Telefonica and Nokia teamed with a university in Spain to launch what they claimed is the first 5G holographic laboratory in the country, designed to develop and test technology use cases.

In a statement, the Spanish operator explained it will work with Nokia to deploy standalone and non-standalone 5G in the 26GHz band at the laboratory based in the Valencia Polytechnic University, with the aim of using the facility as a major testbed for private and public entities.

It will look to develop a range of holographic use cases, including using the technology for teaching and entertainment purposes, along with immersive video conferencing using “hyper-realistic” 3D avatars.

Telefonica will provide support for the operation of the network, including the design and development of real-time 3D holograms, and 5G cloud and edge computing infrastructure for immersive content transmissions.

The 5G equipment for the holographic studio was provided by Nokia. 

Furthermore, the University’s telecommunications and multimedia institute will assemble a research team to explore the use of the technology in the academic field and “to design the holographic communications of the future”. 

The launch of the holographic studio was financed by the Spanish government and the European Commission, backing a wider R&D programme to advance 5G and 6G networks.