Practicality of quantum communications systems

[aquitaine]

Some years ago there was a news announcement about a quantum commlink between Beijing and Shanghai, more recently a few weeks ago there was the announcement of the first ever quantum communication satellite. I've done some looking but I haven't found any analysis about whether or not this is real. So is all this practical? Is it for real? Is it a fraud? Or is it all just about propaganda?

 

[ohad]

Looks like quantum network is already operational:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_network