CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- BBN Technologies announced today that it has built the world's first quantum cryptography network and is now operating it continuously beneath the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Today the DARPA Quantum Network links BBN's campus to Harvard University; soon it will stretch across town to include Boston University as a third link. The Harvard University Applied Physics Department and the Boston University Photonics Center have worked in close collaboration with BBN to build the network under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsorship.

People think of quantum cryptography as a distant possibility," said Chip Elliott, a Principal Scientist at BBN and leader of its quantum computing engineering team, "but the DARPA Quantum Network is up and running today underneath Cambridge. BBN has built a set of high-speed, full-featured quantum cryptography systems and has woven them together into an extremely secure network.

"This kind of breakthrough is the essence of BBN," said Tad Elmer, president and CEO of BBN. "We were ahead of the technology curve with the ARPANET and the first router, and our quantum network exemplifies the same kind of forward thinking and innovation that has made BBN a technology leader for over 50 years."

BBN Technologies