New York City, NY, 11 Jun 2024 – SpeQtral, SafeQuantum, Antaris and QTD Systems announce the establishment of a satellite Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) receiver node at the historic carrier hotel data center building, 60 Hudson Street in New York City. This strategic initiative aims to enable the secure establishment of quantum keys between Singapore, the United States and Europe, enabling quantum-safe communications that will safeguard global financial transactions.

SpeQtral is launching two Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) satellites, SpeQtre and SpeQtral-1, to provide global coverage of quantum-based symmetric key delivery services. With this new collaboration, SpeQtral and its partners will add New York City to the network.

It is widely known that state actors and malicious entities are capturing and storing encrypted data, together with the mathematics-based public keys used to encrypt them. With the impending advances in quantum computing capabilities, these mathematical public encryption keys will eventually be cracked, breaking the encryption, and exposing critical data. QKD and other quantum-safe technologies are crucial to ensuring that our present and future communications remain secure.

QKD is a revolutionary technology that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to securely distribute encryption keys. Unlike classical encryption methods, QKD protocols provide unconditional security against the decryption threat posed by powerful quantum computers and also ensures that any attempt to intercept or eavesdrop on the key exchange process will not allow any of the secret key to be revealed. This provides unparalleled security and robust protection for financial services, sovereign communications and other highly sensitive data channels.

Whereas optical fibre-based QKD typically has distance limits on the order of 100km, satellite-based QKD extends the reach of quantum key distribution by using low earth orbit satellites to generate and relay QKD keys over long distances. By deploying such trusted nodes in space, it becomes possible to establish secure, global communication links across continents.

The new satellite ground quantum node will be housed at the QTD Systems data center in 60 Hudson Street, the landmark building in New York City renowned for its extensive global telecommunications infrastructure. Located in Lower Manhattan, 60 Hudson Street has a rich history as a former Western Union building and is now one of the world's most important telecommunications hubs. It offers robust fibre connectivity between financial services institutions (FSIs), global network providers, sub-sea cables, digital terrestrial and satellite networks in New York and New Jersey, making it an ideal location for the new quantum optical ground station.

As part of the collaboration, SpeQtral will provide their satellite QKD technology and quantum optical ground stations. SafeQuantum will deploy the optical ground station in the QTD Systems data centers and link the ground station to existing Quantum Secure fibre networks, while Antaris will provide its TrueTwin™ Software framework to support mission planning and simulate the scaling of global key distribution for future commercial service.