Kathy Gibson is at Mobile World Congress 2022 – As the physical and virtual worlds continue to merge, 5G is key to truly unleashing new consumer experiences.

The mobility industry in general, and 5G in particular, were set back during the Covid-19 pandemic as people stayed home.

But Karine Dussert-Sarthe, executive vice-president: marketing and design at Orange Innovation Group, believes 5G is the lever that will serve to converge the physical and real world.

Immersive technologies are very much on the tech agenda, so the speed of 5G – up to four times faster than 4G – is going to be key.

“5G will lift today’s physical and digital world limitation to allow more natural human behaviour and interactions, and give users the ability to better express their emotions.”

Bringing this immersive new world to reality will require that telcos and service providers work together, with 72% of companies saying they expect their operator to provide the necessary 5G support.

“It’s not an easy thing to do,” Dussert-Sarthe says. “But every telco in the world has had this conversation because there is a lot that needs to be done.”

Orange asked its customers what they think about the metaverse and found a high rate of acceptance to either work or entertain in the metaverse.

“So the expectations are very high,” Dussert-Sarthe says. “It will take a good number of years to make it happen, but with that level of expectation from customers there is plenty of work that we have to do.”