Taking the metaverse from concept to reality means a myriad of technological challenges for operators and vendors alike, but during a panel at this year’s MWC Las Vegas event, IEEE Senior Member David Witkowski, addressed the potential impacts the technology may have on the already pervasive digital divide. 

The "Building Metaverse-Ready Networks" session mainly focused on network capacity, latency challenges, and the expensive densification process needed to deploy such a demanding technology. Witkowski, however, aimed to guide the dialogue into a deeper cultural and behavioral look into how two-sided deployment barriers – both from public and private sectors – keep technologies as innovative as the metaverse and as current as 5G from being a tool for equity.

“The problem that we have in the wireless industry is that we’re perpetually inventing new things, and then expecting the public to accept them,” Witkowski explained in an interview with SDxCentral.

In order to close the digital divide, he believes increasing access, affordability, and adoption all rely on the deployment of infrastructure, including 5G cell sites. “If you don't have a [cell] site for the metaverse in a poor neighborhood, then [they]'re gonna miss out on all those opportunities.”

“That’s what worries me about the metaverse,” he continued. “We are going to create islands of opportunity. We’re going to create a bigger digital divide."

Bridging the digital divide in the U.S. is one of the key elements of The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill which set aside $65 billion to deliver broadband infrastructure and price breaks for services to underserved and unserved areas. However, Witkowski says that challenges remain because "local governments are not staffed to do telecom."

When a government agency doesn't a have network engineering expert on staff, IEEE members like Witkowski travel to the location to assist with installations — and end up addressing a myriad of concerns from residents. He said people ask: “What is 5G? Why is it important? Why is this company asking me to put this thing in the middle of our town square? Is it gonna hurt us?”

The last question stood as a paradigm to a greater issue. Witkowski constantly spends time trying to ensure trust and tame the anxieties of local governments while also coping with technology design models that won’t be accepted by a city's individual zoning laws and guidelines. This isn’t a new challenge.

For example, when it came to 4G small cell deployment, “the industry made a bunch of mistakes,” he explained. “I had just gone through a series of hearings where equipment was rejected because it didn't meet guidelines. And the industry was like, we didn't know that there were guidelines.”

This perpetual cycle of developing and deploying new technologies without an understanding of barriers around local guidelines may prevent the metaverse from being used equitably, he said. 

Within the battle of convincing local governments why 5G is important is a sub-battle of convincing residents why they should want the technology in their towns and cities. “I can tell you that that is going to be challenging,” Witkowski said. “New technologies happen to be one of the things that people have a lot of anxiety about.” 

“I've been in the industry long enough to remember when before cellular, they were afraid of radio towers," he said.

In the case of the metaverse, the perpetual cycle of new technologies without the industry's foresight of implementation barriers may indeed burden the metaverse from being used equitably — and ultimately create a bigger digital divide.