The partnership was announced last April, and the aim of the deal was to enable information and data to be transmitted and stored in a highly secure manner.
The EuroQCI initiative was developed to establish that encryption methods such as RSA (Rivest, Shamir, Adleman) or DH (Diffie-Hellman) will no longer remain secure against quantum computer attacks.
This subsequently poses a threat to all modern communications and makes the switch to post-quantum encryption essential.
Quantum key tech is based on physical laws of nature which provide inherent protection against eavesdropping and in the future encryption systems will be used to protect critical infrastructures, confidential private or governmental information against attacks and criminal activities.
At the end of July 2021, Ireland was the last of 27 EU Member States to sign the EuroQCI Declaration and they agreed to work together to build a secure quantum communication infrastructure.
Deutsche Telekom leads the QSAFE consortium which gathers European partners with vast backgrounds in quantum communications for the EU quantum infrastructure.
The telco contributes its know-how to plan, build and run a quantum communications network. It has worked with Telefonica to install quantum testbeds in Madrid and Berlin as part of European research activities and are investigating the interaction between quantum tech and established network equipment.
The QSAFE consortium closely collaborates with several national government representatives, ensuring that EuroQCI aligns with national and European security policies.
