David Mitlyng for Xairos

Tragedy of the Commons
We recently got a question: Why pay for timing when the GPS signal is free?
The snarky response: Why pay for cable when broadcast TV is free? Why pay for cell service when CB radio is free?
But the better response: because timing from GPS is not nearly secure or accurate enough for modern networks, and there is no incentive to improve this for civilian use.
Because of this a multi-billion-dollar cottage industry has been created for timing products that provide incremental improvement but still rely on the timing signal from GPS.
Telcos and data centers also spend billions to extend holdover when there is a GPS outage - and there are many many outages per year.
Xairos' timing service does not need holdover (indeed, GPS timing is the backup), delivers orders of magnitude better accuracy, is resilient to outages, will be continuously improved and supported, and cost the same as existing timing hardware solutions.

Last Week's Theme: It's All About Time: Satellite Based Quantum Time Synchronization

• Prepping for on a Quantum Startup Space in Colorado panel this Thursday at Denver Startup Week. If you want to catch this virtual session you can register here.
• Finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a major satellite partner and Agreement with quantum research lab. These and other partners will help us develop our system and joint proposals.
• Prepping responses for upcoming Army, NSF, NASA and DARPA solicitations.
• Two more investors signed up, which puts us at the 20% mark for our $1.5M seed raise.
• Attended three interesting conferences last week:
  • Techstars North America Alumni Event - networking and presentations on what it takes to build a successful business.
  • Quantum.Tech Commercial Applications conference - focused on the business and use case for quantum technologies, with participation from IBM, Wells Fargo, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase & Co, BASF, and BP.
  • QED-C Quantum Marketplace: Timing - presentations of atomic clocks in development by NIST, FEI, Stable Laser Systems, SpectraDynamics, Honeywell, and ColdQuanta.

• Quantum Industry Day in Switzerland 2021, October 5 - 6
• Denver Startup Week Quantum Panel Session, October 7 - David Mitlyng panelist 
• 2021 Value of Space Summit hosted by Space ISAC and The Aerospace Corporation, October 19 - 20
• Inside Quantum Technology - New York November 1 - 5
• Global Conference on Timing and Synchronisation Across Networks, November 1 - 4, Brighton, UK
• SPIE Photonics West, January 22 - 27

• Quantum networks are in development throughout the world. China just published a report on the "field operation of a quantum metropolitan area network with 46 nodes." This is in addition to "a three-user network by DARPA, a six-node network in Europe, the SwissQuantum network as well as a mesh-type six-node network in Tokyo."
• But the US also has projects. The Department of Energy (DOE) just announced the "Quantum-Accelerated Internet Testbed project, or QuAInT, a multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers and physicists... ....to design and deploy a quantum internet testbed capable of sending and receiving information on an intracity scale" using the Quantum Internet Blueprint Workshop.
• Japan is also building out a quantum network, as described in a National Institute of Communications Technology (NICT) "Special Issue on Quantum Technologies."

These news articles highlight the advancements in quantum networks around the world, which represent an interesting use case for our technology.
At it's simplest definition, a quantum network is used to facilitate the transmission of qubits.
Most of the current quantum networks are focused on using existing fiber optic networks for the secure transmission of encryption keys known as quantum key distribution (QKD).
But the more advanced efforts, including the thrust of development within the United States, is to network quantum computers creating "a quantum computing cluster... ...that creates more computing potential."
These networks need very precise time synchronization. And because they are already being built with entangled photon hardware and distribution systems, they are ready made for our technology.

To learn more, please email us or schedule a meeting here.