Verizon, Orange, and Chunghwa Telecom participated.
XR Alliance expands to 10 member companies
First project to be completed within the year, second project underway


LG Uplus announced on the 10th that the largest telecommunications companies in each country, Verizon in the US, Orange in France, and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, will join the 5G content alliance 'XR Alliance (Global XR Content Telco Alliance)'.

XR stands for eXtended Reality, which encompasses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), and is expected to be a key content in the 5G era.

Research and Markets forecasts that the AR/VR technology market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.3% to reach $7.76 billion (approximately 8.86 trillion won) by 2026. PwC also forecasts that the AR/VR market, which reached $46.4 billion (approximately 51 trillion won) in 2019, will grow more than 30-fold to $1.5 trillion (approximately 1,678 trillion won) by 2030.

The XR Alliance is a global 5G content consortium launched in September of last year. Its inaugural chairman is LG Uplus. With this addition, the number of alliance members increases to 10, joining Qualcomm Technologies, Bell Canada, KDDI, China Telecom, Felix & Paul Studios, and Atlas Five.

The XR Alliance is currently planning its second project. First, it will review upcoming content in the world-renowned performing arts, fairy tales, and animation sectors. The XR Alliance will hold regular meetings to select content to be produced and provided. Once member companies decide on content for which they will invest or secure advance copyrights, they will formalize the project.

The XR Alliance plans to simultaneously release the second episode of its first project, "Space Explorers: The ISS Experience," set aboard the International Space Station (ISS), globally in March. The third and fourth episodes, which will explore the real world outside the station, have already begun filming and are scheduled for release later this year.

“For XR content to become popular, we need high-quality killer content that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, like blockbuster movies,” said Choi Yoon-ho, executive director in charge of LG Uplus’ 5G service business. “The XR Alliance has the cost and technological foundation to produce such high-quality, realistic media.”