Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Networks

Ooredoo Deploys Qatar’s First Quantum-Safe Communications Link

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June 4, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

Ooredoo Qatar has established the first quantum-safe communications link in the State of Qatar, a national achievement realized through collaboration with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and the Ministry of Defense. The project utilizes Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) to generate and distribute encryption keys based on quantum mechanics, immediately detecting any interception attempts, a significant advancement over traditional encryption methods. “This achievement reflects the power of collaboration in advancing secure, future-ready connectivity in the State of Qatar,” affirmed Thani Ali Al Malki, Chief Strategy and Digital Transformation Officer at Ooredoo Qatar. Deployed within Ooredoo’s operational network, the QKD testbed, developed with ID Quantique, demonstrates a crucial step toward practical quantum security beyond laboratory settings and strengthens Qatar’s digital resilience against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Ooredoo and HBKU Establish First Quantum-Safe Communications Link

Unlike conventional encryption methods vulnerable to future quantum computer attacks, QKD generates and distributes encryption keys leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics, ensuring any interception attempt is immediately detectable. The QKD testbed, developed through advanced research led by HBKU, is compatible with existing telecommunications infrastructure, a critical factor for seamless integration and scalability. This compatibility was achieved through a partnership with ID Quantique, a global leader in quantum-safe security, indicating a specific focus on established technologies within Qatar’s quantum security strategy. Mohammed Al Zaidan, Senior Director Active & Core Network at Ooredoo Qatar, explained that the project utilized the company’s dark fiber infrastructure, and that engineering teams successfully validated secure key generation and distribution over multiple fiber-link distances, marking a key step toward truly secure networks.

This validation demonstrates a move beyond theoretical security to a functioning system capable of protecting data in transit. The collaborative effort extends beyond technical implementation; HBKU’s Qatar Center for Quantum Computing led the scientific development and system integration, fostering local expertise in quantum technologies, while the Ministry of Defense provided strategic support, recognizing the importance of secure communications for national security. Dr. Saif Al Kuwari, Director of HBKU’s Qatar Center for Quantum Computing, emphasized that the center’s commitment to cross-sector collaboration was instrumental, accelerating the development of Qatar’s quantum capabilities and creating technologies with both national and global applications.

Dark Fiber Infrastructure Validates Quantum Key Distribution Distances

The successful deployment of quantum key distribution (QKD) in Qatar isn’t simply a laboratory curiosity; it’s a validation of the infrastructure needed to make quantum-safe communication a reality. While QKD, which generates and distributes encryption keys using quantum mechanics to detect any interception attempts, has been demonstrated in controlled environments, integrating it with existing telecommunications networks presents significant hurdles. This project did not rely on building entirely new networks; instead, it leveraged existing resources to prove scalability and compatibility. This contrasts with attempts to retrofit quantum security onto older, less-optimized networks, which often suffer from limited range and reliability. Dr.

this achievement reflects the power of collaboration in advancing secure, future-ready connectivity in the State of Qatar.

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Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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