In September 2020, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT selected three telecom operators to deploy pilot quantum key distribution (QKD) infrastructure as part of the Korean Digital New Deal initiative. SK Broadband (partnering with ID Quantique), KT, and LG U+ were selected to build QKD networks across public, medical, and industrial sectors.
According to ID Quantique, SK Broadband would deploy QKD across 17 sites in its first year, covering five use cases including the Gwangju Metropolitan city network, Yonsei Medical Center, Hanwha Systems, Wooribank, and CJ Olive Networks. The pilot project sat within the broader Korean New Deal, announced on July 14, 2020, which allocated KRW 160 trillion across digital and green sectors. Quantum technology was included as a component of the Digital New Deal’s effort to build future growth engines for the post-pandemic era.