By Yoon Sung-won
SK Telecom succeeded in long-range telecommunication based on quantum cryptography, making Korea the world's third nation to achieve the next-generation security technology after China and the United States, the firm said Monday.
The nation's top mobile operator said it has developed a trusted repeater for quantum crypto telecom and demonstrated round-trip transmission of cryptographic key data over 110 kilometer distance in Gyeonggi Provice.
Before the new repeater was available, transmission of encryption keys was available only to destinations closer than 80km. The new device has overcome that limit and the transmittable distance will increase to up to thousands of kilometers by interconnecting to new repeaters, SK Telecom said.
SK Telecom hopes this technology will fatten its bottom line as the related market is likely to expand not only for industrial uses but also for administrative and national defense purposes.
"SK Telecom has opened a new chapter in the field of quantum technologies by developing a reliable repeater, enabling long-distance quantum communication," SK Telecom Senior Vice President Park Jin-hyo said. "We will continue to focus on developing key technologies."
The quantum cryptography-based telecom technology uses encryption keys, which experts say is impossible to duplicate, to encode telecom signals. This technology is expected to improve the security of telecom services and to be useful in public administration, national defense, finance and medical services.
Citing consultancy Market Research Media, SK Telecom said Korea's quantum cryptography telecom service market will start to boom in 2021 and reach 1.4 trillion won by 2025. Globally, this area will grow into a 26.9 trillion won market by then, the company said.
Despite its high-powered security performance, however, the new technology had limits in its transmittable range as it used weak single-quantum signals.
SK Telecom said it will be able to transmit encryption keys from Seoul to Busan using five new reliable interconnected repeaters. The distance is more than 300 kilometers. The company will start applying the new repeaters to its commercial network equipment this year and gradually expand the application.
It also seeks to provide the technology globally under cooperation with international network and telecom companies.
SK Telecom has established its Quantum Technology Laboratory in 2011 and has pushed to develop the associated technologies.
The government has supported SK Telecom's efforts by running a project to establish a test bed for the technology.
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