SK Telecom and SK Broadband announced the results of quantum field technology development and commercialization at the ‘Quantum Technology Industrialization Performance Presentation and Future Quantum Convergence Forum 1st Anniversary Ceremony’ held by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 1st.
The ‘SKB Consortium (SK Telecom, SK Broadband, UR Information Technology)’ has been conducting a digital new deal project hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency for the past two years. Quantum cryptography communication pilot infrastructure was built and operated in a total of 17 public, medical and industrial fields including 6 sections in 5 institutions including Gwangju and Daejeon, and 11 sections in 6 institutions including Yonsei Medical Center, and applied services were discovered and applied.
Since SK Telecom established the Quantum Technology Research Center in 2011, it has consistently led quantum-related research for more than 10 years. Since the acquisition of IDQ in 2018, it has secured a wide range of quantum-related source technologies, leaving various demonstration cases and business results in Korea.
In particular, as quantum cryptography communication technologies, it is advancing the core technologies of quantum cryptography communication with a focus on quantum key distributor (QKD) and quantum random number generator (QRNG), and many actual commercialization is underway.
SK Telecom is also taking the lead in efforts to localize quantum cryptography equipment parts and application terminals, such as applying QRNG technology to ‘EzQuant’, a fingerprint recognition security key released by Octaco, a biometric authentication venture company.
In December of last year, the quantum cryptography communication network integrated management standard developed by the company was recognized as an international standard by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Organization). For the first time in the world, it successfully completed the demonstration of Q-SDN (Quantum Cryptographic Network Software Defined Networking) interworking between different communication equipment companies in the ‘KOREN’ network, a national test network.
This year, the SKB consortium won an order from three organizations to build a quantum cryptography communication pilot infrastructure project for three sections. In addition, it announced plans to apply ultra-precision gas sensor technology used to detect gas leaks in industrial complexes.
Together with IDQ, SK Telecom plans to develop a technology that can transmit up to 120 km in the QKD field and a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology and apply it to the pilot infrastructure.
The quantum sensing technology applied to the ultra-precision gas sensor detects microscopic quantum particles and converts them into electrical signals, which can detect even minute amounts of gases harmful to the environment. Quantum sensing technology is expected to be widely used in various high-tech fields such as autonomous driving, satellite, and bio in the future.
In the case of quantum-resistant cryptography (PQC), it has announced plans to commercialize it in global VPN services. SK Telecom is the only company in Korea that encompasses quantum technologies including QKD, QRNG, and PQC.
SK Telecom and SK Broadband will continue to lead the vitalization of the quantum industry, support quantum future technology, and realize social values such as win-win cooperation and human resource development. It is a strategy to lead international standardization with various organizations such as ITU-T and ETSI, and strive for global leadership and expansion of business areas.
Meanwhile, SK Broadband launched a quantum cryptography dedicated line product for businesses on the same day. With the launch of the quantum cryptography dedicated line product, it is expected to provide optimal security services to ▲ state agencies that deal with state secrets ▲ public and financial institutions that need protection of personal and financial information ▲ companies that need large-capacity data transmission.
