euNetworks launches new quantum-safe private connectivity service powered by Adtran’s encrypted optical transport technology

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 2026--

Adtran and euNetworks today announced their collaboration on the launch of a new quantum-safe private connectivity service, Quantum Shield. euNetworks has developed Quantum Shield using Adtran’s optical transport technology to augment its broader architecture, which is designed to deliver secure, scalable data center connectivity across euNetworks’ pan-European network.

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The new offering is built for enterprises with stringent security, performance and customer-controlled encryption requirements. The deployment combines high-capacity dedicated infrastructure with real-time fiber monitoring and enhanced optical-layer visibility to safeguard critical traffic. By integrating advanced encryption with continuous monitoring across the optical layer, euNetworks can deliver the highest levels of protection for sensitive data moving across Europe.

This comes at a time when organizations across Europe are accelerating plans to secure data in transit in response to evolving cybersecurity regulations and post-quantum security guidance. The EU’s coordinated post-quantum cryptography roadmap* targets migration of high-risk and critical infrastructure environments by 2030, while regulations, including DORA and NIS2, are increasing expectations for encryption, crypto-agility and the protection of sensitive traffic traversing private and third-party infrastructure.

euNetworks will offer Quantum Shield to customers as an additional security layer for their Private Connect MOFN solution, which provides private, managed network infrastructure for organizations seeking enhanced security, scalability and control over their data. The addition of private quantum-safe connectivity provides the security of the organization’s dedicated fiber, plus quantum-resistant encryption at Layer 1, ensuring all traffic is automatically encrypted.

The new infrastructure is built on Adtran’s FSP 3000 optical transport platform, incorporating S-Flex ™ technology to support high-capacity encrypted DCI services. euNetworks is harnessing post-quantum cryptography aligned with NIST standards to protect traffic traversing dedicated optical infrastructure. The cryptography is designed to meet current requirements while remaining aligned with emerging cybersecurity standards, supporting a crypto-agile approach as requirements evolve.

The encryption is coupled with Adtran’s ALM solution to provide continuous assurance by instantly detecting and precisely locating fiber-tapping events. Together, these capabilities deliver an integrated optical system that supports low latency, high throughput and enhanced security while giving customers full transparency and control over how their data is secured across the optical layer.

“Data center connectivity sits at the heart of our customers’ operations, particularly in environments where security and resilience are non-negotiable,” said Marisa Trisolino, CEO of euNetworks. “We’re committed to providing customers with connectivity that meets increasingly stringent security requirements and chose to partner with Adtran because they bring deep expertise in optical networking and a practical understanding of how private infrastructure is built and operated at scale. Together, we’re providing connectivity that combines strong security, predictable performance and clear visibility into the underlying network, while customers retain control over how their data is encrypted. As customer expectations continue to evolve, having trusted partners and proven solutions is essential to supporting long-term digital growth across Europe.”

“Operators like euNetworks are setting a clear benchmark for how secure data center connectivity should be delivered,” commented Christoph Glingener, CTO of Adtran. “This deployment shows how purpose-built optical platforms, developed through decades of expertise in secure DCI, can support private network models that prioritize security, transparency and operational control. By combining quantum-resilient encryption with real-time fiber monitoring, we’re helping euNetworks safeguard critical traffic without compromising performance or scalability. This kind of deployment reflects a broader shift in how critical connectivity is being built, giving enterprises confidence that their networks are ready not just for today’s demands, but for the security challenges ahead.”

About Adtran

ADTRAN Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN and FSE: QH9) is the parent company of Adtran, Inc., a leading global provider of open, disaggregated networking and communications solutions that enable voice, data, video and internet communications across any network infrastructure. From the cloud edge to the subscriber edge, Adtran empowers communications service providers around the world to manage and scale services that connect people, places and things. Adtran solutions are used by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations and millions of individual users worldwide. ADTRAN Holdings, Inc. is also the majority shareholder of Adtran Networks SE, formerly ADVA Optical Networking SE. Find more at Adtran, LinkedIn and X.

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ADTRAN Holdings, Inc.
www.adtran.com

About euNetworks

euNetworks is a pan-European provider of bandwidth infrastructure services and a vital enabler of Cloud and AI adoption. We’re the leading connectivity partner for data centre companies and their customers in Europe, directly connecting over 600 data centres today. We own and operate 18 metropolitan city networks connected with a high capacity intercity backbone covering 53 cities in 17 countries. A leading provider of cloud connectivity, we directly connect to all major cloud platforms.

euNetworks delivers scalable solutions to a customer base that is at the centre of technology transformation, offering a targeted portfolio of metropolitan, private and long haul network services underpinned by Dark Fibre, Wavelengths, Ethernet and Internet technology. We proactively invest in our network to ensure Europe’s demand for bandwidth is met today and into the future.

euNetworks delivers services with an active commitment to Sustainability, striving towards net-zero carbon emissions, promoting environmentally responsible supply chain practices and engaging collaboratively with the industry to address the environmental challenges ahead.

Further resources

*• European Commission – Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography (published June 2025): EU PQC Roadmap

• European Commission – Recommendation on a Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography (Recommendation EU 2024/1101): EU PQC Recommendation 2024/1101

• UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – Timelines for migration to post-quantum cryptography: NCSC PQC Migration Timelines

• EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) – ICT risk management and cryptographic controls: DORA Article 6 – ICT Risk Management Framework

• DORA Regulatory Technical Standards – Encryption and cryptographic controls: DORA RTS Article 6 – Encryption and Cryptographic Controls

Adtran’s encrypted optical transport technology is helping euNetworks deliver the highest levels of protection for sensitive data moving across Europe.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than a decade, the United States dramatically reduced its national smog levels, but since 2015 smoke from increasingly larger wildfires is reversing that clean-up trend and making the air dirtier and deadlier, a new study finds.

