IBM announced at the IBM Quantum Summit 2022 that Vodafone Group is collaborating with IBM on quantum-safe cybersecurity, and also joining the IBM Quantum Network, which will give the company cloud access to IBM's advanced quantum computing systems, as well as IBM's industry-leading quantum expertise. The multinational telecommunications company will work with IBM to help validate and progress potential quantum use cases in telecommunications. As part of this collaboration, Vodafone will explore quantum computing for a variety of telco use cases.

The company will also advance their employees' skills in quantum technology through iterative prototyping led by IBM, as well as actively recruit quantum computing experts, to build a dedicated capability within its ranks. Throughout this engagement, Vodafone will explore how to apply IBM Quantum Safe cryptography technology across its entire and diverse network infrastructure and systems. Future quantum computers will pose a threat to today's standard security, such as public key encryption. Quantum-safe cryptography protocols not only exist today, and offer the capability to help protect classical data and systems from these future quantum computers' potential decryption capabilities, but the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently announced that four algorithms — three of which IBM helped develop have been chosen to be part of a protocol for standardization by 2024.

Vodafone's exploration of these protocols marks an IBM Quantum Safe first in understanding and preparing for this risk in telecommunications. IBM and Vodafone are also among initial members of the recently announcedGSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce, whose mission is to help define policy, regulation and operator business processes for the enhanced protection of telecommunications in a future of advanced quantum computing.