Online retailers that want to take advantage of the hottest technologies such as virtual reality, need to consider the wireless carrier network consumers are on.
Wayfair LLC, Ikea, and eBay Inc. are experimenting with virtual reality shopping experiences, but no shopper is going to use it if their device can’t power the experience.
With burgeoning technologies like virtual reality and more everyday objects connecting to the Internet of Things, mobile carriers know they need to amp up their transmission speeds and increase capacity of their networks.
Sprint Corp. invested $150 million in infrastructure, hired 1,000 employees and opened 200 stores in Chicago over the past 14 months to develop a faster network it is calling LTE Plus. LTE Plus offers faster speeds and more capacity, says Sprint chief operating officer, Günther Ottendorfer. The wireless network carrier demonstrated how fast the network is in conjunction with device manufacturer Samsung Electronics America Inc. in Chicago this week.
Peak capacity on LTE Plus reaches more than 230 megabits per second, which is two times faster than what the carrier currently offers at 100 Mbps. More capacity allows the network to be more reliable, Ottendorfer says. Sprint developed the LTE Plus network over the last 10 months.
Sprint is currently testing the network and several newer Samsung devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note7, Galaxy S7, and Galaxy S7 edge, all of which are compatible to use it. Once Sprint is finished testing, it will make the network live on its backend, and push it out to consumers as a part of the next software upgrade.
Fast internet connection speeds are essential for virtual reality system in order to produce a convincing real-life experience. At the demonstration, attendees tried out several virtual experiences on Samsung Virtual Reality Gear headsets that connected to the LTE Plus network. Attendees toured a haunted house, rode a roller coaster and saw a glimpse inside the movie “The Jungle Book.” Besides the fact that I don’t ride roller coasters (I’m a wimp) and if I saw a giant gorilla behind me I’d run (I was instructed to stay seated with the headset on), the virtual reality experience was pretty life like! Compared to other virtual reality experiences I tried through Google Cardboard, this was more immersive.
“With these headsets you will get a glimpse into the virtual reality future that will be possible when we have LTE Plus deployed,” Ottendorfer says.
The LTE plus network is also an important building block to 5G, Ottendorfer says. 5G, or fifth-generation, is the next evolution of wireless technology, picking up where 4G left off. However, not much else about 5G has been defined.
While the everyday online shopper may not need these fast speeds now, Sprint is confident if they build it, applications and consumers will show up to use it, Ottendorfer says.
“This is where the future of data traffic is going,” Ottendorfer says. “The applications need these high speeds and high capacity networks are becoming more common place and we are today getting ready for this.”
