Networking

Nokia on Friday announced it’s partnering with NewCore Wireless, a hosted wireless switching provider, to deploy broadband across more than 12,000 square miles of under-served US tribal land. The deployment uses spectrum made available to tribes via the US Federal Communications Commission’s  Tribal Educational Broadband Service (EBS). Last year, 400 Native American tribes were awarded EBS spectrum, covering tens of thousands of square miles, often in remote areas, and millions of tribal members. The Tribal EBS program comprises spectrum on the 2.5 Ghz band, which is mature and can be found in the majority of mobile phones, telephone switching equipment and add-on devices. The new Nokia-NewCore initiative will use up to 117 MHz of the Tribal EBS band, making it suitable for 4G and offering a pathway to 5G.Nokia and NewCore are starting their buildout in North and South Dakota, Oklahoma and California. The Native American communities involved include the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as well as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The first wave of deployments will over 12,000 square miles and will provide broadband connectivity to more than 15,000 tribal members. “This initiative with Nokia and NewCore will go a long way to leveling the technology playing field for the people of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,” John Pretty Bear, Councilman for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Cannonball District, said in a statement. “All members of our community, including our elders whom we pride ourselves in helping, will benefit from more affordable and accessible connectivity. This is critical for the well-being of our people, especially during the pandemic where information about mass testing or vaccinations needs to be shared in real time. From online schooling, to telehealth, to affordable mobility and cellular phones, we look forward to improving the quality of life for everyone in our community.”The partnership leverages Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud (DAC), a platform that enables customers to create their own private wireless networks using a Nokia DA access point device and Nokia DA edge devices. The platform includes access to a catalog of applications including voice and video services. NewCore, meanwhile, will provide integration and operational capabilities, delivering an integrated network of 4.9G/LTE and 5G radio and core elements. More

The future Australian telcos dream of
Image: Optus
Australian carriers revealed on Friday how much they had paid in the recent 26GHz spectrum auction. First cab off the rank was Telstra, which announced it would be paying AU$277 million over five years for 1000MHz in the 26GHz band. “We’re delighted with the outcome of the auction and while the licenses won’t come into effect until around the middle of the year, the ACMA is making available early access licensing which will allow us to use the spectrum even sooner,” Telstra CEO Andy Penn said. Penn also spoke about a dystopic scenario of people attending live sports only to then fix some goggles to their face. “Imagine watching the Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with your 5G-powered augmented reality goggles overlaying real time player stats, all at the same time as thousands of others are enjoying the game alongside you — that’s the immense bandwidth and speed that mmWave can offer,” he said. ZDNet refuses to imagine it. Telstra added it would hit 75% population coverage for its 5G network by the end of June, and had over 3,200 live 5G sites around the country.

Elsewhere in the auction, TPG Telecom said it would stump up AU$108 million for spectrum in all available licence areas. In Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, the company picked up 400MHz of spectrum, and 600MHz in Brisbane and other metro and regional areas. As a result, the telco said its spectrum holdings had tripled. “The spectrum will enable us to deliver 5G fixed wireless services as a compelling NBN alternative, and it will also benefit mobile services in high foot-traffic areas such as CBDs,” TPG CEO Iñaki Berroeta said. In total, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) offered 2.4GHz of spectrum between 25.1–27.5GHz over 27 areas across Australia, made available in 360 lots across a 15-year term. Optus said it would pay AU$226 million for 800MHz in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and a “range of regional areas”, as well as 600MHz in Hobart and Margaret River.”Importantly, Optus have secured the best and most highly valued position at the top of the spectrum band in most of the capital cities and regions, which include ‘golden GHz’ segment supported by both the 28GHz range enabled in US and the 26GHz range to be enabled in Australia,” it said.Optus Networks managing director Lambo Kanagaratnam not only promoted headsets at live sporting events, but also music concerts.”For enterprise, this spectrum could support remote controlled automation for example robotics in a warehouse or factory, or the creation of a secured private network at a university campus to support thousands of students and academics,” he added.Overall, 358 lots were sold for a total cost of AU$647.6 million, ACMA said, with Dense Air paying AU$28.7 million for two lots in Sydney and Melbourne, and Pentanet paying AU$8 million for four lots in Perth and Margaret River. Telstra picked up 150 lots, Optus gained 116 lots, and TPG bought 86 lots — typically Telstra gained five lots in each geography, Optus bought four, and TPG paid for three.In August, the Australian government limited the amount of spectrum a single bidder could pick up to 1GHz.In December, ACMA announced it had offered the first round of its new area-wide apparatus licences to communications providers for the millimetre-wave bands. Licences were handed out in the 26GHz and 28GHz bands to SpaceX Starlink, Telstra, Optus, Vocus, Nokia, NBN, Opticomm, MarchNet, Dreamtilt, Field Solutions Group, WorldVu (One Web), Inmarsat, Viasat, O3B/SES, and New Skies Satellites/SES. NBN did not pick up any spectrum in the latest auction.Updated Friday April 23 at 9:52am AEST: Added Optus comment and purchases.Updated Friday April 23 at 11:30am AEST: Added further information from ACMA.Related Coverage More

