Vienna — 23 February 2026 – zerothird has successfully implemented an entanglement-based quantum key distribution (eQKD) pilot together with Erste Group and A1 Telekom Austria AG. The deployment was conducted across operational banking datacenters in Vienna, integrating quantum-secure communication directly into live financial infrastructure.

The project establishes a quantum-secure interconnection between production-grade environments, demonstrating that infrastructure-level quantum cryptography can be deployed within existing fiber networks, today. zerothird’s solution generates and distributes quantum keys protected by the laws of quantum physics, providing a long-term security foundation designed to address the implications of quantum computing for classical encryption.

The full press release from Erste Group is available here.

Unlike laboratory demonstrations, this pilot reflects a fully integrateddeployment inside operational datacenter environments. The successfulencryption and decryption of data under real-world infrastructure conditionsconfirms the industrial maturity and scalability of zerothird’sentanglement-based QKD platform for Tier-1 institutions.

Financial institutions operate some of Europe’s most security-criticaldigital infrastructures. Preparing these systems for the post-quantum erarequires solutions that are operationally viable, interoperable, and scalablewithin existing network architectures.

The Vienna deployment lays the technical and operational foundation forthe broader QUAPITAL initiative, which aims to establish quantum-secureconnectivity beyond metropolitan deployments — including future links betweenVienna and Frankfurt. Further information on QUAPITAL and upcoming milestones will follow.

zerothird thanks Erste Group and A1 Telekom Austria AG for their trust and close collaboration in delivering this milestone for European digital security.