Maybe you’ve heard the term “metaverse” thrown around in conversation lately and found yourself wondering if you missed something. While the definition is slightly different depending on who you ask, the basic concept of the metaverse is a virtual world that blends seamlessly into reality. The development of the metaverse itself is made possible by increasingly high bandwidth speeds fueled by super fast fiber internet, like what’s offered by AT&T with AT&T Fiber®.
“I almost see the metaverse as an extension of humanity and of creativity,” says Chief Metaverse Officer, Cathy Hackl. “It’s about all these technologies converging together to take us to the next step, to break us free from the limitations of the screens and really have that internet that lives all around us.”
While this may sound futuristic, the metaverse isn’t a new concept.
When dioramas—3D models of different scenes—were invented in the 1800s, they were likely the first hint at this idea of a metaverse. You’ve likely seen one at a museum, perhaps of a realistic model of an animal’s habitat. “[Dioramas] were almost the first form of creating this sort of immersive world that people can experience,” says Tin Nguyen, an artist and creative technologist.
Fast forward to the tail end of the 21st century. In the 1980s video games took off and people started to participate in multiplayer games (like car racing) together in a digital universe, often using avatars to represent themself in this other world. That’s the basic idea of the metaverse: a shared space where people interact, participate, and make real memories.
The term “metaverse” itself is decades-old, and it’s been imagined in popular culture repeatedly. It first appeared in a 1990s sci-fi novel, which was later reimagined in a 2001 book and a 2018 feature film. When those books were written our computers ran on slow, dial-up internet and this futuristic world was merely a science-fiction tale. Little did folks know, the metaverse would soon leap off the page and become reality.
As internet bandwidth increased over time—evolving from slow and clunky dial-up to fast broadband and ultra-fast fiber internet—it led to a simultaneous rise in connectivity and a blurring of the lines between our physical lives and our digital ones. To understand this completely, we have to go back to the start. The internet was born in the 60s when the U.S. military was searching for a way to communicate over some kind of connected network. This led to the creation of early computers for industry, but by the 70s and 80s personal computers started hitting the market.
As the 20th century came to a close, a Swiss researcher came up with the early version of the internet as we know it: the World Wide Web. This allowed users to visit webpages and find information online. In 1996, three years after the first web browser was developed, a 56k modem hit the market, allowing for surfing speeds of 56,000 bits per second—mind-bogglingly slow compared to today’s speeds. Top speeds now are around 1,000 megabits per second. At that speed, computers can download a 1GB file in half an hour (the 56k modem would take multiple days to do the same thing).
By the end of the 20th century, many homes had desktop computers that connected to the internet via dial-up’s loud beeps of varying pitches that relied on the existing telephone network (most millennials will remember these noises and the inability to use the landline if someone was online). In the early 2000s the use of hard-wired broadband internet rose exponentially: it offered higher speeds and relied on the same lines used for cable TV connections, freeing up the phone lines. Shortly after, a wireless connection—WiFi—rose in availability and popularity, and by 2007, the phones in our pockets—smartphones—were enabled with WiFi too. These developments in speed changed the way that people used the internet, because with faster speeds they could do more: load web pages and photos quickly and easily upload more robust content to their own sites. The first video streaming platform launched in the early 2000s, which allowed people to watch videos online, which was unheard of only a few years before.
Today, fiber is the fastest type of internet on the market. AT&T offers speeds up to 1Gig1 (1,000 Mbps) per second with 25x faster upload speeds than Cable2 using their 100% fiber network. These high speeds mean users can do things like upload and download files very quickly, back up a hard drive in minutes, or download a long movie in seconds3. Imagine a world where there’s no downtime when working with big files. Fiber offers consistently fast speeds even at peak hours4, so you can stream a movie with ease even if the whole neighborhood is doing the same thing.
2 - Comparison of Internet 1000 wired upload connection speed to Xfinity, Spectrum & COX 1Gig and 1.2Gig service with uploads of 35 Mbps. For more information, go to www.att.com/speed101.
Fiber also enables people to go beyond daily tasks and create things we don’t even know are possible yet. Fiber internet at AT&T comes with unlimited data and 24/7 protection against data threats to every connected device through AT&T ActiveArmorSM 5, so you can rest assured that you and your family’s information is safe, too.
So, what can we do with these faster speeds? The development of the metaverse and the broadening of our virtual worlds are directly tied to bandwidth. It enables us to both tell richer stories and build new worlds.
