Inside the global race to build the quantum internet
- Colin Hunter
- Jul 29
- 5 min read
A new kind of network is taking shape in laboratories—and on rooftops—around the world. If it succeeds, the quantum internet will let governments, businesses, and citizens exchange data with security guaranteed by the laws of physics rather than by fallible mathematics. As the quantum future approaches orbit, countries with an interest in digital sovereignty want to be first to build the unbreakable internet.
It’s a chilly morning, especially on the windy rooftop, so Paul Godin’s fingers fumble as he tries to shimmy open the fiberglass dome.
The dome looks more backyard stargazer than cutting-edge tech, but it’s a deceptively simple home for some serious science.
It’s a base station for communication with a satellite, currently in development, that will serve as a foundation for a burgeoning quantum internet secured by uncrackable cryptography.
Godin is a senior technologist in Thomas Jennewein’s quantum communications lab at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing. He and his team are among a small but fast-growing international field of researchers aspiring to develop a secure quantum internet enabled by satellite.
“It's targeting low Earth, north-to-south polar orbit,” Godin explains. “So, when we're on our ground station, we'll be seeing it coming over the northern horizon, disappearing to the south.
The institute didn’t come with a built-in rooftop dome, so the team built one (and they’re now assembling a bigger, more sophisticated upgrade to the basic backyard version they started with).
A couple storeys beneath the dome, in a lab filled with tools both high-tech and low (a 25 cm telescope, a can of bug spray), the team is developing a mission called QEYSSat, which aims to use a satellite to demonstrate quantum key distribution (QKD) – an encryption method unbreakable to even quantum computers.
They’re not alone. Governments worldwide are vying for leadership in this emerging tech.
Global competition: who’s leading the quantum internet race?
Land‑based optical fibres can distribute quantum keys over a few hundred kilometres before loss and noise become overwhelming. Satellites, by contrast, can bridge continents in a single hop.
China surged ahead in 2016 with the launch of the Micius satellite, which demonstrated QKD across 1,200 km and enabled the first intercontinental quantum-encrypted video call.
The United States, through its National Quantum Initiative, is laying out terrestrial quantum links while exploring satellite strategies. In 2021, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $25 million in additional funding toward basic research for the development of a quantum internet.
“The quantum internet represents a paradigm shift in how we think about secure global communication," said David Awschalom, director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, and director of Q-NEXT, a DOE quantum information hub at Argonne National Laboratory.
“Being able to create an entangled network of quantum computers would allow us to send unhackable encrypted messages, keep technology in perfect sync across long distances using quantum clocks, and solve complex problems that one quantum computer might struggle with alone…. The future is likely to hold surprising and impactful discoveries using quantum networks."
Europe’s Quantum Flagship is building scalable quantum networks as a part of the wider European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) program. EuroQCI is building a secure, pan-European quantum network using both fiber and satellite systems like the upcoming EAGLE-1 mission. This will enable QKD to protect sensitive sectors such as government, healthcare and energy.
“Realistically, in terms of truly functioning QKD satellites, only China has that at this point,” says Godin. “So we’ll be the second, and then Europe will have the third shortly after us.”
Why today’s encryption may not survive the quantum future
As quantum computing advances, current encryption methods—particularly RSA, which is based on hard math problems that current computers can’t solve but impending quantum computers can (and will)—are at risk.
It might be too late to fully mitigate the risk, according to a 2023 report by the World Economic Forum: “Attackers may already be engaging in Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) attacks in which they steal sensitive data today, such as personal health information or military secrets, and retain it until a sufficiently powerful quantum computer arises to break its encryption.”
QKD may sidestep the danger threatening modern encryption methods. Since measuring a quantum system disturbs it, any eavesdropper reveals their presence immediately. A QKD link lets users share one‑time keys that remain secret forever.
Canada’s QEYSSat mission aims to prove what’s possible
QEYSSat’s planned December 2026 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 represents Canada’s entry into this elite arena, serving as both a technology demonstration and a template for scalable future networks.
QEYSSat will orbit roughly 500 km overhead, circling the planet at around 27,000 km/h and completing an orbit roughly every 109 minutes. Ground stations in Waterloo, Calgary, and elsewhere will get just one nightly pass to exchange critical data.
Its primary mission: distribute quantum keys between distant ground stations, enabling ultra-secure communications.
“That's one of the main research goals of the QEYSSat mission. There also will be long-term entanglement tests and Bell violation tests, but largely, it's quantum key distribution.”
How AI and hybrid systems are shaping the quantum internet
The global race toward a quantum internet has been drastically accelerated by the advent of AI and machine learning. These tools help optimize photon sources, account for atmospheric distortions, and manage the delicate dance between hurtling satellites and ground stations in rooftop domes.
The potential dividends for early builders and adopters of a quantum internet are enormous. The world needs quantum-safe communication networks soon – if not now, or yesterday.
The Chinese Micius satellite has proved that entangled photons can be beamed between ground stations more than 1,000 km apart, overturning earlier beliefs about the limits of quantum communication.
Researchers are also exploring hybrid models, using drones, balloons, or urban fiber networks paired with quantum repeaters to break past the 100 km limit of standard fiber QKD. If past technologies offer any clue, the quantum internet will be a hybrid of the smartest aspects of numerous early approaches.
Godin and teammates are already building a larger, more durable and remote-controlled dome for future rooftop satellite experiments. Just a decade ago, the idea of doing satellite-based quantum communication was an untested theoretical idea sketched out on blackboards; now, combined with some rocket science, it’s happening right over our heads.
Colin Hunter is a science communicator, filmmaker, and contributor to FirstPrinciples. He previously led the communications teams at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo.
