Nearly four-in-five business professionals (78%) say they are ready for the metaverse, according to a new study commissioned by telecom equipment manufacturer Ciena and conducted by Censuswide. Additionally, nearly all (96%) of those surveyed said they see the value of virtual meetings.

Yet more than a third (38%) cited poor network connections as the main reason their organizations hadn’t gone further in embracing the metaverse at this time.

The top two benefits of virtual meetings, according to the survey are improved collaboration and convenience. A little more than a third (35%) of those surveyed said they would choose an avatar that reflects their real-world self, 22% would choose an idealistic version and 10% would pick a pop culture figure.

“Clearly, the business world is ready to move to the metaverse and start using more immersive virtual environments for collaboration and innovation,” said Steve Alexander, Ciena senior vice president and chief technology officer, in a prepared statement. “Network reliability may be seen as a barrier to making this possible today, but service providers know the demand is there and are already investing and testing to make networks faster [and] smarter and bring them closer to the user.”

The survey also found that 71% of professionals can see the metaverse becoming part of existing work practices, while 40% think their business will move away from traditional/static collaboration environments to more immersive and virtual reality-based platforms in the next two years.

However, there are still barriers to widespread metaverse adoption, including network reliability and the belief that immersive platforms are not yet widely available.