Korean Telecom and Verizon Just Made the First Ever International Hologram Call

April 5, 2017

Hologram technology might sound like the stuff of science fiction, like Princess Leia in “Episode IV – A New Hope”, but technology is very quickly making that possible.

Verizon and Korean Telecom joined forces on Monday to demonstrate what the companies call the world’s first live hologram call over their 5G trial networks, according to the Korea Herald.

The demonstration call between Verizon and Korean Telecom featured two employees from both companies who appeared on each other’s monitors as 3-D hologram images.

Verizon’s employee was in New Jersey, while Korean Telecom’s was in Seoul, where KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu met Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam.

Although it wasn’t exactly R2-D2 revealing a hologram of Princess Leia to Luke Skywalker, KT is still developing the live call as its flagship 5G-based immersive media services that include Sync View, 360-degree Live VR and Omni-View service.

“If the 5G network is commercialized, 3-D hologram video calls will be available as one of the representative 5G-based services,” according to a Korean Telecom spokesperson. “Through a complete hologram video call, users will be able to meet a person in a remote area in a real size in real time.”

International hologram calls require high data speeds, massive traffic volume and low latencies and on a worldwide scale, the South Korean company said, so it’s only available on on 5G network speeds.

This service will supposedly make an appearance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea, according to CNET.

The idea of holographic 3D video was circulating as early as 2014, when several companies said they were working to bring the technology to mobile phones within the next few years.

“Neither one company nor one country alone can commercialize 5G by itself, let alone by 2019,” Korean Telecom’s Hwang said. “Therefore, collaboration, like what we have with Verizon, is all the more important in order to establish the global 5G mobile ecosystem.”

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