AT&T reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings, added 823,000 net wireless connections and added 2.7 million HBO Max and HBO subscribers in the US.The telecom and media giant’s top line results topped estimates. The company reported first quarter earnings of $7.5 billion, or $1.04 a share, on revenue of $43.9 billion, up 2.7% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 86 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for AT&T revenue of $42.7 billion and non-GAAP earnings of 78 cents a share. AT&T’s results come a day after Verizon reported declines in net wireless postpaid subscribers, but also beat expectations. As for the outlook, AT&T projected revenue growth of about 1% in 2021 with non-GAAP earnings on par with 2020. AT&T is facing a battleground for 5G consumer lines as T-Mobile takes share. The first quarter featured heavy promotions for the Samsung Galaxy S21 launch.By the numbers:AT&T added 595,000 net postpaid phone additions and 823,000 postpaid net adds overall. The company added 207,000 prepaid phone net adds. AT&T lost 22,000 postpaid tablet and other branded computing device connections. AT&T saw a surge in equipment revenue due to phone launches as well as store reopenings. AT&T mobility revenue in the first quarter was $19 billion, up 9.4%. Equipment revenue surged 45.2% from a year ago to $5 billion. A year ago, AT&T had to close stores due to COVID-19. The company added 235,000 AT&T Fiber customers. HBO subscribers globally were 64 million at the end of the quarter with 44.2 million in the US. HBO and HBO Max average revenue per unit was $11.72. Business wireline revenue was down 3.5% from a year ago to $6 billion in the first quarter. Consumer wireline revenue was $3.1 billion, roughly flat with a year ago.  More

Netgear on Wednesday reported better-than-expected first quarter financial results, in part thanks to strong SMB sales. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share came to 99 cents. Net revenue was $317.9 million, an increase of 38.3 percent from the comparable prior year quarter. Analysts were expecting earnings of 66 cents per share on revenue of $310.21 million. The SMB business brought in $77 million, growing nearly 18 percent year-over-year. Its Connected Home business brought in $240.9 million, up 46 percent year-over-year. “With both businesses performing well, Q1 marks a strong beginning to the year for us,” CEO Patrick Lo said in a statement. “The Netgear team again navigated the ongoing challenges in the supply chain to deliver strong revenue growth… The higher than anticipated demand for SMB products propelled us over the high end of our topline guidance range. Non-GAAP operating margin significantly exceeded expectations, buoyed by a higher mix of SMB and higher margin e-commerce revenue as well as lower air freight expense.”Netgear’s SMB business benefited from the reopening of economies worldwide, while the Consumer Home business was led by the premium segment. The company gained Consumer Home market share globally and saw its US market share in consumer WiFi climb two points in the first quarter. Netgear is on track to reach its goal of  650,000 subscribers by the end of the year, Lo said. The company added 44,000 subscribers in Q1, exiting the quarter with 481,000. 

Second quarter net revenue is expected to be in the range of $305 million to $320 million.

