Antonio Abad Martín, CTO and COO of Hispasat, raised this issue in the Satellite 2025 manufacturers' debate. Quantum communications, he explained, could open up a whole new market for satellite services: this relies on computers powerful enough to crack most of today's asymmetric encryption algorithms.

Quantum encryption, on the other hand, leverages the extraordinary properties of the smallest subatomic particles to protect communications from interception and monitoring. And any global system that uses it will need satellites to distribute the encryption keys (the key's optical properties allow it to travel a maximum of 100 kilometers along a fiber optic cable, unlike a satellite, which could send them anywhere on Earth via lasers).

In the specific case of Hispasat, it invested €100 million in quantum distribution technology, which will be integrated into a satellite scheduled to launch in 2028. A year later, the Spanish operator could offer key distribution across a third of the world's surface.