All-photonic Quantum Repeaters: a Major Step Towards a Worldwide Quantum Internet

Because a practical repeater will not be a holdup, engineers expect to be able to expand quantum networks over long distances much sooner. “There's a lot of interest in the community around designing a Quantum Internet that will be more information-rich and more powerful. Our motivation was to design a means for communicating securely and reliably over long distances,” said Hoi-Kwong Lo of the University of Toronto in a press release.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/...m-internet