Frankfurter Allgemeine reports on the Vision of Future Quantum Networks and the Technological Challenges on the Way there:
Quantum Networks have increasingly come into focus in research in recent years. They open up the prospect of not only transmitting information securely over long distances in the future, but also connecting spatially separated Quantum Systems. In the long term, they could thus form the basis for novel communication systems and enable the networking of Quantum Computers and Sensors. However, building such networks is technologically challenging and requires the combined efforts of numerous disciplines and international stakeholders. A recent article by Prof. Dr. Jens Eisert of Freie Universität Berlin, published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine in early September 2026, also explores the vision of a Quantum Internet and the challenges involved in making it a reality.
In his article, Eisert takes the vision of a Quantum Internet as his starting point and examines the technological prerequisites that need to be met. The issue is not only how information can be transmitted securely over long distances. At the heart of the discussion is the question of how Quantum Systems could be connected through networks, thereby enabling new forms of communication, sensing, and information processing. However, numerous scientific and technological challenges still need to be overcome. While key components and techniques of Quantum Communication have already been demonstrated experimentally, individual successful demonstrations do not yet amount to a powerful, scalable Quantum Network. The key challenge will therefore be to reliably integrate the various building blocks developed to date and operate them over greater distances under realistic conditions.
Quantum Repeaters play a particularly important role in this context. In the future, they are intended to enable the transmission of Quantum Information over long distances without the need for trusted intermediate stations, known as trusted nodes. This requires, among other things, the generation and preservation of entanglement across multiple network segments. Quantum Repeaters thus bring together a number of the central challenges in Quantum Communication – from the generation and storage of entanglement and the transmission of photons to error correction.
German research is also contributing to this international effort. In his article, Eisert refers, among other things, to the joint research projects Quantenrepeater.Net (QR.N) and QuNET, funded by the Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR). These research consortia investigate key foundations for future Quantum Networks – ranging from photons and Quantum Memories to frequency conversion and Quantum Repeaters, as well as protocols, network architectures, and security concepts.
What a future Quantum Internet will actually look like and what applications may emerge from it remains an open question. In addition to secure communication over long distances, the networking of Quantum Computers and the connection of spatially separated Quantum Sensors could open up new possibilities. It is precisely this long-term perspective that makes the development of Quantum Networks an international research endeavor involving physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. One thing is clear, however: the development of powerful Quantum Networks is a crucial step towards realizing a Quantum Internet.
Source reference: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/jens-eisert-was-uns-das-quanteninternet-bringt-accg-201177684.html