New Study Emphasizes the Need for Quality of “Personal” Experience Metrics to Ensure Profitability of Future 6G Services

WILMINGTON, Del., March 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — InterDigital, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDCC) and Omdia have released a joint study titled “Experience the Future of 6G: A New Direction for Telecom,” highlighting the need for a new quality of “personal” experience (QoPE) framework and metrics to measure the success of 6G-enabled services that will unlock new possibilities for users and operators alike.

The study draws on experiments conducted by students at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Institute, as well as interviews with a variety of potential 6G enterprise customers, service providers and other industry stakeholders. The study also reveals that future 6G services will be capable of engaging a diversity of human senses, including touch and spatial awareness, that will allow people to have fully immersive cyber-physical experiences. However, justifying the price tag of sensory-enriched services poses unique challenges for telecom operators and the industry at large unless the opportunity is fully understood.

“6G offers an exciting opportunity to embrace a more comprehensive user-centric service delivery path, providing a direct focus on quality of experience that really is the one true measure of service performance, ” said Jeffrey Metzger, Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships at InterDigital.

The study argues that current industry jargon is inadequate to illustrate to both service providers and consumers the potential for services that merge physical, digital, and virtual contexts, or the added value proposition sensory-enhanced services may provide. This new paradigm will be important for future immersive applications and enable service offerings for existing over-the-top experiences.

“6G shifts the focus of value creation from connectivity to delivering brilliant experiences,” said Omdia chief analyst and report author Camille Mendler. “However, if you can’t measure something, you can’t monetize it.”

The emergence of new technologies and increasing consumer expectations has made it crucial to move to a more user centric framework for providing and delivering services. 6G offers a unique opportunity to establish a telecommunication system that can guarantee exceptional and personalized user experiences, which will enable industry to develop services that directly address end-users’ needs, while also meeting technical performance specifications.

“What happens when improvements in latency and bandwidth are good enough, is that providing a high-quality experience to users will become even more crucial and require a shift in focus from the typical areas of concern for the telecom industry today,” added Donald Butts Sr, Director of Technology Strategy at InterDigital.

The study also identifies cognitive impact, physical safety, and enhanced privacy as important service-affecting issues for human customers and areas that could attract future regulatory oversight. The study recommends dedicated cross-domain dialogue to explore applicable metrics from other industries, potential testing methods, and operational approaches to support the commercialization of future 6G services. As the metaverse and other immersive applications mature, there will be a need for a QoPE to provide users with the best possible experience. Sensory driven metrics will become critical as networks start to shift from people-to-device networks to people-to-people networks. Those who focus on delivering a better experience will find new service opportunities in the future.

To read the whitepaper, Experience the Future of 6G: A New Direction for Telecom., please click here.

About InterDigital ^®

InterDigital develops mobile and video technologies that are at the core of devices, networks, and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry’s most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks, better video delivery, and richer multimedia experiences years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world’s leading technology companies. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on Nasdaq.

InterDigital is a registered trademark of InterDigital, Inc.

For more information, visit: www.InterDigital.com

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About Omdia

Omdia, part of Informa Tech, is a technology research and advisory group. Our deep knowledge of tech markets combined with our actionable insights empower organizations to make smart growth decisions.

For more information, visit: www.omdia.com

Omdia Contact: