Satellites could prove the solution to providing global quantum communications

MIT Technology Review : The likelihood that a photon will be absorbed as it travels through fiber-optic cables increases with distance, so repeater systems positioned at regular intervals about 100 km apart are needed for maintaining the signals. Such a system works well for conventional communications. However, transmitting quantum information via entangled photons is much more difficult. Quantum repeaters are hard to maintain, especially on undersea cables, because they must be kept at near absolute zero temperatures. Kristine Boone of the University of Calgary in Canada and her colleagues suggest instead using a small network of satellites whose primary functionality would be producing entangled photon pairs. Those photons would then be sent to separate ground stations where they would entangle the quantum data stored in those stations. The entanglement would then be used to securely transmit the data.