madrid, and it invites local startups to come into a physical space to grow and scale their metaverse supporting technologies and services. They’ll be able to tap into a ground-breaking 5G lab that is already in place. It’s a page in the playbook that we want to keep supporting over the years. In addition, we’re launching our own Meta connectivity accelerator where we’re going to bring in cohorts of startups, regionally based – one in North America, one in Europe and one in Asia-Pacific in partnership with mobile operators”.