SK Telecom, UAE telecom giant e& sign MOU to promote joint metaverse project

e& life CEO Khalifa Al Shamsi, left, and SK Telecom Chief Development Officer Ha Min-yong shake hands after signing a memorandum of understanding at the e& headquarters in Dubai on Wednesday. [SK TELECOM]

SK Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with UAE telecom giant e& to jointly promote a metaverse project in the Middle East region, the company announced Wednesday.

e& is a global ICT company that provides telecommunications services to 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa and changed its name from Etisalat to e& as it reorganized its corporate structure this year.

Through the MOU, SK Telecom and e& agreed to jointly promote a metaverse project in major countries where e& provides telecommunications services, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

To this end, e& will provide SK Telecom with information and insight on customer analysis, business model development and service delivery methods, and SK Telecom will use this to optimally meet the needs of customers in the Middle East.

This could include making a city or building that represents the UAE into a virtual space within the metaverse, or developing and providing digital costumes and exclusive avatars that reflect the culture of the Middle East.

SK Telecom and e& have additionally entered into a market research consultation to understand the characteristics of consumers in the Middle East, according to SK Telecom. The two companies plan to analyze the experience and usage behavior of subscribers of e&’s telecommunications service and verify the marketability of their metaverse service based on the results.

As the first step of this cooperation, SK Telecom and e& are operating a shared metaverse booth at the Gitex Global 2022 held at the Dubai World Trade Center, which kicked off on Monday.

“This partnership with SK Telecom is a significant step forward for e&,” said e& life CEO Khalifa Al Shamsi. “It will be the starting point of a new journey for our customers to build innovative virtual worlds through the metaverse that they have never experienced before.”

“We will explore new possibilities of the metaverse through this new partnership with e&,” said Ha Min-yong, chief development officer of SK Telecom. “We will continue comprehensive cooperation in various ICT fields with e& in the future.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]