By Cyber Era NG Special Correspondent

Operators including CMCC, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI Corporation, NTT QONOQ, T-Mobile, Telefonica, and Vodafone are working with Qualcomm on new XR devices, experiences, and developer initiatives with Snapdragon Spaces at the forefront.

At Mobile World Congress, KDDI Corporation and Qualcomm announced a multi-year collaboration, focused on the expansion of XR use cases and creation of a developer program in Japan.

OEMs leveraging Snapdragon XR technology are designing a new wave of devices for operators and beyond including Xiaomi Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition, and OPPO’s new Mixed Reality device and OnePlus 11 5G smartphone, which are both Snapdragon Spaces Ready.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. shared broad operator traction around the enablement and expansion of extended reality (XR) today at Mobile World Congress. Operators are leading a variety of investments around XR, and are using the cross-device and open ecosystem Snapdragon Spaces™ XR Developer Platform as the foundation. Global operators are helping to define Snapdragon Spaces device requirements and compatibility that will give customers more options to: wirelessly tether smartphones and glasses, champion these technologies on their networks, and launch regional developer programmes that pioneer innovative headworn augmented reality (AR) experiences.

Expanding the current XR hardware offerings, multiple OEMs unveiled new devices powered by Snapdragon technologies and developer platforms. Xiaomi revealed its new Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition powered by the Snapdragon® XR2 Platform. OPPO confirmed a new mixed reality (MR) device that is Snapdragon Spaces Ready alongside its OnePlus 11 5G — which is the first Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 device to be approved as Snapdragon Spaces Ready and will enable developers to bring headworn AR ideas to life.

Diving deeper into the operator landscape, analyst firm CCS Insight revealed its first-ever white paper ‘The Operator Opportunity: VR, AR and the Metaverse’ which features inventive XR insight from Qualcomm Technologies and leading global operators. Download the full white paper here.

Operators Quotes from CMCC, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI Corporation, NTT QONOQ, T-Mobile, Telefonica, and Vodafone:

CMCC: “With a series of Metaverse innovations, China Mobile is fully investing in the Metaverse and XR, implementing our strategy of both excellence in software and in hardware technology,” said general manager, technology department, China Mobile Communication Group Device Company, Cui Fang,. “We have a long-standing collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies in XR actively promoting the development of the industry and working together to solve industrial challenges. We look forward to working together in building the developer ecosystem using Snapdragon Spaces to empower the growth of the overall XR industry ecosystem.”

Deutsche Telekom: “Qualcomm Technologies and Deutsche Telekom together with T-Mobile US teamed up two years ago on Snapdragon Spaces. Our tech incubator hubraum in Berlin ran an accelerator programme to prove how relevant Snapdragon Spaces is for developers and creators from around the world – the results from the final teams were amazing!” said Senior Vice President Group Partnering and Devices, Deutsche Telekom, Sean Seaton. “Innovative XR use cases require our superior 5G networks to create an even better user experience. We are excited to enter the next phase by leveraging our unique assets in entertainment as well as our enterprise solutions for the benefit of our customers.”

KDDI: “As a telecommunications operator, we have very high expectations for the use of XR because it will provide new customer experiences and contribute to our main business, increasing data volume. However, since the service will not scale if the development environment differs for each device, we understand that the Snapdragon Spaces platform, which solves this issue, will encourage practical business use of XR, and we support it,” said General manager of XR Development Department, KDDI,  Katsuhiro Kozuki. “We are also in the process of porting our own guide service, ‘au Visual Guide (note: au is KDDI’s mobile brand name),’ to work on Snapdragon Spaces-enabled devices. We will also share the importance of a common platform with AR glasses manufacturers who are planning to release AR glasses in the future and propose the adoption of Snapdragon Spaces.”

NTT QONOQ: “NTT QONOQ was founded Oct 2022 to drive XR business development. XR devices will be fundamental to our value proposition, and we are thrilled to be working together with Qualcomm Technologies and Snapdragon Spaces in this new frontier,” said Executive Vice President, NTT QONOQ, Inc, Mikio Iwamura, Ph.D.,.

T-Mobile: “XR, paired with 5G, is poised to unleash a massive wave of new innovative applications for consumers and businesses alike,” said EVP of Advanced and Emerging Technologies at T-Mobile, John Saw. “As the lead North America 5G launch partner for Snapdragon Spaces, we are honored to work with Qualcomm Technologies and others to continue fueling the advancement of XR on our industry-leading 5G network.”

Telefonica: “We announced our multiyear XR collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies in September and have already built a strong collaboration around Snapdragon Spaces, whose industry wide adoption is paramount to build an open interoperable ecosystem. We have done significant progress over this period working within our Open Innovation programmes, 42 Academy and our XR Experience Centre.  We look forward to collectively accelerating the development of the XR ecosystem over the coming years based as a foundation on this strategic programme, leveraging our 5G and Cloud Computing infrastructure, and bringing the best XR hardware and services to our consumer and B2B customers”, said  Vice President, Group Devices Unit & Consumer IoT, Telefonica, Daniel Hernandez.

Vodafone: “Snapdragon Spaces has enabled Vodafone to make quick strides to deliver real-world, headworn XR solutions to our customers. Our GigaAR Stage is a prime example, and we will continue to push the boundaries of XR in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies,” said CIO/IT-Director, Vodafone Germany, Ulrich Irnich.