BT partners with Toshiba to test a commercial Quantum-Secured Subway Network in UK

Incumbent British operator BT has partnered with Toshiba to test a commercial quantum-secured subway network. The infrastructure will be able to connect numerous customers across London, helping them secure the transmission of valuable data and information between multiple physical locations over standard optical fibre links, using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).

This can play a fundamental role in protecting networks and data against the emerging threat of quantum computing cyber-attacks. The London network represents a crucial step towards realising the UK government’s strategy to become a quantum-enabled economy. The network’s first commercial customer, Ernst & Young Global (EY), will use the network to connect two of its London locations, one in Canary Wharf and one near London Bridge. It will demonstrate how QKD secured data can be moved between sites and the benefits this network brings to its own customers, delivered over Openreach’s private fibre-optic networks.

On the network, QKD keys are combined with Ethernet’s built-in security, which is based on public-key encryption, allowing the resulting keys to be used to encrypt the data. Howard Watson, Chief Technology Officer at BT, commented,

“Quantum-enabled technologies are expected to have a profound impact on how societies and businesses function in the future but are remarkably complex to understand, design and build, particularly to ensure that the end-to-end service designs meet the stringent security requirements of the market. I am incredibly proud that BT and Toshiba have successfully partnered to deliver this unique network and with EY as our first trial customer, we are paving the way for further commercial exploration of quantum technologies and their use in commercial and societal applications in the future.”

Shunsuke Okada, Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Toshiba, said,

“Both Toshiba and BT have demonstrated world-class technological development and leadership through decades of innovation and operations. The combination of BT’s leadership in network technologies and Toshiba’s leadership in quantum technologies has brought this network to life, allowing businesses across London to benefit from quantum secure communications for the first time.”

Added Praveen Shankar, EY UK & Ireland Managing Partner for Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT),

“Quantum technology creates new and significant business opportunities but poses potential risks. Quantum secure data transmission represents the next big advance in protecting data, an essential part of doing business in a digital economy. The network has been up and running since the beginning of April and will initially run for up to three years.”

BT partners with Toshiba to test a commercial Quantum-Secured Subway Network in UK

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