Lumen Technologies is adding 6 million fiber miles to its business network. When the upgrade is completed in 2026, the network will consist of almost 12 million fiber miles and provide diverse routes to more than 50 cities across the United States.
Lumen says that it is deploying multi-conduit infrastructure for intercity networks because it enables diverse fiber types to be installed quickly and economically. Not using this approach can limit networks to older technology, Lumen said. The company will use ultra-low-loss fiber from Corning.
“We are creating a next-gen network, and fiber type matters,” Lumen CTO Andrew Dugan said in a press release. “We can extend signal reach to help reduce equipment costs and increase bandwidth capacity. Using ultra-low-loss fiber on the Lumen network is a major component of what differentiates us from other network providers.”
Lumen has upgraded over 24,000 route miles across its U.S. intercity network to support deployment of its next-generation optical platform. The company says the fiber being used can support wavelength services up to 400G and allows increases beyond that in the future. The network is designed for fast connections to major cloud service providers and gives businesses the ability to build their own network services with the Topology Viewer app.
Lumen has been reorienting itself, at least in the United States. The highest profile move was in October, when it completed the sale of incumbent local exchange carrier holdings in 20 states to Brightspeed.
That wasn’t the only move it has made this year, however. In April, the company said it would upgrade Ethernet services to more than 40 cities by the end of the year. At that time, it said that services already had been rolled out to nine cities and that nine more would gain 30 Gbps Ethernet services in May.
In August, Lumen announced the Quantum Fiber service that would offer symmetrical 8 Gbps service in Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle.
Lumen has fiber in more than 60 countries.
