RIGA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Latvia and Lithuania have launched a joint project to develop a cross-border quantum communication infrastructure, said the Latvian telecommunications and technology company Tet, the coordinator of the project, on Tuesday.
The project, named Lat-LitQN, is financed by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for telecommunications and aims to create and test a secure communication network between the two countries using quantum technologies.
The planned network will span about 300 kilometers, linking the cities of Riga, Panevezys and Vilnius.
Participating institutions plan to develop quantum communication solutions that could enable highly secure data transmission in sectors such as healthcare, finance, energy and public administration, as well as support transnational scientific cooperation.
The project will also establish principles for connecting a future Baltic regional quantum-secure network with Poland and the wider European system under the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) program.
Agnese Zarina, a spokeswoman for Latvia's Transport Ministry, said the cross-border project marks an important step in Latvia's digital development and demonstrates the country's capacity to initiate high-level technological cooperation in Europe.
The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2028.
Partners in the Lat-LitQN project include Tet, Kaunas University of Technology, Vilnius University, the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia, and the European academic network GEANT. ■