Entangled Networks: Enabling Technologies and Future Markets

Available September 2026

The era of entangled quantum networking is beginning—and the commercial opportunities are emerging faster than many industry observers expect.

CIR’s new 100-page report, Entangled Networks: Enabling Technologies and Future Markets, identifies where those opportunities will appear, which technologies will unlock them, and which companies and organizations are best positioned to benefit.

Drawing on a survey of influential industry participants, an extensive review of recent technical and business literature, and the latest corporate announcements, the report provides a clear, commercially focused view of this rapidly evolving market. It also includes CIR’s exclusive 10-year forecast for the entangled-network market.

Who Should Read This Report?
This report will be essential reading for:

    • Quantum computer manufacturers and network equipment suppliers
    • Operators of quantum-network trials and testbeds
    • Telecommunications companies and data-center operators
    • Test and measurement equipment manufacturers
    • Defense and aerospace contractors
    • Photonic interconnect specialists
    • Fiber-optic, photonics, and control-cabling companies
    • Regulators, policymakers, and government agencies

A New Market Is Taking Shape
Today’s commercial entangled-network market is centered on entangled-photon sources, single-photon detectors, precision timing and stabilization systems, network-control software, and prototype networking equipment. But this is only the starting point.

Unlike reports that treat the quantum internet as a distant scientific vision, CIR examines the technologies and applications that are already turning entanglement-based networking into a genuine business opportunity.

The report analyzes critical enabling technologies—including quantum repeaters, quantum memories, entangled-photon sources, detectors, transducers, control systems, and networking software—and assesses how their development will shape the market over the coming decade.

From Distributed Quantum Computing to Critical-Infrastructure Security
The most important long-term application for entangled networks is expected to be distributed quantum computing, in which multiple quantum processors are connected to create more powerful and flexible computing resources.

But the opportunity extends well beyond distributed computing.

BT is already examining the role of entangled networks in banking and financial services. Major defense contractors, including L3Harris, are exploring defense and intelligence applications. Governments and security agencies increasingly see quantum networking as a potential tool for protecting critical infrastructure from terrorists, hostile states, and other sophisticated attackers.

The report also examines the emerging Quantum Internet of Things, along with potential applications in secure communications, precision sensing, data centers, telecommunications, finance, defense, and national security.

What Still Stands in the Way?
Entangled networks still face significant technical challenges—and each unresolved problem represents an opportunity for technology developers and equipment suppliers.

CIR examines these barriers and the emerging approaches to overcoming them. For example, superconducting qubits currently dominate much of the quantum-computing market, but connecting them to optical networks requires efficient microwave-to-optical transduction. Detector performance is another constraint. Although advances in nanowire detectors are improving timing, precision, and device size, detectors remain a limiting technology for practical entangled networks.

The report identifies these and other bottlenecks, evaluates potential solutions, and highlights the market opportunities they are likely to create.

Extensive Company and Network Coverage
Organizations profiled include Aliro, AWS, Boeing, BT, Cisco, Google, IBM, Icarus, ICFO, Infleqtion, IonQ, K13, LUQOM, NanoQT, NIST, NTT, Nu Quantum, Photonic, PsiQuantum, QPhoX, Quantinuum, Quantum Bridge, Quantum Corridor, Quantum Industries, Quantum Machines, Quantum Optics Jena, QTD Systems, Qunett, Qunnect, SpeQtral, Welinq, and many others.

The report also provides extensive coverage of current entangled-network projects, testbeds, and trials across North America, Europe, and Asia, giving readers a global view of where the technology is advancing and where commercial demand is most likely to emerge.

Reports published only a few years ago suggested that the quantum internet remained decades away. CIR’s latest research points toward a more immediate—and considerably more optimistic—commercial future.

Read Entangled Networks: Enabling Technologies and Future Markets today and discover where the next generation of quantum networking opportunities will be created.