Tech Earnings More

Verizon reported first quarter revenue of $32.9 billion, up 4% from a year ago, with non-GAAP earnings of $1.31 a share. Under generally accepted accounting, Verizon had earnings of $5.4 billion, or $1.27 a share.Wall Street was expecting Verizon to deliver first quarter sales of $32.46 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $1.29 a share. The telecom giant said its core business was strong, but there were moving parts. For instance, Verizon’s consumer wireless lost 326,000 retail postpaid customers including 225,000 phone net losses. But Verizon’s consumer Fios business had 98,000 Internet net additions and 102,000 total Fios net additions. On the business side, Verizon added 156,000 retail postpaid net additions including 47,000 net phone adds. Overall, Verizon’s wireless unit had service revenue of $16.7 billion, up 2.4% from a year ago, with 170,000 retails postpaid net losses. The results reflect the battleground for 5G consumer lines is brutal as T-Mobile takes share. The first quarter featured heavy promotions for the Samsung Galaxy S21 launch. On the business front, Verizon is better positioned and has 5G traction for edge computing with a bevy of ecosystem partners.Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said the addition of C-Band spectrum will bolster its network-as-a-service strategy. That strategy was outlined on Verizon’s investor day earlier this year. Vestberg acknowledged the company is facing “intense competition” but delivering revenue growth across its three business segments. 

The company’s plan revolves around spending to build out its 5G Ultra Wideband and nationwide network. Verizon said it has also hit its 2018 goal of saving $10 billion in ongoing expenses.As for the outlook, Verizon is projecting 2021 non-GAAP earnings of $5 to $5.15 a share, service and other revenue growth of about 2%. Verizon will have capital spending between $17.5 billion and $18.5 billion to build out its 5G network as well its 4G LTE network.  On a conference call with analysts, Vestberg highlighted the business 5G traction.We continue with a high level of deployment of millimeter wave and fiber in the quarter. And we’re on the track to deliver on our operational targets for the year. We brought 5G service to several additional cities. We currently have 30 5G Home and 67 5G Mobility cities live and more to come. We recently signed our first European private 5G deal with associated British ports. We also expanded our 5G edge partnership with AWS with private 5G and edge computing to our customers. We continue to scale our Network-as-a-Service strategy across new markets and verticals through a diverse set of partnerships.Vestberg also said that the SMB market is showing signs of rebounding, but is well off its pre-COVID levels. Vestberg said:One of the hardest-hit businesses during the COVID-19 has been small and medium businesses. And for the simple reason that they are most vulnerable of these type of things and the economic recession.And we had enormously strong wireless business with SMBs coming into the COVID-19 that actually came down quite a lot. We have seen over the year that we slowly are coming back on that. And in this quarter, we actually had a very small growth in SMB.I don’t think SMBs are coming back immediately. But clearly, we see some signs of improvement in the base.Among large enterprises, Vestberg said the companies most hit by the pandemic are holding back investments. 5G and edge investments are underway. Recent developments:Key items in the quarter include:Verizon’s consumer business lost 225,000 net phone accounts and 171,000 tablet lines. The company added 70,000 other connected devices. Retail postpaid churn in the quarter was 0.97%.Verizon lost 82,000 Fios video customers, but customers are upgrading to faster Internet tiers for service and driving revenue growth. Among businesses, Verizon added 47,000 phone net additions and 79,000 tablet net adds. Verizon Media, which includes AOL and Yahoo properties, reported revenue of $1.9 billion in the first quarter, up 10.4% from a year ago.  More

The past year brought many new adjustments to our lives, lockdowns and quarantines key among them. However, these new adjustments in life also brought changes in the market. Many businesses were forced to shift their sales focus into the online environment; even many grocery chains started making the digital transition into ecommerce. Ecommerce and online stores are nothing new, but the pandemic brought a whole new wave of ecommerce businesses to the market.  Many people started their own online stores to sell their products directly to the consumer. Having a quality product to sell is important, but creating a memorable online shopping experience for the customer is equally as important. A website for ecommerce sales must have the functionality and design that keeps the customer on the site through the point of sale.  According to ecommerce statistics, only 9.6% of Gen Z customers report buying items in a physical store. Even when consumers made purchases in a brick-and-mortar store, 39% reported that they visited a brand’s website before making the purchase. So, building the right ecommerce website could mean the difference between a sale or a potential customer moving on to other brands.  

