Verizon and Korean Telecom (KT) have held what they say is the world's first live hologram international call over the two company's trial 5G networks.
The demonstration saw a KT employee in Seoul use a monitor in the firm's headquarters to converse with a live hologram of a Verizon employee in New Jersey.
As The Korea Herald reports, KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu met Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, to discuss the two companies partnering up on specific services.
McAdam said: “The collaboration under the current partnership of Verizon and KT has been very productive as shown by the demos we have seen today.
“We will continue to work together to lead the global 5G business by developing innovative technologies and services.”
5G networks promise to be 10 to 100 times faster than existing networks, which means they are the only networks that can be used to hold hologram calls.
The recent hologram call was apparently limited to a 3D image on a monitor, rather than being a Star-Wars style projected hologram.
But it's an exciting development that suggests holographic calling isn't too far away – though, we'll at least have to wait until 5G networks arrive in full.
Most estimates suggest 2020 as the year for an initial rollout of 5G network technology, but there has to be an agreed standard before that happens.
In other words, it'll be a while before we see holographic calls arriving, but work has already started on making them a reality.
KT is working on the holographic call as part of a set of 5G-based immersive media which also includes 360-degree Live VR.
A KT spokesperson told the Korea Herald that when "the 5G network is commercialized, 3-D hologram video calls will be available as one of the representative 5G-based services.
"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."
