Quantum Internet, Quantum Networking

Quantum internet group Innsbruck network links three trapped-ion quantum computers

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October 1, 2026 by Ivy Delaney
Image: Universit\u00e4t Innsbruck · uibk.ac.at

University of Innsbruck researchers are set to link two metropolitan-scale networks of trapped-ion quantum computers, extending over hundreds of kilometers of optical fiber. The effort, funded by a €5.4 million allocation from a larger €47.5 million EU package for the Quantum Internet Alliance, aims to build a functional quantum internet prototype. Ben Lanyon, also from the Department of Experimental Physics, adds that the network could eventually connect distant cities.

Innsbruck Consortium Links Three Trapped-Ion Quantum Computers

This expansion is supported by €5.4 million in funding awarded to Innsbruck researchers as part of a larger €47.5 million package for the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA), a consortium of over 50 European research partners. The QIA aims to move beyond isolated quantum processors and demonstrate a functional, programmable quantum network capable of running real-world applications.

This network builds on years of development in trapped-ion technology within Innsbruck, and will use quantum repeaters, supplied by collaborators in Barcelona. This includes the development of both the hardware, the trapped-ion quantum computers and quantum repeaters, and the necessary network control software.

The QIA consortium views this prototype as a potential world-first, establishing a leading position for Europe in quantum internet technologies. “Over the past years, we have developed the core building blocks of a quantum internet,” says QIA Director Stephanie Wehner. “Our mission in this next phase is to integrate these components into a full stack quantum internet prototype.” The Innsbruck-based spin-off company is collaborating closely with research groups to develop the trapped-ion hardware, ensuring a streamlined transition from research to a functional network prototype.

The prototype will undergo a series of rigorous tests to verify its quantum functionality, including demonstrations of connected metropolitan-scale quantum networks via optical fiber using quantum repeaters. This milestone is important for scaling quantum communication beyond current limitations. The QIA’s long-term goal is to establish a European platform for quantum internet development, integrating advancements in hardware, software, and networking to support future global quantum internet development.

Building on trapped-ion expertise in Innsbruck, we will link together two metropolitan-scale networks of ion-trap quantum computers over hundreds of kilometers.

Tracy Northup, Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck
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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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