Verizon is an expert at building better networks in hard-to-reach places. We created the first mobile network in Minecraft by making a phone that connects to the real world without leaving the game. Thanks to Verizon, Minecraft players can use video game cell phones to connect with the real world. They can video chat with real friends, send selfies, browse the web, and even order pizza, all without leaving the game.

In the world of Minecraft, almost everything is made of blocks. So we wrote code that translates real-world things like web pages, streaming video, and photos into blocks so they can be built in the world of Minecraft in real time. This system made it possible for influential Minecraft YouTube stars to use a cell phone made of blocks to do things you’d normally do with a real cell phone. They made video calls to friends in the real world, browsed the web, sent selfies, and even ordered pizza without leaving the game. By creating demo videos of the network in action, they reached a huge audience of fans on YouTube.

YouTube stars CaptainSparklez and SethBling released demos showing the capabilities of the Verizon network in Minecraft and earned over 6 million views and 36 million social impressions without paid media support. Their videos got coverage online on Mashable, Kotaku, IGN, Forbes.com, and more. Our videos made their way to the front page of Reddit’s /r/videos, gathering 8,000 upvotes and 1,300 comments. The open-source project powering the whole thing gathered attention from developers, making it to the front page of Hacker News.

We set out to demonstrate the spirit of “Better matters” in a fun, human way. Extending the Verizon network into Minecraft shows that Verizon is not just a better network—it’s a fun and innovative network. We worked with trusted influencers in the Minecraft community, relying on them to bring personality and authenticity to the story. They used our virtual Verizon network to do awesome things in Minecraft, filmed it, and shared with their fans, reaching a huge audience of millennial gamers and techies. In order to definitively prove the authenticity of the films, we open-sourced the code to developers around the world on GitHub.

The culture of Minecraft invites collaboration and innovation. It’s a virtual sandbox where players can build nearly anything they can think of out of blocks. The game is easily modified to add new features, so it provided an ideal format for extending the Verizon network beyond the real world and into a virtual world. Also, it’s hugely popular, with over 100 million players around the world and a vibrant community on YouTube where the best players show off their creations.