China Telecom Achieves 100km Quantum Transmission Record

China Telecom Achieves 100km Quantum Transmission Record

China Telecom Achieves World Record in Quantum-Classical Signal Transmission Over 100km

Breakthrough paves the way for large-scale commercial deployment of quantum communication

China Telecom has announced a major technological breakthrough in quantum communications, successfully completing the world’s first quantum-classical signal co-fiber transmission experiment over 100 kilometers using hollow-core fiber, with a transmission distance reaching 101.6 kilometers.

This achievement represents a significant advancement in the integration of quantum and classical communications, establishing a crucial technical foundation for the large-scale commercial deployment of quantum communication networks.

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Addressing a Critical Bottleneck

The ability to transmit quantum and classical signals through the same fiber optic cable has long been recognized as a core bottleneck in scaling quantum communication infrastructure. In traditional solid-core optical fibers, quantum and classical signals tend to interfere with each other, making it difficult to achieve both security and high capacity simultaneously.

To overcome this challenge, China Telecom Research Institute assembled a collaborative research team including China Telecom Quantum Group, QuantumCTek, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC), ZTE Corporation, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. The project was conducted through the “Cloud-Network Integration” large-scale scientific facility.

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Innovative Technical Solutions

The research team developed several innovative approaches to enable efficient and stable co-fiber transmission of quantum and classical signals. Key innovations include:

Spectrum coordination and allocation mechanism: Optimizing how different signal frequencies are distributed and managed
Multi-source crosstalk suppression strategies: Minimizing interference between quantum and classical signals

These technical breakthroughs successfully resolved the industry pain point of signal interference in traditional solid-core fibers, giving the system comprehensive advantages including low noise, high security, large capacity, and low complexity—clearing critical obstacles for practical implementation.

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Four World-Leading Performance Metrics

According to China Telecom, the experiment achieved four core indicators that all reached globally leading levels:

Transmission distance: 101.6 kilometers—a world record for this technology
High power transmission: Supporting 21 dBm (decibels per milliwatt) transmission power
Transmission capacity: Achieving 37.6 Tbps data throughput
Secure key rate: Maintaining a stable rate at the 5 kbps magnitude, representing a substantial improvement over existing data and meeting the requirements for practical business applications

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Implications for Quantum Communication

This breakthrough is particularly significant as it demonstrates that quantum communication can coexist with high-capacity classical data transmission over extended distances without compromising either system’s performance. The successful integration of both signal types in a single fiber could dramatically reduce the infrastructure costs and complexity of deploying quantum communication networks, bringing quantum-secure communications closer to widespread commercial reality.

The achievement underscores China’s continued leadership in quantum communication technology and represents an important step toward building practical, scalable quantum communication infrastructure that can be integrated with existing telecommunications networks.

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Major Milestones in Quantum Communication History

1980s-1990s: Theoretical Foundations

1984: Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard propose BB84, the first quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol
1991: Artur Ekert develops E91 protocol using quantum entanglement for secure communication
1992: First experimental demonstration of quantum key distribution

2000s: Early Experimental Breakthroughs

2002: First quantum cryptography network demonstrated in Vienna, Austria
2004: World’s first quantum cryptography network for banking sector (Vienna)
2007: QKD demonstrated over 144 km between two Canary Islands (La Palma and Tenerife)

2010s: Scaling Up

2012: China establishes quantum communication network connecting Beijing and Shanghai
2016: China launches Micius (Mozi), world’s first quantum communication satellite
2017: Micius achieves satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution over 1,200 km
2017: First intercontinental quantum-secured video call between Beijing and Vienna
2017: China completes 2,000+ km Beijing-Shanghai quantum communication backbone

2020s: Recent Advances

2020: China achieves quantum entanglement distribution over 1,120 km
2021: China demonstrates quantum communication via satellite to mobile platform
2022: Multiple countries establish quantum communication test networks
2024: Various advances in integrated quantum networks and metropolitan quantum networks
2025: China Telecom achieves 101.6 km quantum-classical co-fiber transmission (current breakthrough)

China Telecom Achieves 100km Quantum Transmission Record