Asia-Europe Quantum Internet Backbone Goes Live: QKD Coverage Across 30 Cities

On December 16, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Europe's Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) project jointly announced that the Asia-Europe quantum internet backbone has been officially completed. The approximately 12,000-kilometer quantum communication link runs from Beijing through Urumqi, Almaty, Moscow, and Warsaw to Vienna, covering quantum key distribution (QKD) nodes in 30 major cities along the route.

The backbone uses a hybrid architecture of "trusted relay + satellite links." Ground fiber segments employ the decoy-state BB84 protocol, while intercontinental segments achieve satellite-ground QKD through China's Micius-2 and Europe's Eagle-1 quantum satellites. End-to-end key generation rates reach 100 kilobits per second — an order of magnitude improvement over two years ago.

Pan Jianwei, Chinese Academy of Sciences院士 and quantum information scientist, stated: "The significance of this link lies not just in technical validation, but in proving the commercial viability of intercontinental quantum communication."

首批商业客户包括中国工商银行和德意志银行, used for quantum-encrypted cross-border financial data transmission. Annual service fees are reportedly in the tens of millions of euros.

Actually let me rewrite this paragraph properly:

首批商业客户 include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Deutsche Bank, using the network for quantum-encrypted cross-border financial data transmission. Annual service fees are reportedly in the tens of millions of euros.

However, security experts point out that the "trusted relay" model means relay nodes can access key information, which still falls short of quantum communication's ideal of "absolute security." True end-to-end quantum repeater technology remains in the laboratory stage, with commercial deployment expected in 3-5 years.