Lumen Sells Mass Markets FTTH Business to AT&T

Lumen is sharpening its focus on where it has the strongest right to win: powering the digital future for enterprise.

Two important trends are driving this decision. First, AI has become the mission-critical technology for business—and enterprise customers need secure, high-capacity networks built for that future. Second, consumer fiber and wireless demands are converging, making scale more important than ever in that space.

By selling Lumen’s mass markets fiber-to-the-home business to AT&T, including 95% of Quantum Fiber, we unlock significant value. The $5.75 billion transaction gives Lumen the financial flexibility to reduce debt, strengthen the balance sheet and accelerate investments in our enterprise services like direct fiber access, cloud on-ramps and multi-cloud gateways to scale faster and lead in the AI-powered economy.

It’s a smart, strategic move that benefits both companies and positions Lumen to grow where it matters most.

This transaction delivers significant financial benefits to fuel Lumen’s growth.

Based on a closing price of $5.75 billion, we expect to use net after-tax proceeds along with cash on hand to reduce our debt by approximately $4.8 billion.

In turn, our interest expense will be reduced significantly. We estimate an annual interest expense reduction of approximately $300 million. In addition, we expect our total annual capex will be reduced by approximately $1 billion at close.

Together, this has a net annualized cash flow impact of a positive $1.3 billion, excluding the impact from aEBITDA sold.

This transaction is one of a kind and gives Lumen the financial freedom to invest and innovate in the enterprise connectivity and services market where we have a right to win.

The transaction is expected to close within the next twelve months, subject to any necessary approvals and closing conditions. 

After close, Lumen moves into an exciting new phase of its transformation—more focused, more agile and fully committed to leading in the enterprise market. 

We’ll accelerate our AI-ready network—scaling to 47 million inner-city fiber miles by 2028—and invest in our core enterprise services, including direct fiber access, cloud onramps and multi-cloud gateways, to deepen our work with hyperscalers, cloud providers, enterprise businesses and public sector customers. 

This deal gives us the financial flexibility to go faster and smarter where we have the right to win. 

We’re building a digital networking company that will serve the needs of enterprise customers – today that’s AI, and on the horizon, it’s in quantum computing.

This strategic decision is grounded in the expansive critical infrastructure we’re retaining and the forward-thinking future we’re building.