BT Trials Quantum Radios to Boost Future UK 5G Mobile Cover

Telecoms giant BT (EE) has begun to trial a new “hyper-sensitive quantum antenna technology using excited atomic states,” which represents a new way of detecting radio waves that could find much weaker signals than conventional receivers and thus boost the capabilities of future 5G mobile (broadband) and IoT networks.

In this setup, researchers at BT Labs in Martlesham are using an Atomic Radio Frequency (RF) receiver to harness a quantum effect called Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) to form a highly sensitive electric field detector.

The trial is said to represent the first time a digitally-encoded message has been received on the 5G friendly 3.6GHz (radio spectrum band) carrier frequency. Previously, simple audio has been received using much higher frequencies, but this trial is the first industrial demonstration using digital modulation within one of EE’s main commercial 5G frequency ranges.

In theory, BT claims that a receiver like this could be over 100x more sensitive than traditional receivers (i.e. achieving better network coverage and thus data speeds) and it would also reduce mobile network energy consumption. All of this would naturally also benefit other technologies, such as low power Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors.

The operator added that the atomic RF Receiver can also be positioned in a passive optical receiver in hard-to-reach locations, potentially bringing mobile networks closer to achieving 100% coverage and helping to close the digital connectivity divide.

Howard Watson, CTO of BT, said:

“BT’s investment in cutting edge R&D plays a central role in ensuring the UK remains a network technology leader. Our programme has huge potential to boost the performance of our next generation EE network and deliver an even better service to our customers. Although it’s early days for the technology, we’re proud to be playing an instrumental role in developing cutting edge science.”

At present this technology is still only in the “very early stages” of development and BT will first need to miniaturise the equipment, while also finding the optimum RF modulation and signal processing, before being able to turn it into a commercial product that can be deployed. But once achieved, this could result in an RF receiver with greater sensitivity than conventional radio antennas, tuneable operation from very low frequencies, detection of analogue and digital modulation, and low energy consumption through reduced need for electronics. Costs savings may also flow from such a development.

Hopefully in the future, BT will be able to develop this to such a point that they can conduct a wider field test and show comparison results between the new technology and existing solutions. But we suspect that it might take a few years to reach the commercialisation stage, assuming they can overcome the various R&D challenges involved in getting to that point.