A pilot site of Russia's first multinodal quantum network has been put into operation in the capital city of Tatarstan.
The project developed by scientists of the Kazan Quantum Center and the St. Petersburg Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) will become the foundation for creating quantum communications infrastructure on the nation-wide scale.
Quantum communication is a perspective communication technology since it is almost totally impervious to hacker attacks. Data carriers are single photons which irreversibly change in case of any interception attempt so users are warned about any invasion into the channel right away.
Therefore quantum communication systems will become the basis of network safety infrastructure of of the new generation. It will be in demand of all those for whom confidential information exchange is necessary: financial structures, state departments, and industrial enterprises.
In the future quantum communications will be integrated into Internet of Things that will forever change our daily technological landscape.
According to PR Management of the Kazan Quantum Center the quantum channel of the Kazan network will connect four nodes at the distance of 30-40 kilometers from each other. The first site connecting two buildings of the KQC has been already put into operation. At the same time the operating fiber-optical line provided by the republican operator  Tattelekom, PJSC.
According to the KQC director Sergey Moiseyev, the network started in Kazan is completely based on original domestic developments and its technical parameters yield to none of advanced foreign analogs. Thus, for example, the speed of generating sifted quantum sequences on the  2,5 kilometers long line has reached 117 kbps. That is much faster than in the European network projects in the field of quantum communication.
"Such projects are very few in the world since only the leading scientific centers with advanced knowledge in both photonics and quantum informatics, as well as network information technologies in close interaction with industrial partners are capable of implementing them" - Mr. Moiseyev emphasized.