Virtual worlds to boost telcos

Having seen web 2.0 reduce them to transport pipes, telcos may yet have a chance to steal a march on other service providers with the advent of web 3.0 - a new era heralded by the arrival of virtual worlds such as Second Life.

The growing number of virtual world 'inhabitants' will mean the end of the web as we know it and the start of the "3D web" where telcos stand to cash in, according to Jeremy Godfrey, member of the management group at PA Consulting.

He told delegates at ITU Telecom World in Hong Kong: "There's a big revenue opportunity around bandwidth usage and quality of service that's required [to support virtual worlds]. It will be the first time we see lots of people needing high bandwidth on the uplink as well as the downlink."

He added that telcos could also stand to generate new revenues from hosting, development and consulting.

Godfrey believes that real world applications for virtual worlds will be developed from 2008, and around 12 months later a critical mass of users will be reached. "We'll know when it has arrived when there's a law suit," he said.

Second Life could become useful for enterprises by becoming a base for customer support for a company with staff located in China or India, he continued. Users needing support for consumer electronics could be guided through procedures by support staff using a 3D representation of their gadget, for example.

Godfrey said: "It reminds me of the web 10 years ago - you can see the potential... it's time to start experimenting."

The consultancy is already looking into new business applications in virtual worlds such as Second Life, where like many other enterprises, it has a virtual branch - in this case, though, all of the negotiations around building the virtual HQ have been done through avatars in Second Life itself.

Godfrey said: "It was done by someone paid in Linden dollars, whose real name we don't know and who looks like an enormous rabbit."