{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/nextgov-new-mexico-unveils-quantum-telecom-network", "Nextgov: New Mexico unveils quantum telecom network", "2025-11-19", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "NM", "Martin Heinrich", "H001046", "www.heinrich.senate.gov", "heinrich", "https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "New Mexico announced its first quantum physics-powered telecommunications network, a joint effort from both public and private investment into outfitting the state with a quantum-ready infrastructure.\n\nOn Wednesday, quantum telecommunications hardware company Qunnect and the state of New Mexico unveiled ABQ-Net \u2014 headquartered in Albuquerque \u2014 as a foundational element of the state\u2019s burgeoning quantum ecosystem.\n\n\u201cNew Mexico is leading the nation in the development and deployment of cutting-edge quantum technologies, and this investment by Roadrunner Venture Studios and Qunnect is the latest proof of that,\u201d Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. \u201cI\u2019m pleased to welcome the launch of ABQ-Net, New Mexico\u2019s first quantum network, which will help connect the quantum entrepreneurs in Albuquerque who are accelerating our state\u2019s thriving quantum economy and creating high-quality jobs that New Mexicans can build their families around.\u201d\n\nAdam Hammer, who co-founded the venture capital firm Roadrunner Venture Studios that helped fund ABQ-Net, said the network serves as a foundation for the development and testing of other quantum computing and communications applications.\n\n\u201cABQ-Net will be the proving ground for America\u2019s next generation of quantum entrepreneurs to test, validate, and scale their technologies,\u201d Hammer said. \u201cWe are proud to partner with Qunnect to create the Southwest\u2019s first entanglement-based quantum network here in Albuquerque.\u201d\n\nQunnect\u2019s technologies leverage quantum entanglement, taking advantage of a key feature of quantum mechanics by linking particles together in dependent states. This creates a secure connection between nodes within a given network, and it supports other quantum mechanics-based systems like quantum sensing and quantum computing.\n\nNew Mexico is one of the states that has invested heavily in spurring a strong quantum science and tech research and development ecosystem, partnering with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and investing in over $300 million new quantum R&D efforts, as well as commercial ventures, as of September 2025.\n\nLeading technology companies, such as IBM and Google, are vying to lead in the race to bring quantum computing to commercial viability. Quantum networking is an often overlooked infrastructure-based element integral to scaling a quantum computer, with leading scientists noting that its difficulty stretches across multiple disciplines, including materials science and telecommunications.\n\n\u201cThe scalability is a huge challenge now, so with the demonstrations, we really need to get out of the physics experiment to a real network,\u201d Rajkumar Kettimuthu, a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, told Nextgov/FCW in September 2024.\n\nAt the federal level, the burgeoning quantum tech industry has enjoyed fairly consistent government attention and support regardless of administration. During his first term, President Donald Trump signed the National Quantum Initiative Act into law \u2014 with a reauthorization currently pending in Congress \u2014 and former President Joe Biden also called for increased budgetary support for the National Science Foundation\u2019s research in emerging technologies, including quantum information sciences.\n\n\u201cABQ-Net is the first open access user facility in the U.S. providing full-stack quantum networking infrastructure,\" said Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect, in a statement. \"Qunnect has made a name for itself bringing entanglement-based, quantum networking out of the lab and into the real world.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/nextgov-new-mexico-unveils-quantum-telecom-network"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4403518289327621, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}