Drag and drop

Wix ecommerce is a great choice for entrepreneurs wanting to make a splash in the online marketplace. Small businesses, retailers, and large brands alike have used Wix to build, launch, and scale their online stores. You do not need to know how to code to make your storefront and stand out. Design features: With over 500 beautiful templates to choose from, you will have no shortage of options, and each is customizable. Wix hosts hundreds of SEO-friendly plug-ins to help boost your online store presence. Ease of use: The non-tech-savvy among us will love Wix’s ease of use. Users can build a basic online storefront in less than 10mins (ask me how I know). The drag-and-drop building feature makes the process painless. Brand building: Wix offers free business tools like Wix Logo Maker and even a Business Name Generator for those who need fresh ideas.  Manage transactions: Your products can be listed and sold on multiple sales channels. Online transactions like purchasing, tracking, and processing, delivery, refunds, or payouts can all be managed from the Wix dashboard and Wix Payments.Wix ecommerce pricing has three monthly plans: Basic – $23 | Unlimited – $27 | VIP – $49

$23 at Wix

Award-winning web designs

Squarespace is a popular choice for ecommerce creatives, such as podcasters, photographers, and other content creators. Though it is known for its superior portfolio building and blogging features, Squarespace also has some great tools for ecommerce businesses. High-quality design: Squarespace offers attractive theme options created by world-class designers. There are hundreds of layouts to complement your product.ecommerce options: Inventory management, shipping tools, social media integration, and consumer analytics, and SEO optimization are just a few of the features you get with Squarespace.Customizable checkout: Squarespace allows for ultimate customization, even at checkout. Support: Squarespace offers mobile support to ensure your website is accessible at all times. It also offers 24/7 tech support. Squarespace pricing features annual and monthly plans: Business – $18/$26 | Basic Commerce – $26/$35 | Advanced Commerce – $40/$54

$18 at Squarespace

Ecommerce for everyone

Volusion is an all-in-one ecommerce website builder that is ideal for anyone, no matter their level of technological expertise. The customizable storefront options make it easy to build your website quickly so you can dive into your passion and share it with others.  Customize your design: Volusion gives users a powerful site editor to customize the professionally designed themes, ensuring it has a look and feel you want. Drag and drop features allow you to curate your website with the media content you want.Payment setup: Volusion makes getting paid fast and easy. Payment services such as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Stripe can be easily integrated.Built-in tools: Order management features make bulk processing and order creation simple. Features like MailChimp allow you to set up, track, and measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns. A Live Chat feature makes sure your customers get their questions answered quickly. Analytics: Performance tracking is available with Volusion. Customer insights, such as spending habits, will help you understand and serve your customers better. Volusion pricing features three-month prepaid or month-to-month options: Personal – $26/$29 | Pro – $71/$79 | Startup $161/$179 | Business – $269/$299

$26 at Volusion

Anyone, anywhere, can start a business

Shopify is used by more than 1,000,000 businesses, and that number continues to grow. It has earned its reputation as being a reliable website builder devoted solely to ecommerce. The tech-experienced or novice alike can create a scalable online storefront with Shopify.Professional design: Shopify has over 70 customizable themes designed by professionals. Each template can be easily configured to your taste, allowing you to stay true to your brand and storefront vision.Mobile ready: Each storefront comes with a built-in mobile shopping cart, allowing your customers to shop hassle-free on the go from any tablet or phone.Shopping features: Shopify integrates over 100 external payment gateways, from PayPal to Bitcoin. If you want to reach international customers, Shopify’s online checkout is offered in over 50 languages.SEO and analytics: Getting found online is easier with Shopify’s customizable SEO practices. It also offers product and traffic reports so you can analyze your growth and sales and gain insights into how customers found your store online. Shopify pricing and monthly plans: Basic Shopify – $29 | Shopify – $79 | Advanced Shopify – $299 