Scientists say climate change deserves much, but not all, of the blame.

The national smog level dropped by 11% from 2003 to 2015 as strict federal regulations on power plants, cars and diesel engines kicked in. But since then, as wildfires have grown, the nation's average ground level ozone — which is smog — increased by 4%. That means if smoke increases at the current rate, smog will go back up to 2003 levels in 20 years, said study lead author Weizhi Deng, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Iowa.

Thursday's study in the journal Science also estimated an increase in deaths from ozone attacking lungs, using previously established epidemiology studies that compared death rates in clean and dirty air. They calculated an increase of 318 American deaths per year since 2013.

“For the last 20 years, by regulations, we keep decreasing the emissions" for human-caused smog-inducing chemicals, said study co-author Meng Zhou, a University of Iowa wildfire researcher. “However, because of wildfires, that is actually from natural hazards, all those kinds of effort were wiped out.”

The study was novel in the way it estimated the national smog level, compensating for how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a limited number of smog monitors. Those cover only 2% of the nation, mostly in urban areas. So Deng and his colleagues used those observations — along with satellite, pollution and weather data and models — then used artificial intelligence to create a nationwide data set of ozone levels showing smog count at a resolution slightly higher than half a mile (1 kilometer).

EPA figures show the national ozone level since 2015 has vacillated around the same mark, going up and down a few percentage points, but Deng said, “by considering everywhere in the U.S., we actually found an increase in ozone starting from 2015.”

The method using artificial intelligence is solid because it starts with “massive and reliable datasets,” then uses computer models to fill in the gaps in a sensible way to make an “exceptional” high-resolution picture, said University of Delaware environment professor Cristina Archer, who wasn’t part of the study.

Megafire Action's research director and senior policy advisor Teresa Feo said “experts have long called for expanding the air pollution monitoring network to improve research on wildfire smoke exposure and provide the data needed to better protect public health.”

For decades, the U.S. tracked six traditional air pollutants, including smog and soot, which are tiny particles. This new study looked only at ozone, while a 2023 study by many of the same team looked at small particle pollution. They found the downward trend in soot levels had similarly reversed. Wildfire smoke increased particle pollution deaths by about 670 per year, the 2023 study found.

Fires don't produce ozone itself, but they release precursor chemicals that become smog when they interact with sunlight, scientists said.

“Higher daily ozone concentrations can increase asthma attacks, hospital admissions, and mortality,” said University of Washington public health and climate scientist Kristie Ebi. It's not quite as deadly as tiny particles, she said, but it's “still a very important pollutant, which is why it's regulated.”

During the heavy wildfire smoke seasons of 2022, 2023 and 2024, much of the fires were in Canada, but the smoke came south. In the U.S., 43 million people were exposed to smog levels that exceeded the current EPA safety standard, the study found.

And that standard isn't stringent enough, said Dr. Lynn Goldman, former dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and a former EPA assistant administrator. In 2023, the Biden administration delayed plans to tighten those standards and then the Trump administration changed regulations that consider deaths and health impacts in smog and soot rules.

The biggest increase in ozone levels were in the Northern Rockies, which were near many of the fires, and in the Midwest, where the smoke travelled next, Deng said.

The average amount of U.S. land that wildfires burn each year is now 9% higher than it was from 2003 to 2014, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. But the wildfires in Canada have been particularly bad since 2022, scientists said. They pointed to 2023 when the skies were orange and people in the East were wearing face masks because of the Canadian smoke.

The amount of land burned in 2023 in Canada was not only a record but two times higher than the old record, said atmospheric scientist Brendan Rogers of the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Smoke from that year's Canadian fires killed 82,100 people globally — 33,000 in the United States — because of the particle pollution, a study in 2025 calculated.

Climate change, from the burning of coal, oil and gas, increased the intensity of Canada's 2023 fire season by at least 50% and doubled the chances of the drier, hotter weather conditions that were needed for the fire, a 2023 study found.

“Human-caused climate change is an important contributor, because it increases hot, dry fire-weather conditions in many regions,” said Lixu Jin, an atmospheric scientist at Rutgers who wasn't part of the study. “But wildfire emissions also depend on fuels, land management, ignitions, suppression, and year-to-year meteorology.”

Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who served in the Obama administration, said it was discouraging to see smog improvements being eroded.

Wildfires cause death and destruction, but the greatest danger may come from smoke and extreme heat increasing the ozone that harms people’s health, she argued,

“So the big question is," she said, “when are we going to stop the nonsense from this administration to burn more and more ‘beautiful’ fossil fuels?”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

FILE - A man runs in front of the sun rising over the lower Manhattan skyline in Jersey City, N.J., June 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - A woman steps away as the Sandy Fire approaches a neighborhood May 18, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - An air tanker drops fire retardant on the Sandy Fire on May 18, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - A firefighter works as the Sandy Fire approaches May 19, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman, File)

FILE - Mayra Long looks from inside her home as the Sandy Fire approaches May 19, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman, File)

FILE - Firefighters are silhouetted amid an operation to control the Sandy Fire, May 19, 2026, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman, File)