D-Wave and AT&T Expand Quantum Deal for Network Optimization
AT&T has signed an agreement to expand its use of D-Wave’s quantum computers for optimizing its network. The headline is one early result, where a network optimization job that used to take about an hour finished in under 15 seconds. Both companies say they’ll now test the technology across outage response, technician routing, network planning, and traffic management.
How AT&T plans to use D-Wave’s quantum computers
D-Wave builds quantum annealers, a specialized kind of machine tuned for optimization as opposed to general-purpose computing. Optimization is exactly what a phone network throws off in bulk: which trucks go where, which routes carry which traffic, how to rebuild after an outage. According to the July 27 press release, AT&T’s plan is to fold D-Wave’s annealing systems into the AI tools it already runs, the same agentic software the carrier credits with cutting customer downtime by 12 million hours in 2025.
The one concrete data point so far is that single workload, which D-Wave says dropped from about an hour to under 15 seconds. Everything past that is exploration. The companies list outage detection, technician routing, network build planning, and traffic management as things AT&T “plans to explore,” and AT&T is separately evaluating D-Wave’s forthcoming gate-model machines for quantum security and communications work. Lucus Haugen, who directs data science in AT&T’s Chief Data Office, framed the appeal in operational terms:
“D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology gives us a new way to approach optimization and high-intensity compute challenges across AT&T’s network operations. (…) The speed we’re seeing with D-Wave challenges what’s currently possible.”
A named enterprise customer moving past a pilot is a real signal for D-Wave, which is one of the few quantum companies with paying commercial traction. That commercial story runs through its recent move from the NYSE to the Nasdaq and its uneven but climbing bookings numbers.
Why the 15-second result needs context
The “one hour to under 15 seconds” figure is D-Wave’s own, for a single workload, and the release names no classical baseline it was measured against and no problem size. That qualifier has to travel with the number, or it reads as a blanket speedup rather than one result on one job. Real-world optimization tests tend to come hedged the same way, from IQM and Deutsche Bahn’s rail-scheduling experiment to Singapore’s defense mission-planning trial with IBM.
The rest deserves the same discount. Almost every application named here is something AT&T intends to test, not something deployed, and the security work targets gate-model systems D-Wave hasn’t shipped. CEO Alan Baratz’s line about “leading enterprises” turning to quantum is vendor positioning. What’s solid is narrower and still worth reporting: a large carrier has committed to putting real optimization problems on a quantum annealer and measuring what comes back, which is the kind of test the field needs more of as enterprises start judging quantum by business value.