Deutsche Telekom and Qunnect have completed a successful test of quantum teleportation using commercial hardware over the existing fiber network in Berlin. The field trial, which took place in January 2026, demonstrated the ability to transmit quantum information over 30 kilometers of operational telecom fiber while classical data traffic was running alongside.
The experiment used Qunnect’s commercially available entanglement distribution hardware together with Deutsche Telekom’s Berlin quantum infrastructure. This marks the first practical demonstration of essential components for a future teleportation service that could be deployed by telecommunications operators.
Quantum teleportation allows the transfer of quantum information between distant locations by recreating an identical quantum state at the destination using pre-shared entanglement, rather than moving a physical particle. The teams reported an average teleportation fidelity of 90 percent, reaching up to 95 percent at peak performance.
Abdu Mudesir, Telekom Board Member for Product and Technology, said: “Our fiber optic network is quantum ready. In Berlin we have now proven that quantum information can be transmitted over 30 kilometers of commercial Telekom fiber optics outside of a laboratory. This is done in parallel with regular data traffic and with a very high average accuracy of 90 percent. With quantum teleportation, we are laying the technical foundation for networking quantum computers over longer distances in the future and pooling computing power in more than one location. This will create the next generation of secure communication and a building block for Europe’s technological sovereignty.”
Mael Flament, Chief Technology Officer at Qunnect, stated: “Teleportation is a novel tool for moving information around networks leveraging quantum physics. We are showing the building blocks of teleportation can operate inside a real network, in real racks, under operator control, advancing it from a laboratory experiment to something a telecommunications provider can deploy.”
The trial teleported qubits generated by a weak coherent source through a 30-kilometer loop connecting T-Lab’s Quantum Lab to another node on the Berlin testbed. Qunnect’s Carina platform includes an entanglement generator producing pairs of entangled photons distributed via telecom fiber and features polarization compensation to reduce noise from environmental factors affecting both buried and aerial cables.
This test was performed at a wavelength relevant for various platforms such as neutral-atom quantum computers and atomic clocks. Connecting these systems to telecom infrastructure could enable new applications including secure cloud-based services and highly sensitive sensor networks.
The project builds on previous field trials by Deutsche Telekom and Qunnect involving metropolitan fiber links. Future plans include expanding this work to multi-node configurations across greater distances within metro-scale carrier networks.
Further details about this experiment are available at arxiv.org/abs/2602.16613.
Deutsche Telekom will present further innovations at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from March 2 to 5, 2026.
