A collaborative team of researchers from Qrate, a Russian technology company, and Moscow-based MISiS University is developing a compact and competitively priced quantum communications system which could reportedly be used in any PC for protected data transfer. The deadline is the end of this year.

At the core of the effort is a quantum key distribution mini-system to be available to everybody across the B2B and B2C segments. The system is basically an expansion card for ordinary PCs, enabling users to connect to a quantum network and exchange data with up to a hundred network clients.

The cost of using the prospective network is estimated to be around $10,000, which appears to be just a fraction of what users have to pay for currently available quantum communications equipment.