Quantum Security Strategy for Telecoms Leadership: 5G Authentication Risk, Network Migration, and QKD Infrastructure Investment
Peer dialogue for telecoms executives on quantum migration strategy, 5G authentication risk, and QKD infrastructure investment.
Event Details
- Who else is in the room
- Senior level executive peers, industry leaders, experts in risk, technology and business. Specifically: telecoms CEOs, CTOs, and CISOs at telecommunications operators, network infrastructure providers, and managed service providers with strategic responsibility for network PQC migration and quantum security services.
- Access
- Members only. Bundled with Expert Membership. Included with Expert Member tier
- Sponsor
- Organised by QSECDEF
- Facilitator
-
Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard Quantum Security Defence - Rules of engagement
- Chatham House Rule Chatham House Rule. Discussion is on the record; attribution is not. Participants may share what was said but not who said it.
- Format
- Roundtable Flexible between roundtable, structured Q&A or in-person hosted dinner
- Who Should Join
- This conversation is for CEOs, CTOs, and CISOs at telecommunications operators, network infrastructure providers, and major managed service providers where quantum security migration is a live network planning and commercial concern. It is relevant to executives at national telecoms operators where government QKD programme participation is a strategic option. It is not for enterprise IT teams procuring connectivity services without a network engineering mandate. Participants are expected to hold strategic responsibility for network architecture and customer-facing security capability.
About This Conversation
Why this matters now
Telecoms networks are the substrate on which every other sector's quantum migration depends, and their own PQC transition is more complex than most. 5G authentication protocols depend on elliptic curve cryptography in 3GPP specifications that have not yet been amended to mandate post-quantum algorithms: 3GPP Rel-18 (December 2023) does not specify PQC authentication, and Rel-19 evaluation of post-quantum approaches remains an active work item rather than a ratified requirement. Core network elements, signalling infrastructure, and network management systems all require coordinated migration. QKD infrastructure investment presents a separate strategic question: governments in Europe and Asia are funding QKD network deployment over telecoms fibre, creating a market and infrastructure question for operators. For telecoms executives, the migration problem is both internal, their own network infrastructure, and external, the interfaces their networks present to enterprise customers who are asking for PQC-capable connectivity.
Outcomes
What you will leave with
- A frank comparative view from telecoms peers on where PQC migration is actually progressing across core network, signalling, OAM, and enterprise connectivity services, and which elements are proving hardest to sequence given 3GPP standards timelines
- A practical framework for the customer-side question: how to respond to enterprise customers asking for PQC-capable connectivity and managed services, and what the network infrastructure actually supports in the near term
- A shared view of the 3GPP standards trajectory: which post-quantum authentication work items are progressing in Rel-19 and beyond, what the realistic implementation timeline is, and what operators can build to now without waiting for a ratified standard
- Clarity on the QKD infrastructure investment question: the business case, the government co-investment landscape, and the network architecture decisions that determine whether a QKD overlay is additive or disruptive to existing infrastructure
- Peer relationships with telecoms executives from other networks who are at different points in their migration planning and are working through the same sequencing problem under different regulatory and commercial constraints
Your Facilitator
Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard
Founder, QSECDEF
Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard has over 15 years of international experience in deep-tech, telecommunications, and defence communications networks. Her expertise spans intellectual property, advanced communications systems, and quantum secure communications. She has lived and worked across Poland, Denmark, the United States, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Germany. Anna holds dual Master of Science degrees in Theoretical Cosmology from the University of Southern Denmark and Electrical Engineering from Wright State University, USA. She is the founder and board member of Quantum Security Defence.
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