Cybersecurity is at a turning point. As the quantum age approaches, today’s encryption will not hold up against tomorrow’s attacks. Techniques like ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ are already in play, and the risk is growing for telecom operators, large enterprises and public infrastructure.

That’s why Sitehop teamed up with BT to run a breakthrough trial at one of the most advanced telecoms testing grounds in Europe.

 

A UK-first for quantum-safe encryption

BT granted Sitehop the first-ever external access to its flagship test and integration facility, a secure replica of its live network environment. This facility is normally reserved for BT’s own internal development, making the opportunity a rare and powerful endorsement of UK cybersecurity innovation.

“Supporting SMEs is vital for the UK’s economic growth and innovation,” said Peter Bell, Managing Director of International Business and Adastral Park at BT.

“As a national champion for the UK, a key mission for BT is to help our customers build stronger, smarter, more secure businesses. An important part of this is helping innovative domestic companies to enter the market, to support supply chain sovereignty and help businesses to grow.”

What we tested and what we proved

Our goal was to show that encryption built for a quantum-safe future doesn’t have to come at the cost of speed or scale. The results were clear:

• 90Gbps throughput
• 75% reduction in power consumption
• Minimal packet loss and improved latency
• Just two clicks to configure and deploy

This was a full proof of concept in a real-world environment. The trial proved that our SAFE Series hardware can run high-speed encryption with near-zero impact on performance, even in demanding telecom conditions.

“With the right support or partnerships and commercial models,” Peter Bell continued, “we see there is potential for BT’s test and integration facilities to serve as a ‘UK PLC’ test facility that accelerates mission-led, high Technology Readiness Level innovations, contributing to a sovereign and secure UK telecoms sector.”

Why it matters now

The UK Government has named quantum one of its six ‘frontier technologies’ for long-term economic growth. To build a quantum-enabled economy, we need telecom infrastructure that is not only fast and resilient, but quantum-secure by design.

“This is a big moment that validates UK sovereign innovation can play a central role in the country’s digital infrastructure,” said Melissa Chambers, founder and CEO of Sitehop.

“We’re proving networks don’t have to sacrifice performance for security.”

Our solution is already live with a Tier 1 carrier across seven countries. It’s based on open IPsec protocols to avoid vendor lock-in and built with crypto agility, meaning firmware can be upgraded remotely as standards evolve.

Safe To Connect

Following the successful trial, BT has granted Sitehop its Safe to Connect certification, a recognition designed to help UK companies prove their technologies are robust enough for live telecom environments. This certification is more than a badge. It acts as a trust signal to operators, enterprises and government buyers that Sitehop’s technology meets the security, performance and integration standards expected in critical national infrastructure. It also marks an important step toward lowering the barriers that often keep innovative smaller companies out of telecom supply chains.

Moving forward together

BT’s collaboration with Sitehop is a signal to the broader ecosystem: it is possible for large and small players to work together to secure the UK’s national digital backbone.

“The initiative reflects BT’s ambition to strengthen the UK’s digital backbone by supporting domestic innovators and lowering barriers to market entry for small businesses,” said BT.

“It exemplifies how large and small/medium organisations can collaborate to protect the country’s national infrastructure and accelerate the UK’s quantum-enabled economy.”

 

 

To find out more, email info@sitehop.com

Or call us on: +44 (0)114 478 2366

Sitehop.

Engineered for speed. Built for the future.

With the explosion of data, increased risk, and customers demanding trusted high-speed communications, there’s never been a better time to evolve the networks the UK needs. Secure, fast, future-proof and trusted. That’s why we’re proud to announce Sitehop’s involvement in a first-of-its-kind Proof of Concept (PoC) with BT at the Gemini test facility within Adastral Park, home to BT’s global R&D.

This collaboration represents more than a technical validation. It signals a shift, a growing belief that agile, sovereign innovators have a critical role to play in securing and accelerating the UK’s digital infrastructure with a foundation of engineering and innovation. Keeping people connected. At speed. Safely.

 

A New Model for Collaboration

The Gemini facility is a replica of BT’s live network, Europe’s largest and most advanced telecom test environment. Until now, access to Gemini has been limited to BT and its tier-one vendors. This week, Sitehop is the first SME to be invited in. Our mission is to demonstrate how our high-speed, low-power, post-quantum-ready encryption hardware and Network Management can meet BT’s performance, interoperability and security standards, and potentially qualify for Safe to Connect certification, BT’s highest trust benchmark.

For both sides, this trial is about more than devices. It is about testing an approach for the future where the UK’s network leaders and security innovators work together to create the kind of infrastructure the country, and the world, needs.

 

Built to Support BT’s Transformation

BT has made clear its strategic intent:

• To build the best, most trusted digital networks
• To connect customers so they thrive, as we grow, in a digital world.
• To accelerate modernisation to restore leadership in everything BT does

At Sitehop, our technology has been engineered to do exactly that.

Build: We remove legacy bottlenecks with ultra-low latency, FPGA-based encryption, delivering 100 Gbps performance with crypto agility built in.

Connect: Our plug-and-play devices support scalable deployments from the core to the edge, without sacrificing simplicity or cost-efficiency.

Accelerate: We enable faster, greener, more secure network growth. Sitehop uses just a tenth of the power of traditional solutions while delivering 10,000x lower latency than software-based alternatives.

These are not incremental improvements. They are exponential gains, the kind that can help us unlock the next generation of UK connectivity.

 

Why Telcos Choose Sitehop

Telecom networks are evolving rapidly, becoming more dynamic and security critical. Sitehop enables operators to keep pace and stay ahead.

• Zero trade-offs: Add robust, real-time encryption without sacrificing network performance, customer experience or cost efficiency.
• End-to-end flexibility: From 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps, classical encryption to post-quantum cryptography, Sitehop scales to fit any architecture.
• Easy to deploy and manage: Pre-integrated with existing network infrastructure, with cloud-ready, centralised management through Sitehop SAFEnms.
• Future-proof by design: Post-quantum ready, crypto agile, and engineered to support the demands of AI, 5G, edge and hyperscaler environments.
• Sustainable and efficient: A fraction of the energy consumption of software-based solutions, helping operators hit sustainability targets while boosting performance.
• Trusted and sovereign: Built entirely in the UK, Sitehop helps reduce supplier dependency while strengthening national and commercial security posture.

For telcos, this is a smarter way to secure networks.

 

Supporting a Stronger UK Ecosystem

Sitehop is a UK-born, UK-backed business with global vision. But our mission starts here, protecting the nation’s networks and data at the speed modern business, and we as consumers demand.

This Proof of Concept reflects a broader opportunity, to create space for mission-led, sovereign innovators within national infrastructure to give the UK a more competitive, more resilient and more sustainable digital foundation.

We are proud to be the first company to take part in this type of PoC. But we are even more excited about what happens next.

 

The Future Is Now

As BT says in its 2025 Strategic Report – the world is getting louder, faster and more complex. Networks are evolving. Threats are multiplying. Expectations are rising. And the UK has the chance to lead, by building trusted digital infrastructure backed by trusted innovation. That’s exactly where Sitehop thrives.

Sitehop. Engineered for speed. Built for the future.

Call us on: +44 (0)114 478 2366

Or email info@sitehop.com

Categories: BT, Infrastructure, Security