"5G New Call" will become a new entrance to the Metaverse?

Original text: China Electronics News

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI‌

There are various signs that 5G is not only a revolution in information technology, but also a new revolution in the field of calls, so there is the current "5G new call". Recently, telecom operators have expressed their views that more new functions of "5G New Call" will be available to you in the second half of this year, and whether it is for commercial or private use, there will be "qualitative changes" in the new call application. What do people know about the upcoming new features of "5G New Calling"? How will it change the way people talk?

What is "5G New Call"?

In the future, "5G New Call" will mainly introduce AI and computing power into the original network, provide users with a new experience of multimedia, visualization, and full interaction, inject new vitality into the development of 5G, and innovate the traditional way of calling. Compared with traditional calls, "5G New Calls" are "faster, clearer, smarter and wider", allowing users to experience a new call experience.

"5G New Call" provides a series of innovative applications and innovative call services, such as 5GVoNR ultra-clear calls, intelligent translation (Chinese and English real-time translation, voice to large characters, etc.), fun calls, intelligent customer service, content sharing, remote assistance and other functions , to bring users a multimedia, visual, and fully interactive call experience. At the "5G New Call Industry Development Forum" held a few days ago, a number of operators and enterprises tried to combine the latest "5G New Call" business with the popular artificial intelligence and virtual reality to enter the world of the metaverse.

Zhou Wenjun, general manager of China Telecom's value-added service operation center, said that AI technology is an important capability engine for the development of "5G new call" business, and the large model is the basis of new call. China Telecom adapts to various scenarios through the training capability of minimizing the amount of data of the large model, promotes the popularization of applications, and actively explores a win-win business model.

Operators hunting for "5G new calls"

Call service is the most important and core basic business of telecom operators, and has indispensable commercial and social value. Therefore, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Radio and Television Network recently held the "5G New Call" industry At the development forum, they all expressed their great importance to the "5G new call" service.

Bian Yannan, deputy general manager of the planning and construction department of China Mobile Communications Group, said that from analog voice in the 1980s, digital voice in the 1990s, to the Internet of Everything in the 5G era, voice services are constantly upgrading. In the 5G era, the demand for scenario-based and personalized communication is becoming more and more abundant. The needs of individual users for efficient communication and collaboration, the needs of young users for fun and fun, and the needs of elderly users for family interaction and remote assistance, and the needs of government and enterprise users for visibility and credibility The demand for safe and efficient real-time communication has put forward higher expectations for the communication network, driving the continuous development of the communication network. The new call brings new experience. Compared with the traditional call, the new call superimposes three new capabilities of ultra-clear, intelligent, and interactive on the audio and video network, and introduces new content including emoticons, subtitles, translation, XR, AI, etc., for personal Provide a new experience of interesting real-time interaction for various users such as governments and enterprises.

Chang Jian, deputy general manager of Unicom Online Information Technology Co., Ltd., said: "The ultimate mission of New Call and New Communication is to march into the Metaverse. Now everyone finds that the Metaverse lacks a 'soul'. We think the concept of the Metaverse is correct, but the Metaverse The entrance to the metaverse is a problem. The traditional method of entering the metaverse through VR has a shortcoming, that is, the VR helmet is too heavy. Entering the metaverse through a smart terminal is our dream.”

Entering the Metaverse

To create an ideal "5G new call" product, combine AI and virtual reality, and even enter the metaverse, not only does it require operators to invest in technology research and development and find breakthroughs in technical difficulties, but also requires smart terminal companies and technology companies to jointly study and cooperate with each other . Chang Jian said that in the process of exploring the combination of "5G new calls" and the metaverse, China Unicom is focusing on the consumer-grade metaverse, opening up all digital human capabilities to the new communication sector, and each user can conveniently make personal The "digital man". It is reported that China Unicom has completed the internal launch of this service, and plans to promote it to the market at an appropriate time.

At the 2023 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day Conference, China Unicom explained its plan to enter the Metaverse. China Unicom combines 5G+AI+XR application capabilities with pan-terminals, from visualization to interaction, to immersive experience, and finally to the evolution of metaverse communication. On the one hand, Metaverse Communication can realize one number, one entrance, and dial-up service based on the call number; Create a new communication experience in the metaverse space.

At the conference, Liu Pingping, general manager of the new call product line of iFLYTEK’s operator business department, said that in the future, the “new call” channel will flow data, and the two ends of the channel will be living people. In order to provide these people with personalized Service requires very good processing of data, and it needs to rely on AI. HKUST Xunfei’s new call is to use AI technology to illuminate the call pipe and turn it into a smart pipe. Smart pipe is also one of the key connotations of the new call.

New calls combined with AI will lead the new future of the digital economy

The new call upgrades the call form from the initial call and multimedia communication to multi-scenario communication with superimposed intelligence and interactive capabilities. The new call enables the communication between people to realize the extension of the senses, and there is unlimited room for imagination in all walks of life and various scenes.

In the new call product system, AI can be empowered in at least two areas, namely the field of human-to-human dialogue and human-machine dialogue. This part of everyone's dialogue can be introduced into a large model. The new call can automatically generate conversation minutes and to-do items based on the content of the call, making every job and business call more efficient. HKUST Xunfei is creating a new intelligent assistant in the call, which can give suggestions at any time during the chatting process. This is the first time in the industry that the intelligent voice assistant has been introduced into the call scene.

In the part of man-machine dialogue, in voice assistant products, functions such as speech recognition, semantic understanding, and emotion recognition are integrated into the digital human, which can support intent recognition in more than 300 scenarios. Whether it is express delivery, advertising marketing, or invitation to acquaintances, it can all interact intelligently. Through the application of such core technology, the current users have reached more than 40%. The large model will support users to generate personalized virtual IP, which can quickly generate exclusive timbre and emotion based on limited data, and make the dialogue more natural and richer in emotion. Since all missed calls contain very strong intentions, AI will also support the automatic generation of summaries of language content and provide users with follow-up service suggestions. For operators, on-hook is no longer the end of a period of service, but the beginning of a more intelligent service.

According to a poll in the United States in May this year, ChatGPT has reached a 50% awareness rate in the United States in just six months, and a usage rate of nearly 20% of the population. This data is equivalent to 300 million users in China. The main body of the new call is the dialogue, that is, Chat.

Bian Yannan said that China Mobile relies on the rich resources of Mobile Cloud in terms of new call services, and deploys service ASs in China Mobile's Internet base. In the first phase of the project, in addition to introducing Introduce high-quality applications from partners such as HKUST Xunfei and Xinxun. In the future, China Mobile will continue to introduce innovative applications from other partners to jointly create an intelligent, flexible and rich business system.