$29 at Shopify

Build today, grow tomorrow

The name says it all. BigCommerce is a force to be reckoned with in the ecommerce website building game. Their mission is simple — help their users sell more. Whether a small startup or a mid-market business, BigCommerce offers a platform primed for scalable growth in the online market. Storefront options: BigCommerce gives non-experienced website builders a drag-and-drop solution with their visual page builder and editor as they work with customizable themes. You can even check your mobile optimization before launching each page, making sure functionality isn’t lost on mobile devices. Digital wallets: BigCommerce makes it easier for your customers to pay you for your awesome products, integrating PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and more. International features: Do you want to reach customers worldwide? BigCommerce helps you serve global shoppers by accepting payments in over 100 currencies. Their content delivery network ensures your site loads quickly for customers around the world. Security and analytics: You can rest easy knowing your store’s data is backed up and secure. The BigCommerce Analytics Dashboard allows you to track important metrics and customer data, letting you know which marketing campaigns are working and what products are selling. BigCommerce pricing and monthly plans: Standard – $29.95 | Plus – $71.95 | Pro – $269.96 

$29 at BigCommerce

What to consider when creating a website Whether your goal is to build a website to sell products solely online or you are building one to compliment your physical store and increase sales, there are a few important things to consider before setting out to create a website.  Type of business: What are you selling? A product or service? Are you a new business or startup that is seeking to build a brand from the ground up? You need to find an online store builder that fits your vision, brand, and needs. Ease of use: You will need an ecommerce website that has the flexibility to fit your needs, one with SEO capabilities that help get your online storefront noticed online. Customizable templates and theme options are important for those who lack knowledge in coding or website design.Works with the tools you need: You will need to ensure the ecommerce website builder is able to integrate with the tools you’ll need for your online business; email marketing, customer data, mobile optimization, etc. Cost: Perhaps the biggest consideration is cost. Ecommerce website builders have varying prices, with monthly or annual price structures and web-hosting options. Selling products and services online is nothing new, but in the last year, we saw many businesses throw their hat into the ecommerce arena. Building an online store is an investment, one that pays off if done the right way. Choosing the best ecommerce website builder is essential in helping you bring your product to the internet market.  You want to choose one that is affordable, easy-to-use, and one that houses a host of online features that help you reach your customers while allowing you to stay true to your brand. 

ZDNet Recommends More

Adversaries are turning their focus on cheaper, easier targets within an organisation’s supply chain, especially as businesses increasingly acquire software from external suppliers. In this first piece of a two-part feature, ZDNet looks at how organisations in Asia-Pacific are facing more risks even as the perimeter they need to protect extends far beyond their own networks.There had been a spate of third-party cybersecurity attacks since the start of the year, with several businesses in Singapore and across Asia impacted by the rippling effects of such breaches. Just last month, personal details of 30,000 individuals in Singapore might have been illegally accessed following a breach that targeted a third-party vendor of job-matching organisation, Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). Earlier this year, personal data of 580,000 Singapore Airlines (SIA) frequent flyers as well as 129,000 Singtel customers also were compromised through third-party security breaches.

That Singtel and SIA had been compromised through such attacks did not come as a surprise to Benjamin Ang, senior fellow of cyber homeland defence and deputy head of Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS). Established in April 2006, CENS is a research unit of the Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and consists of local and overseas analysts specialising in national and homeland security issues. Ang told ZDNet in a video call that the IT ecosystem had been built for efficiencies and speed of deployment. To do this in software development, libraries or DLL (Dynamic Link Libraries) had to be established so data could be pulled from different places. Enterprises also did not build every application on their own, choosing instead to acquire software from external suppliers. “And whoever they acquire from has their own software development system that we have to trust they are securing,” he noted. Cheaper, easier targets within supply chains

