Telefónica presents its commitment to the metaverse and will test payments with cryptocurrencies in the purchase of devices

The company announces alliances with Niantic (Pokemon Go) and Hellium and has a dozen specialized startups invested

MADRID, 29 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Telefónica has presented this Thursday in its 'Metaverse Day' its commitment to this technology and Web3 with the presentation of its alliances, investments and experiences designed for these fields, including a pilot to buy electronic devices with cryptocurrencies in its 'marketplace' Tu .com.

The pilot has been developed jointly with the Spanish 'exchange' Bit2Me and, as explained by the director of Telefónica's Digital Unit, Chema Alonso, in a meeting with the press, it will allow a user to pay with their cryptocurrencies in the web, which will immediately be changed to euros.

In this way, Telefónica will not guard cryptocurrencies, although Alonso has not ruled it out for the future. The pilot will be limited to purchases between 200 and 500 euros.

The manager has emphasized that it is a world "still incipient" in which Telefónica must accompany its clients in the transformation, but which still has a long way to go and technological challenges to overcome.

In addition, the company will launch its own NFT marketplace with a first collection by the artist Javier Mariscal whose funds will be donated to the World Vision Foundation to support the victims of the war in Ukraine.

The company has also reached an agreement with the literary publication Zenda to convert original works by authors such as writer Arturo Pérez Reverte into NFTs.

Likewise, the firm will also launch corporate services to support and develop projects for the implementation of web3 technologies, tokens or metaverse for companies. "Immersive experiences are going to be in all companies," the manager ventured.

Likewise, the company has launched its own application in the metaverse, which can be downloaded from the Oculus Quest (Meta) marketplace and will allow the virtual reality user to enjoy various experiences such as watching football, a virtual visit to the 'set' from the program 'La Resistencia' and a virtual reality activity related to the series 'La Unidad'.

The experience represents Telefónica's talent and innovation 'hub', recreated through Microsoft's AltSpace VR technology and will be open to both customers and non-customers and will allow, among others, to make calls from the metaverse.

This experience will be added to those developed by Telefónica for el Bulli, the Rafa Nadal Academy and Prosegur Movistar Alarmas.

Likewise, the director of Metaverse of Telefónica, Yaiza Rubio, has advanced that the company is working on recreating the Fundación Telefónica building in the metaverse to convert this virtual reality into a new broadcast channel for the events that take place in the iconic building on the Gran Vía in Madrid.

The Spanish company has woven a network of alliances to develop projects, services and technology for these universes. To the already announced alliances with Meta and Qualcomm, others have joined with Niantic, creators of the successful video game Pokemon GO, Unity and Altspace VR.

In the case of Niantic, both companies will develop augmented reality experiences and the potential of 5G and "edge computing" for the metaverse. Likewise, exclusive experiences and commercial actions focused on the video game of the anime series will be developed.

On the other hand, Telefónica will work together with Unity in the development of new web3 experiences using Telefónica's network capacity and its development tools. Thus, both companies will collaborate in the virtual reality graphics engine firm's laboratory to test network capacity and carry out joint initiatives for startups.

Likewise, the company also collaborates with the Helium network, which is creating a global network for connectivity through Internet of Things devices with 'hotpsots' placed by users. Both parties are working on a project in Latin America for the deployment of LoRaWAN networks in telephone towers and a laboratory test to expand Telefónica's network capabilities.