Lumen Is Built for Enterprise Connectivity

Lumen has completed the sale of its Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business to AT&T, including Quantum Fiber, for $5.75 billion. With the transaction closed, Lumen has fully pivoted to where we’re built to lead: the enterprise. This move strengthens our balance sheet and enables accelerated investments in the AI-ready network, digital platform, and connected ecosystem that modern businesses and public sector organizations need to win in the AI economy.

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Kate Johnson on Lumen’s Path to Growth

Hear from Lumen CEO Kate Johnson on how the completed transaction reinforces our strategy—and why closing the sale marks a defining moment in building the digital networking services company that powers AI, innovation, and growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve outlined answers to the most common questions about the transaction, what it means for Lumen, and what happens next.

What assets did Lumen sell to AT&T, and what assets will Lumen retain? What financial benefits does the completed transaction unlock for Lumen? What does the closing of this transaction mean for Lumen’s future?

Lumen sold its Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) business in 11 states to AT&T.  This includes substantially all of the related consumer fiber access network and customer relationships in those markets, which serves more than 1 million fiber customers and reaches more than 4 million enabled fiber locations.  

The transaction also transfers approximately 95% of our Quantum Fiber brand and operations in those states, along with certain supporting local assets and employees who will continue serving customers as part of AT&T and its subsidiaries.

Importantly, Lumen retains the infrastructure that is critical to the company’s enterprise strategy, including our national, regional, state, and metro fiber backbone and our copper-based broadband and voice services. These assets continue to support our enterprise, wholesale, and public sector customers across the country.  

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The completed sale delivers significant financial benefits for Lumen. The proceeds from this transaction enable us to strengthen our balance sheet and put us on a path to sustainable growth. At the time of closing, we applied approximately $4.8B from the transaction proceeds and cash on hand to retire all super priority debt, lowering annual interest expense by $300M and freeing up capital to reinvest in our core enterprise services. 

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Lumen has now pivoted to an exciting new phase of its transformation—more focused, more agile, and fully dedicated to leading in the enterprise market. By exiting the Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business in select states, we’ve sharpened our strategy around where we have the greatest right to win: serving enterprises, hyperscalers and the public sector with an AI-ready network, a digital platform, and a connected ecosystem of partners. 

The proceeds from the sale, combined with cash on hand, will be used to reduce debt and strengthen our balance sheet, which will lower interest expense and improve financial flexibility. That stronger financial foundation accelerates our transformation, enabling Lumen to move faster to modernize our network, scale our digital platform to cloudify and agentify our network infrastructure, and build our growing connected ecosystem of technology partners that expands our reach and drives real outcomes for enterprise customers.  

This puts Lumen on the path to sustainable growth and strengthens our position as the trusted network for AI. 

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