Verizon and Motorola Mobility moved to make VR devices more user-friendly by offloading some of the heavy lifting to a neck collar, seeking to push the products into the mainstream beyond a traditionally gaming-focused market.

The US operator and Lenovo-owned device maker unveiled a hands-free, plug-and-play 5G XR device they stated would allow headset makers to move connectivity, processing and batteries to the wearable collar to make VR and AR head displays lighter and more comfortable.

Motorola stated the wearable can deliver high bandwidth, ultra-low latency connectivity by tapping Verizon’s ultra-wideband 5G network and mobile edge compute (MEC) platform.

The neckband runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform and is currently paired with Motorola AR smart glasses, but it could also work with a range of wearables.

While the neckband could help fuel widespread adoption of AR and VR, for Verizon the key benefit is in providing value around its 5G service and MEC platform as it seeks to recoup massive investments in spectrum and infrastructure.