This wee demonstration in Vienna makes a bit of history.
http://optics.org/articles/news/10/8/15/1

What they are able to do (in layman's inaccurate terms) is to transmit information instantaneously without using a carrier medum (wire, fibre etc). In this case, it was the development of encryption keys at each end, which normally have to be "swapped" somehow.

The quantum cryptography system consisted of a transmitter (Alice) at Vienna's City Hall and a receiver (Bob) at the headquarters of an Austrian bank. The sites were linked by 1.45 km of singlemode optical fiber.

The team used an entangled-state quantum cryptography system that relies on entangled photon pairs. Entangled photons are unpolarized while they travel and only assume a polarization state when measured. Due to their entangled nature, a measurement of the polarization of one photon determines the polarization of the other.

According to the authors, one advantage of their system is that the key comes into existence at both Alice and Bob and does not have to be transferred between the two. With the key safely in hand, the team was able to securely wire money from the City Hall to the bank.

So by poking and prodding a trapped "entangled" photon in one location, it's partner in the entrapment reacts in a different location ... instant data transfer!