Brooklyn, United States – Qunnect, a provider of quantum-secure networking technology designed for scalable deployment on existing telecom fibre infrastructure, has announced the construction of a new fibre loop that expands its quantum networking testbed, GothamQ, from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Connecting New York University (NYU) to the Navy Yard, Qunnect is poised to unlock quantum internet capabilities for customers in financial services, critical infrastructure, and telecom in the New York metropolitan area.
“Only several months after our Series A announcement, we are thrilled to be expanding our testbed in the US, bringing our quantum internet product suite to new and prospective customers as they begin to test our technologies right in the backyard of one of the largest corporate and financial epicenters in the world,” explains CEO Noel Goddard. “Through this partnership with the Centre for Quantum Information Physics (CQIP) at New York University Arts & Science (NYU), we are very proud to be collaborating with the university, and integral educational partners like SandboxAQ, to help enrich the understanding of quantum communication networks on our collective mission to stimulate industrial innovation.”
Once its first generation metropolitan product suite is complete in mid-2023, Qunnect’s solutions will fully support real-world scalability, designed to be operational at room temperature rather than fragile, climate-controlled laboratory settings and deployable in crowded, urban environments, unphased by challenging city conditions, like the densely-packed municipal infrastructure that makes up New York’s five borough system.
“This is our second stop on the path to something very scalable,” mentions Mehdi Namazi, Qunnect’s CSO. “We are connecting our testbed to NYU with the goal of showcasing protocols and technologies that will eventually be used by a wide cross-section of customers and partners within the Manhattan borough and across New York City. This is a first critical step towards Qunnect providing ‘entanglement as a service’ quantum protocols that will allow our customers to have access to verified, fully secure entangled particles between their internal nodes with the option to freely expand their entanglement nodes with other partners in the city. And in the coming months, we’ll be pleased to provide data insights from this milestone, specifically tied to polarisation stabilisation.”
In collaboration with CQIP, Qunnect and SandboxAQ will develop a Quantum Information Science (QIS) curriculum and dedicated lab, built to utilise the GothamQ testbed and designed with a mission to spark a quantum workforce in New York City.
“When you see a technology that is maturing this fast from fundamental physics, building industry-academic partnerships are a key in training a skilled quantum workforce,” notes Javad Shabani, NYU Arts & Science physicist and CQIP director. “The centre is partnered with Qunnect to help take this technology to the next level and ensure its long-term success in New York City. We are building a creative collaboration whereby the educational and research environment can be used to develop a better understanding of quantum communication networks. Through this joint initiative, CQIP has a strong quantum materials programme that will be employed to study the key industry needs to push the boundaries of quantum communication components.”
NYU has had one of the fast growing research portfolios among US universities over the past decade. With over [$1 billion (€0.92 billion)] invested into research annually, in areas ranging from artificial intelligence to strategies to reduce inequality, quantum technologies have emerged as a priority area for research and education.
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