“Web 1.0 connected information and you got the internet. Web 2.0 connected people, and you got social media. Web 3.0 connects people, places, and things,” says Hackl. Right now we’re at the end of 2.0 and starting 3.0, she says. Like most of us, Hackl’s first concert was in a stadium. Her son’s first concert was in a video game, but that didn’t lessen his experience or make it less real to him. It was still his first concert. Our digital and physical worlds continue to blend together and the separation between them is decreasing, and neither is any less valid or any less real.
“This allows us to feel present and feel like we are making these memories directly rather than perceiving them from characters on a screen,” says Maximov. “I think that helps a great deal to make virtual worlds feel like real world experiences.” This type of experience is made possible by fiber internet. With 25x faster upload speeds, information can be passed back and forth so much faster with fiber. More bandwidth equals more possibilities, and a more robust metaverse.
As technology accelerates alongside connection speeds these toys of the past—like VR headsets—are becoming actual tools of the present. Using a fiber connection, Hackl puts on a wearable device to have holograms of her colleagues appear in her office where they can hold a meeting, even though they’re miles away from her. AT&T Fiber has over 99% reliability6, and with consistently fast speeds4 it means that Hackl can trust her workday to fiber. This makes us wonder, how can we look at current internet speeds and imagine how faster speeds and more bandwidth will enable us to build bigger, more elaborate worlds in the future?
“I think the thing that virtual worlds can allow us for is to live in someone’s world for a minute, walk in someone’s shoes,” says Maximov. In the future he knows that the key for virtual worlds to be compelling is that they’re executed in a way that’s both seamless and realistic. “Speed and the immediacy of the feedback is paramount to that.”
Nguyen agrees. “I don’t think it would be possible to do the kind of work we’re doing now with the internet speeds of five years ago,” says Nguyen. “And now, when fiber internet it’s really opened up the world we can build, they’re so much more complex, they’re more immersive, and they’re more interactive. And these are the things we can share now—from our own homes.” Thanks to the internet speeds of today, the worlds we can build today are infinitely more complex than even five or ten years ago. The progress that we can make progresses alongside bandwidth. Driving down latency—the time it takes for data to move from one place to another—is crucial to what we can create, says Maximov.
This is where the future lies: in building new worlds that you dream up in our own head, without the constraints of reality, but with all the benefits of reality: making real emotional connections, creating memories, learning, and growing.
Why do we need the metaverse and why does it matter? We know that the internet has changed how we live and how we interact with the world. And one of the many positive things the internet has done for society is that it has increased our ability to connect with other people. The metaverse takes that notion to the next level by enabling humans to experience more things, hear more stories, and thus gain new perspectives. The metaverse asks the question: Do I need to physically be somewhere to be there? Does my physical location make this real-time experience or memory or interaction any less real? Most experts say no, and therein lies the beauty of the metaverse: it’s limitless. The metaverse is the next iteration of the Internet and we’re looking at an early version of it right now.
So how can we imagine what it will look like years from now? What exactly are the possibilities of the metaverse?
Hackl says that the infrastructure to develop the metaverse in the future is crucial, and fiber internet is what is enabling this development. “The greater vision of the metaverse can only be enabled if we have low latency, great bandwidth, and lots of faster speeds,” she says. “That’s the only way we're going to get to that bigger vision of the metaverse, and that infrastructure to enable the future of the metaverse as we see it is being built today." Hackl is excited about what awaits future generations, and hopes it offers people a myriad of new ways to see the world.
“Words are great, pictures are great, but nothing beats experiencing it,” says Maximov. And with the future of the metaverse we can experience the far corners of the world and the people who live there even if we can’t afford it, and even if we don’t have the time to get there. “I think that’s where we’re headed and I can’t wait for that.”
With AT&T Fiber, we’re going to get there sooner than we think.
This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for AT&T Fiber.
1 - Internet speed claims represent maximum network service capability speeds and based on wired connection to gateway. 1GIG speeds avail. to new customers with BGW320 and correct setup. Actual customer speeds may vary based on a number of factors and are not guaranteed. For more information, go to www.att.com/speed101.
3 - Speed/Time examples are estimates and based on wired connection to gateway.
4 - Based on wired connection to gateway.
5 - Compatible Gateway and Smart Home Manager app required; security features must be enabled.
6 - Based on network availability.
