Even modest consumption of metaverse will bump up global data

Even moderate usage of metaverse will increase global data usage by 20 times over a decade and firms such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are poised for “suitable benefits” from this surge, as per a Credit Suisse report released on February 17.

“Internet traffic is already 80 percent video and has been growing at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Our team projects that even modest metaverse usage could drive a further 37 percent CAGR in the next decade to 20x current data usage,” the report said.

Metaverse enables individuals to immerse in a virtual world through augmented reality and virtual reality. AR and VR are also expected to boom and metaverse has “enormous potential to further expand screen time and drive more bandwidth consumption”, the report added.

5G will support the metaverse ecosystem and emergence of 6G will enhance use cases, it noted, adding that the gaming segment is expected to be an early adopter of metaverse.

Credit Suisse noted that while gaming is at an early stage in India, mobile gaming is largely being driven by affordable smartphones and 4G data services. It stated: “Mobile internet remains the key medium for Indian users to go online, given relatively low fixed broadband penetration. The share of mobile gaming in online games is expected to increase.”

In terms of hours spent on the mobile phone daily, Indians lead despite low penetration of fixed broadband and “this will be key to realise the full potential of metaverse”, the report said.

The report did acknowledge that it is “too early” to determine the impact of metaverse on revenues of Indian telecom companies, but “Airtel (with 17 percent of revenues from fixed line) and Jio are well placed to benefit from the surge in data usage driven by metaverse in the latter half of this decade”.

The report says fixed broadband penetration in India will increase to nine percent in the current fiscal from 6.8 percent in FY20, and rise to 12.6 percent by FY25 driven by continued demand for data and telcos’ push to improve use of their fibre infrastructure. PTI