Webinar recording: Quantum networks and the future of UK connectivity
Quantum computing has a scaling problem, and the fix may lie not in bigger machines but in the networks that connect them. That was the throughline of techUK’s recent webinar, Quantum Networks and the Future of UK Connectivity, which brought together three of the sector’s leading companies to explore how quantum networking could reshape the UK’s connectivity landscape.
Part of techUK’s Secure and Resilient Connectivity and Quantum Readiness series, the session took its cue from the government’s National Quantum Strategy, whose Mission 2 places quantum networking front and centre. The speakers moved from first principles to the potential of quantum networking and a candid panel discussion. You can watch the full recording below.
The scaling problem
Every speaker returned to the same point: a genuinely useful quantum computer needs millions of physical qubits, while today’s machines top out in the hundreds.
Crucially, quantum computers are not simply faster classical ones. They excel only at specific problems in areas such as chemistry, materials and optimisation, meaning quantum computing and classical computing will sit alongside one another in the future.
Building ever-larger single processors “monolithic” scaling runs into hard limits of cooling, control and cost. The alternative is to connect many smaller quantum computers into one system, much as classical data centres are woven together by networks. That relies on entanglement, a uniquely quantum property that links qubits across distance. Get the networking right, the panellists argued, and the arrival of practical quantum computing could be accelerated.
Three approaches
Companies such as Cisco are developing a full-stack strategy spanning hardware, protocols and software, including a room-temperature entanglement source generating 200 million photon pairs per second and a universal quantum switch that translates between different qubit “modalities” so processors built on rival technologies can be linked.
Cambridge-based Nu Quantum focused on the interfaces and networking units that entangle separate processors, alongside recent work on distributed quantum error correction that lets a modular system keep computing even when a machine fails or is taken offline for maintenance.
Canada’s Photonic is pushing for silicon-based “T-Centre”, a qubit that acts as memory, processor and network node at once. Photonic has already entangled over 30 km of live Telus fibre around Vancouver, a first step towards a quantum network spanning a whole city.
Collaboration, supply chains and the road ahead
With two of the three speakers based overseas, international partnership emerged as essential. The key takeaway is that no single country can build quantum alone, and UK–Canada bilateral projects were held up as a model of what works.
Manufacturing and supply chains were flagged as the nearest-term bottleneck the specialised components quantum networks depend on take years to mature, so resilient supply chains have to be built now rather than once demand arrives. On the inevitable question of quantum and AI, the speakers urged caution, seeing genuine promise in narrow areas such as error correction while warning against sweeping claims that the two technologies are automatically multiplicative.
In final comments it became clear that today’s quantum computers are comparable to the room-sized machines of the early classical era powerful, but too young to reveal the range of potential applications. Networking is no longer a footnote to quantum computing but the bridge to large, fault-tolerant systems and, increasingly, the industry’s public roadmaps agree.
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Meet the team
Tales Gaspar
Programme Manager, UK SPF and Satellite, techUK
Tales has a background in law and economics, with previous experience in the regulation of new technologies and infrastructure.
In the UK and Europe, he offered consultancy on intellectual property rights of cellular and IoT technologies and on the regulatory procedures at the ITU as a Global Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI).
Tales has an LL.M in Law and Business by the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and an MSc in Regulation at the London School of Economics, with a specialization in Government and Law.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- +44 (0) 0207 331 2000
- Website:
- www.techUK.org
- LinkedIn:
- www.linkedin.com/in/talesngaspar
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Sophie Greaves
Associate Director, Digital Infrastructure, techUK
Sophie Greaves is Associate Director for Digital Infrastructure at techUK, overseeing the Telecoms Programme, the Data Centres Programme, and the UK Spectrum Policy Forum.
Sophie leads our work across telecoms networks, security and resilience, supply chain diversification, advanced communications technologies, spectrum policy, and data centres - bringing these areas together into a dedicated Digital Infrastructure unit. She was previously Head of Telecoms and Spectrum Policy.
Prior to joining techUK, Sophie completed a masters in Film Studies at University College London; her dissertation examined US telecoms policy relating to net neutrality and content distribution.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 0207 331 2038
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiegreaves/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiegreaves/
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Josh Turpin
Programme Manager, Telecoms and Net Zero, techUK
Josh joined techUK as a Programme Manager for Telecoms and Net Zero in August 2024.
In this role, working jointly across the techUK Telecoms and Climate Programmes, Josh is responsible for leading on telecoms infrastructure deployment and uptake and supporting innovation opportunities, as well as looking at how the tech sector can be further utilised in the UK’s decarbonisation efforts.
Prior to joining techUK, Josh’s background was in public affairs and communications, working for organisations across a diverse portfolio of sectors including defence, telecoms and infrastructure; aiding clients through stakeholder engagement, crisis communications, media outreach as well as secretariat duties.
Outside of work, Josh has a keen interest in music, painting and sailing.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2038
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-turpin/
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