CyberGRX’s chief information security officer (CISO) Dave Stapleton also pointed to an increasing dependence on third-party products over the past 15 years, with businesses outsourcing their operations to achieve economies of scale and access specialised products. It then would make sense for adversaries to target secondary targets, rather than their primary one, to breach a network, said Stapleton in a video call.   He noted that recent attacks also had appeared indiscriminate straying away from the more targeted and direct nature of APT (advanced persistent threat) attacks, which had gained in popularity over the past few years. This seemed to be the case for the Microsoft Exchange Server hack, where hackers adopted a scatter approach to expose thousands of companies that might not be the main target. Stapleton said more organisations would face a challenge should such indiscriminate supply chain attacks become more popular. Impact would be more widespread, especially as pivotal third-party applications used by millions worldwide were targeted and breached, as was the case with SolarWinds, he said. Noting that third-party attacks were not new, he said: “What we’re seeing now is a shift in mindset and strategy of threat attacks to focus more on these pivotal third parties that have links to supply chains. And from the attacker’s perspective, compromising a third party can be a cheaper and easier entry point to [breach a] primary target.” They also were easier targets, said Sanjay Aurora, Darktrace’s Asia-Pacific managing director. He confirmed there had been a plethora of attacks this year where adversaries focused on the supply chains of their main targets, since these companies would typically be guarded like a fortress. Hackers’ ultimate aim here was data exfiltration and would hunt for weak links along the supply chain, where a supplier had failed to keep up with patches, to breach the network and illegally access data of their main target, Aurora said.

He advocated the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to better combat such attacks as well as ransomware, which was the leading threat vector. Coupled with self-learning capabilities, AI-powered security tools could autonomously identify vulnerabilities and changes in patterns, and predict and respond to malicious attacks, he said. This would be critical for industrial environments and operational technology (OT) systems, where the same AI approach–of identifying unusual movements across the network–could be applied without the need to change or swop out old systems, he said. According to Aurora, Darktrace’s AI system autonomously performed more than 150,000 investigations each week and responded to a security threat every six seconds. Reed noted that most common cause behind a breach still was someone clicking on a phishing link or malware. Adding that it was difficult to train people and full-proof the organisation, he said AI and machine learning would plug the gaps. And the threat landscape would only get more complex as more companies digitalised and adopted cloud, and with the emergence of 5G networks. Aurora said: “When you can’t even define what a network is [and] how to protect it, the only way to do so is to insert AI to wherever your data, digital asset, and remove workforce is. It’s a digital estate that now has more complexities and we can use probes, sensors, and native-cloud AI machines to process all the information real-time to get full view of what’s going on.” Stapleton said: “Our perimeter extends far beyond our networks. And now you’re talking about a remote workforce, which pushes everyone outside of the network. Third parties should be looked at as extension of our security [strategy], but I don’t think most of us are there yet. That’s the blackhole I’m seeing.” Check Point’s research head Lotem Finkelstein added that there was no longer any distinction between private and corporate networks, with employees including him working from home on the same network on which their family members also were connected. “In past decades, we’ve invested in protecting corporate networks, but in just the last year, we’ve opened many doors to different networks,” Finkelstein said. “IoT (Internet of Things) and 5G also have allowed us to work from anywhere with high speed, which means we may see more employees working from abroad across multiple locations.” This then would require a completely new security framework, where prohibiting someone living in another country from accessing the corporate network in Singapore, for instance, would no longer be feasible. “Five years from now, this won’t be possible because employees will be able to live and work from anywhere and will need access to the corporate network,” he said. “We will need to change the strategic thinking behind securing the network based on localisation, to allow people to access data securely and enable the employee’s ecosystem to protect itself.” RELATED COVERAGE More

 Three nodes that can store and process quantum bits were linked to create the world’s first rudimentary quantum network.   
Image: Marieke de Lorijn for QuTech
Researchers in the Netherlands have successfully connected three separate quantum processors in what is effectively the world’s first multi-node quantum network. This paves the way for a large-scale quantum internet that governments and scientists have been dreaming up for decades.QuTech, a quantum research institute based in Delft, has published new work in which three nodes that can store and process quantum bits (also called qubits) were linked. This, according to the QuTech researchers, is the world’s first rudimentary quantum network. 

