A new fibre-optic cable will connect the UK’s national quantum network to the telecoms industry cluster at Adastral Park, Suffolk, giving companies direct access to quantum-encrypted data services. Today’s secure communications systems have weaknesses that can be exploited now or in the future as computing power grows. Quantum key distribution (QKD) eliminates those vulnerabilities by using the laws of physics—specifically quantum uncertainty—to generate cryptographic keys that cannot be intercepted without detection. This project, UKQNtel, extends the UK Quantum Network (UKQN) to BT’s research site and the surrounding telecoms cluster, allowing companies to trial QKD and quantum-encrypted services over a real network. If successful, the project will accelerate the commercial readiness of quantum communications and create a testbed where telecoms firms can develop and demonstrate quantum-secure products. This matters for the infrastructure that quietly underpins daily life: financial transactions, government communications, healthcare data, and industrial control systems all rely on encryption that quantum methods can make fundamentally unbreakable. UKQNtel also complements existing user-engagement efforts in Bristol and Cambridge, building a national ecosystem that spans consumers, small businesses, and large telecoms operators.
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Quantum communications technologies are new, disruptive technologies that can outperform what we use today, by providing security based upon the laws of physics. Current prototypes employ quantum uncertainty and randomness for security, and next-generation technologies may well use the even weirder and counter-intuitive feature of entanglement. Information security is absolutely essential everywhere today - for individuals, institutions, businesses, governments and nations. Current secure communications systems have some vulnerabilities, some at risk now and others that may be exposed in the future, as computing power and hacking techniques improve. Secure communications based on quantum physics can eliminate some of these vulnerabilities, providing systems whose security is underpinned by the laws of Nature, for example providing for the secure distribution of cryptographic keys. Through EPSRC, the UK government is investing heavily in development across a spectrum of new quantum technologies, of which communications form a part. The Quantum Communications Hub is funded to develop current quantum key distribution (QKD) prototypes through to commercial readiness and to turn next-generation quantum communications demonstrations into prototype technologies. The aim is: - to develop short-range, low cost QKD for mobile devices such as 'phones; - to develop chip-scale QKD modules, for ease of manufacture and widespread and versatile deployment; - to investigate new directions in quantum communications, going beyond simple QKD, for example to quantum versions of digital signatures for signing electronic messages or documents; - to demonstrate QKD over networks and its integration with conventional communications. The new project UKQNtel builds on the last of these directions. It will connect BT Research and the major ICT and telecommunications cluster at Adastral Park, Martlesham, to the UK Quantum Network (UKQN) being built by the Quantum Communications Hub. This will enable new and direct collaborations between companies at Adastral Park and the Hub partners, accelerating innovation. It will offer QKD and trial quantum-encrypted data services to a large cluster of companies in the very important telecommunications sector. It will enable major Showcase and Demonstration events for quantum technologies, utilizing the outstanding facilities at Adastral Park. There is great potential for the UK to become a world-leader in the new quantum communications technologies and services arena - for individuals, institutions, businesses and government. In addition to the development of the technologies, it is vital to engage early across the whole spectrum of end-users, to generate "market pull". UKQNtel will crucially enable this early user engagement for the telecommunications and large business sector at Adastral Park. This will complement the consumer engagement in Bristol and the SME engagement on Cambridge Science Park already being pursued by the Quantum Communications Hub. Putting all this together will address user engagement for the whole spectrum of future markets.
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