Telcos jostle for position ahead of quantum leap

In a thought experiment that would be inadvisable to put into practice, Erwin Schrödinger argued that if a cat were placed in a sealed box with a mechanism that may or may not trigger the release of poison to kill the animal, it would be both dead and alive at the same time. Besides inadvertently raising the blood pressure of cat lovers – a demographic that shouldn't be messed with – he was trying to demonstrate the idea of quantum superposition, the theory behind qubits and quantum computing.

Conventional computers – as well as phones, tablets and everything else with a computing element – rely on bits, the smallest possible units of information. Each of them can only hold a single value at a time – traditionally represented as a one or zero. Anything stored or processed in a computer is, deep under the surface, converted by programming languages to ones and zeros – the lowercase letter "a," for example goes by "1100001." A single GB of data, about the volume of streaming Netflix for an hour, represents over 8.5 billion bits, meaning ones or zeros. Printed out, that would be almost 3 million pages (don't try this at home.)

That slightly abstract piece of information gets much more complicated when it comes to quantum computing. Quantum bits, or qubits, can flicker between the two states a little like a tossed coin – except with differing probabilities. Crucially, qubits can also be entangled to always land on the same result, which means a single string can store multiple pieces of information simultaneously.

Quantum in the cloud

As a result, quantum computers are said to have the potential to store and process more information than even the most advanced supercomputers relying on conventional bits. Scientists expect they will lend themselves particularly well to tasks that require the analysis of different combinations of factors, such as discovering new materials, battery chemistries or planning traffic.

Still, these use cases are not here yet. The quantum computers available today cannot do anything conventional computers can't and there are some significant quirks that still need to be overcome. Crucially, the number of qubits inside a quantum computer will need to increase, and the technology's susceptibility to errors caused by environmental noise has yet to be fully resolved. 

None of this has prevented companies, including many telcos, from hopping aboard the bandwagon. For example, Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems, which provides digital and IT solutions to businesses, already offers cloud access to quantum computers.

It has teamed up with several companies producing quantum computers, giving customers access to different types of the technology, with each company creating qubits in a different way. For now, the platform includes computers from market heavyweight IBM, alongside IQM and AQT.

T-Systems has also partnered with European platform PlanQK, which is developing a quantum computing ecosystem. As a result, customers have access to ready-made quantum algorithms and applications. While these do not currently outperform conventional computers, PlanQK says the idea behind the project is to allow developers to gain knowledge about specific hardware platforms and build the skills required. 

In future, more telcos could venture in a similar direction. Andrew Lord, the senior manager of optical networks and quantum research at BT, told Light Reading during an interview that the company would consider selling access to cloud computers in future, perhaps as part of a broader computing platform.

The issue, Lord says, is that quantum computers alone will not be able to solve many of the problems put to them. The goal, then, is to provide a more generic service with quantum as one of the elements included. 

"The challenge is, how can you orchestrate between that? So how do you take a problem from a customer and say, the best way of solving this problem is in this combination of compute, whether it's high performance computing, quantum computing, other types, and how do you orchestrate between all of that." The result would be a holistic computing and networking environment, where a customer only pays for the computing time they need. "So that that then becomes a resource scheduling kind of problem, which we're good at," said Lord.

Quantum radio

Yet another area of quantum relevant to telcos is quantum sensing. It uses quantum physics to create what Lord calls ridiculously sensitive sensors that can "pinpoint the location of something down to millimeters," pick up on the vibration of a fiber to deduce that a car has driven on a road above it, or provide alerts about leaking pipes.

Such functionalities could help telcos, which often run extensive fiber optic networks, to better utilize those assets. Because of quantum sensors' higher sensitivity, which can increase communication ranges, the technology could also yield better radios. In the long run, quantum radio could improve mapping and cell phone communications indoors, underwater, underground and in urban canyons.

In 2022, BT trialled quantum antenna technology that relies on excited atomic states, increasing sensitivity compared with traditional technologies. Its atomic radio frequency receiver can pick up weaker signals, and it could be placed inside passive optical receivers in hard-to-reach areas to improve mobile coverage. According to the company, the technology is still in its early stages, but it could eventually make smart cities, IoT and smart agriculture cheaper to implement.

The demonstration used digital modulation within one of EE's main commercial 5G frequency ranges. And earlier this year, the company used a quantum optical radio receiver to make a three-way Microsoft Teams call between three UK locations using EE's 4G spectrum. While a lot of quantum technology might still be far from deployment, BT reckons this particular technology could be deployed in three to five years' time, reported TelcoTitans.

Although quantum computing and sensing have clearly caught the eye of the telecom industry, it's impossible to tell when these technologies may be ready for prime time, especially in the case of quantum computing. But unlike Schrödinger's unlucky cat, we at least know they are alive and kicking.