Insider Brief
- Montana State University is deploying Qunnect’s Carina quantum networking suite to anchor a campus-wide quantum environment integrating quantum computing, sensing, and networking.
- The collaboration is expected to draw new research funding, attract industry partnerships, and enhance Montana’s position in the quantum economy.
- Qunnect’s Carina system, also used in New York’s GothamQ and Berlin’s BearlinQ networks, provides high-rate entangled photon generation, real-time polarization stabilization, and seamless integration with existing telecom infrastructure.
PRESS RELEASE — Qunnect, the company pioneering quantum infrastructure for real-world use, announced today that Montana State University (MSU) has deployed Qunnect’s Carina product suite to establish the first quantum entanglement network in the Midwest. This milestone brings entanglement distribution to campus-scale telecommunications fiber and further strengthens MSU’s role as a leader in quantum innovation.
MSU’s quantum network anchors an integrated quantum environment on the same campus as quantum computers and advanced quantum sensing technologies. Together, these capabilities create a powerful testbed for demonstrations and applications that extend well beyond cryptography, positioning MSU to accelerate new research and industry use cases.
The network is also set to attract new research funding, high-tech industry partnerships, and top scientific talent—generating both visibility and economic growth for the state of Montana.
Qunnect’s Carina product suite is the backbone behind Qunnect’s own GothamQ quantum network that currently connects government, national laboratories, university and industry users in New York City and was the choice of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs innovation unit in creating its BearlinQ quantum network through Berlin, Germany. The Bearlinq network has achieved never-before-seen distances in quantum entanglement distribution and broken quantum entanglement records since its deployment in 2024.
“Qunnect’s technologies have given our students and researchers the infrastructure on which we can explore and innovate on quantum networks,” explained Prof. Krishna Rupavatharam, CTO QCORE, MSU. “Having hands-on access to photonic quantum networking technologies empowers us to advance our quantum efforts more rapidly, and accelerate real-world use cases for quantum for science and industry.”
The Carina product suite integrates Qunnect’s 1) atom-based, entangled-photon generators, 2) single photon counting detectors with high resolution time tagging, and 3) adaptive polarization compensation, entanglement validation and orchestration into a single rack-mount unit. Key features include:
- High-rate entangled pair generation at telecom wavelengths for up to 100 km fiber spans
- Real-time polarization stabilization to maintain fidelity over changing environmental conditions
- Modular interface for seamless integration with existing DWDM networks and classical data channels
Qunnect’s atom‑based platform uniquely aligns with MSU’s quantum research goals by delivering sub‑GHz‑linewidth photon pairs at high rates. These photon pairs can be used for a wider variety of research use cases as they have a brightness that crystal-based (rather than atom based) platforms cannot provide.
“Montana State is a leader in quantum research and has been deploying Qunnect technologies and entanglement sources as part of its ground-breaking experiments for the past year,” said Noel Goddard, Qunnect’s CEO. “Now with Carina, MSU is taking the next step in moving practical quantum networks out of the lab and into real-world research deployments.” Announcement of this collaboration is aligned with the launch of QCORE, a new quantum research and innovation initiative at Montana State University.