Connecting quantum devices is by no means a novelty: many researchers around the world are currently working on similar networks, but so far have only succeeded in linking two quantum processors. Establishing a multi-node connection, therefore, is a key step towards significantly expanding the size of the network. Driving much of the research effort is the objective of creating a quantum internet that could one day stretch across the surface of the planet. The quantum internet would exploit the strange laws of quantum mechanics to let quantum devices communicate with each other, and is expected to unlock a range of applications that cannot be run with existing classical means.For example, the quantum internet could link together small quantum devices to create a large quantum cluster with more compute power than the most sophisticated classical supercomputers.”A quantum internet will open up a range of novel applications, from un-hackable communication and cloud computing with complete user privacy to high-precision time-keeping,” said Matteo Pompili, a  member of QuTech’s research team. “And like with the Internet 40 years ago, there are probably many applications we cannot foresee right now.”One of the key quantum properties that underpins the quantum internet is entanglement — a phenomenon that occurs when two quantum particles are coupled in such a way that they become fundamentally connected, no matter how physically distant they are from each other.

When two quantum particles are entangled, their properties become linked, which means that any change to one of the particles will inevitably be reflected in the other one. In quantum communications, this means that scientists could effectively use entangled particles to ‘teleport’ information from one qubit to its coupled pair, even if the two are in separate quantum devices.For the system to hold up, however, entanglement must be established and maintained in the first place. In the past decade, this has been achieved by numerous research groups, typically by creating a physical link between two quantum devices. Through this link, often optical fiber, qubits can be created, entangled and then distributed between two separate quantum devices.But two nodes are hardly enough to create a large-scale network; and in a fiber optic cable, for example, entanglement cannot be maintained after about 100 kilometers, meaning that the quantum networks set up so far have been limited by the short distance they can cover. This is why QuTech’s research team has been developing a system based on intermediate nodes, similar to routers in the classical internet, which could maintain entanglement over larger distances.Bob, Alice and CharlieThe architecture that the scientists have revealed is seemingly straightforward. A middle node, called Bob, has a physical connection to two outer nodes, called Alice and Charlie. This means that entanglement can be established between Bob and each of the outer nodes.Bob is equipped with two qubits, one of which is a memory qubit that allows the device to store an established quantum link, for example with Alice, while creating, thanks to its communication qubit, a new link with the other node — in this scenario, with Charlie. 

Once both links with the outer nodes are created, Bob connects its own two qubits locally, which creates a fully connected network with entanglement between all three nodes. This means that a quantum link can be established between Alice and Charlie, even without a direct physical link between the two nodes.QuTech’s team also developed a first quantum network protocol, with a flag signal indicating that each operation has been completed successfully. “The main advantage of this demonstration is that we have a scalable way of linking multiple nodes into a network,” Ronald Hanson, who led the research team, tells ZDNet. “We have a memory that can store entangled state while the new entanglement is being prepared. And we have heralding signals that tell us when entanglement was successfully created.””This enabled us to make entanglement between the three nodes that is ready to be used for further processing or other protocols. This is the first time this has been achieved in any quantum network setting.”The new network will provide a testbed to develop new quantum internet hardware, software and protocols; but the experiment will also have to evolve from a proof-of-concept into a workable solution in order to scale up quantum networks.In effect, the researchers have so far ‘only’ connected single, separate qubits, rather than quantum processors. They will now focus on adding more qubits to their three-node network, and on adding higher-level software and hardware layers. But in the future, the team expects the current approach to be tested outside the lab on existing telecom fiber. “The future quantum internet will consist of countless quantum devices and intermediate nodes,” says Hanson. ‘Colleagues at QuTech are already looking into future compatibility with existing data infrastructures.”QuTech’s research is supported by the EU’s Quantum Internet Alliance, which is part of the bloc’s decade-long, €1 bil­lion ($1.2 billion) Quantum Flagship — an initiative launched in 2018 to boost quantum research and development.The EU is far from alone in promoting the development of the quantum internet. China and the US are equally interested in advancing quantum networks, and have already achieved milestones in the field. Chinese scientists, for example, recently established entanglement over a record-breaking 1,200 kilometers.Earlier this year, scientists from Cleland Labs in the US also succeeded for the first time in entangling two separate qubits by connecting them via a cable, another breakthrough that’s expected to accelerate the creation of quantum networks.

Quantum Computing More