AKA Schrodinger's Hype
Quantum hype will continue to appear in the news and advertising as if it were here already, and although it's not really "here", it sure is somewhere:
Researchers demonstrate the UK's first long-distance ultra-secure communication over a quantum network
Apr 2025, phys.org
Lists all the other quantum networks:
- China recently set up a massive network that covers 4,600 kilometers by connecting five cities using both fiberoptics and satellites. (more details on this one below)
- In Madrid, researchers created a smaller network with nine connection points that use different types of QKD to securely share information.
- In 2019, researchers at Cambridge and Toshiba demonstrated a metro scale quantum network operating at record key rates of millions of key bits per second.
- In 2020, researchers in Bristol built a network that could share entanglement between multiple users.
- Similar quantum network trials have been demonstrated in Singapore, Italy and the U.S.
- And now, from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge and the Quantum Communications Hub project have created a long-distance network that can handle both types of QKD, entanglement distribution, and regular data transmission all at once.
via Universities of Bristol and Cambridge: R. Yang et al. A UK Nationwide Heterogeneous Quantum Network. Paper presented at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC):
Image credit: AI Art - Woman Yelling Into a Telephone - 2024
Intercontinental!
World's first quantum microsatellite demonstrates secure communication with multiple ground stations
Mar 2025, phys.org
The team successfully launched Jinan-1, the world's first quantum microsatellite, on July 27, 2022. Additionally, the team developed compact optical ground stations in Jinan, Hefei, Nanshan, Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, in China, and Stellenbosch in South Africa. The satellite transmitted approximately 250 million quantum photons per second. For each satellite pass, the system generated up to 1 Mbits of secure keys. Using the satellite as a trusted relay, the team demonstrated successful secure key sharing and encrypted communication between Beijing and Stellenbosch—two cities separated by 12,900 km.
via University of Science and Technology of China, Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Stellenbosch University of South Africa: Yang Li et al, Microsatellite-based real-time quantum key distribution, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08739-z
This one uses regular telecom infrastructures:
Quantum messages travel 254 km using existing infrastructure for the first time
Apr 2025, phys.org
Their system uses a coherence-based twin-field quantum key distribution deployed over three telecommunication data centers in Germany (Frankfurt, Kehl and Kirchfeld), connected by 254 km of commercial optical fiber.
via Germany: Mirko Pittaluga et al, Long-distance coherent quantum communications in deployed telecom networks, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08801-w
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