Carriers have long been wary of the loss of income to online voice calling applications such as WhatsApp and Skype, for example, accusing such services of "free riding."In response, the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus took steps to optimize their network usage by cutting video quality.Broadband operators are investing seismic sums of cash into their infrastructure to support next-generation 5G and fiber networks — 50 billion euros ($48.5 billion) a year, per one estimate.While overall revenues from mobile and fixed-line services are expected to climb 14% to 1.2 trillion euros in the next five years, telecoms services' monthly average revenue per user is forecast to slip 4% over the same period, according to market research firm Omdia.Meanwhile, the push toward the "metaverse," a hypothetical network of huge 3D virtual environments, has both excited telcos about the business potential and caused trepidation over the mammoth data required to power such worlds."