The i2CAT Foundation collaborates in the first steps towards the implementation of the ’EuroQCI’, the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure

The project is called ‘Quantum Cryptography in Critical Communications’ and it will be deployed in a 30-kilometer fiber-optic link between ICFO and CTTI.

Cellnex Telecom and i2CAT collaborate in the initiative, impulsed by the Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration and framed in the project EuroQCI of development of European quantum technology. The project aims to develop and validate a system of quantum keys for ultra-secure encryption and transmission of information. It will be implemented through a pilot test, done via a point-to-point link between the ICFO – Institute of Photonic Sciences, located in Castelldefels, and the Center of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), located in Hospitalet del Llobregat, Barcelona.

This pilot has the main objective of carrying out a field test for the implementation of a secure communication system, which will use the secure communication method called “Quantum Key Distribution” (QKD). This implies materializing concepts in real implementations for the industry and general public, and it seeks to validate the advantages of this technology regarding integrability, cost, and its significant market potential. This future infrastructure will allow the transmission and storage of data and information in a completely secure manner, through connections between the different key infrastructures within the European Union, achieved through terrestrial and satellite links.

This project is part of a great number of initiatives that will allow the development of the future pan-European quantum communications infrastructure EuroQCI, the initiative of the European Commission that will provide Europe with a quantum communications network and which will be deployed in the next 10 years. EuroQCI will seek to demonstrate different use cases in which this initiative is a first step to have, in the future, a relevant role in areas such as cybersecurity for data centers, communication between satellites and Earth, as well as protection of electrical distribution networks and governmental communications, among others.

Original source: Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration