SK Telecom, Deutsche Telekom forge metaverse alliance

South Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom said Sunday it has inked a strategic alliance with German counterpart Deutsche Telekom to bring its metaverse platform to European market.

SK Telecom said in a statement the two companies will carry out a field test for metaverse operation in Europe before the end of 2022, create contents that work on the virtual world and implement a marketing for metaverse migration in Europe. SK Telecom premiered an international version of its own ifland metaverse platform in March during the Mobile World Congress 2022.

As part of the long-term plan, SK Telecom said the company and Deutsche Telekom are considering establishing a joint venture in Germany, in order to find more European telecommunication partners. Also, Deutsche Telekom is likely to design a virtual space on ifland platform, emulating a German city, under the strategic partnership.

Alongside metaverse, Deutsche Telekom will collaborate with SK Telecom’s sister company SK Square in the field of cybersecurity and mobile app marketplace.

SK Square owns a stake in cybersecurity firm SK Shieldus and app marketplace operator One Store. The companies are looking to join forces with couterparts under the umbrella of Deutsche Telekom for their respective expansion to Europe, according to the company.

These ideas were discussed during a meeting of representatives from SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, which took place on Thursday at Deutsche Telekom headquarters in Bonn, western Germany. Attending the meeting were SK Square Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho, SK Telecom Chief Executive Officer Ryu Young-sang, Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hottges and Claudia Nemat, board member for technology and innovation at Deutsche Telekom.

This is the latest development of the strategic partnership between the two companies. In January 2021, SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom founded a 50:50 joint venture Techmaker dedicated to 5G indoor wireless technology. SK Telecom in June 2019 committed $30 million to Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, an investment arm of the German firm.

(consnow@heraldcorp.com)