 

Chapter One:

1 1.1 Preamble A Definition of Entangled Networks

1 1.2 Timeframe for Entangled Networks: The Importance of Quantum Repeaters

1.3 Target Applications for the Entangled Network

1.4 Challenges on the Way to the Entangled Network

Chapter Two: Products and Applications for Entangled Networks Technologies

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Types of Quantum Networks: Workgroups, Metro and Long-Haul

2.3 Computers in the Entangled Network

2.4 Sensors in the Entangled Network

2.5 Entangled Networks in Research and Academia

2.6 Other Applications for Entangled Networks

2.7 Quantifying the Size of the Distributed Quantum Computing Opportunity

2.8 Quantum Communications Equipment and Interconnects

2.8.1 Quantum Repeaters

2.8.2 Entangled QKD

2.9 Quantum Sensors and the QIoT

2.9.1 Quantum Clock and CSAC Networks

2.9.2 The Quantum Internet of Things

2.10 Components of the Entangled Quantum Network

2.10.1 Quantum Interconnects Again

2.10.2 Quantum Memories

2.10.3 Photonic Sources for Quantum Networks

2.10.4 Detectors and other Components

2.11 The Role of Satellites and Drones

2.12 Quantum Network Product Suites

2.13 Quantum Internet Software: The Next Generation

2.13.1 Protocols for the Coming Entangled Network

2.14 Market Differentiators

Chapter Three: Current Commercial Activity in the Entangled Networks Space

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Aliro Quantum (United States)

3.3 AWS Center for Quantum Networking (CQN) (United States)

3.4 Boeing (United States)

3.5 BT Group (UK)

3.6 Cisco Systems (United States)

3.7 IBM (United States)

3.8 Infleqtion (United States)

3.9 Icarus Quantum (United States)

3.10 IonQ (United States)

3.11 Ki3 Photonics Technologies (Canada)

3.12 L5Harris (United States)

3.13 LQUOM (Japan)

3.14 MagiQ Technologies (United States)

3.15 memQ (United States)

3.16 NanoQT (Japan)

3.17 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) (Japan)

3.18 Nu Quantum (United Kingdom)

3.19 Photonic (Canada)

3.20 QphoX (The Netherlands)

3.21 QTD Systems (United States)

3.22 Quantum Bridge (Canada)

3.23 Quantum Corridor (United States)

3.24 Quantum Industries

3.25 Quantum Network Technologies (Qunett) (United States)

3.26 Quantum Optics Jena GmbH (Germany)

3.27 Qunnect (United States)

3.28 SpeQtral (Singapore)

3.29 Welinq (France)

Chapter Four: Research and Testbeds

4.1 Introduction

4.2 A*STAR Quantum Innovation Center (Q.InC) (Singapore)

4.3 Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) (United States)

4.4 Argonne National Laboratory (United States)

4.4.1 InterQnet

4.4.2 Q-NEXT

4.4.3 Chicago Quantum Network

4.4.4 Chicago Quantum Exchange

4.5 Bristol Dynamic Network (UK)

4.6 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) (United States)

4.7 University of Arizona and Partners

4.7.1 Center for Quantum Networks (CQN) (United States)

4.7.2 AQNET (United States)

4.7.3 Current Network

4.8 DC Q-NET (United States)

4.9 DistriQ Quantum Innovation Zone (Canada)

4.10 EPB Quantum Network (U.S.)

4.11 Harvard-AWS Quantum Network

4.12 ICFO (Spain)

4.13 INQNET (United States)

4.14 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) (United States)

4.15 Max Planck Institute of Optics (Germany)

4.15.1 Networking Advances

4.16 OpenQKD and OpenQCI

4.17 QIQB Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (Japan)

4.18 The Quantum Communications Hub and other Entangled Networks in the U.K.

4.18.1 Other Quantum Networks in the UK: UKQN

4.19 Saarland University (Germany)

4.20 The University of Amherst, Massachusetts (United States)

4.21 The University of Geneva, Group of Applied Physics (GAP) (Switzerland)

4.22 The University of Innsbruck (Austria)

4.23 TU Delft and QuTech (The Netherlands)

4.24 University of Maryland (UMD) (United States)

4.25 Wisconsin Quantum Institute (WQI) (United States)

Chapter Five: Impact of National Markets

5.1 Impact of National Markets

5.1.1 Quantum Networking in the U.S.

5.1.2 Quantum Networking in Europe

5.1.3 Quantum Networking in Asia

Chapter Six: Ten-Year Forecasts of Entangled Networks

6.1 Likely Scenario for Entangled Network Market Evolution

6.2 Forecast Methodology

6.2.1 Pricing

6.3 Ten-Year Forecasts of Entangled Networks by Type of Equipment on the Network

6.4 Breakout of Entangled Quantum Networks by Reach and Technology

6.5 Breakout of Entangled Quantum Networks by Transmission Type

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