Lumen: “We’re Building the Backbone for the AI Economy” – NaaS platform to be available to more customers
“Lumen is determined to lead the transformation of our industry to meet the demands of the AI economy,” said Lumen Technologies CEO Kate Johnson. “With ubiquitous reach and a digital-first platform, we are positioned to deliver next-gen connectivity, power enterprise innovation, and secure our own growth. This is how we build the trusted network for AI and deliver exceptional value to our customers and shareholders.”
Highlights included keynote remarks from Johnson, who outlined the three pillars of the company’s strategy:
- Building the backbone for the AI economy with a physical network designed for scale, speed, and security – delivering connectivity anywhere and for everything customers want to do.
- Cloudifying and agentifying telecom to reduce complexity and simplify the network for customers as an intelligent, on-demand, consumption-based digital platform.
- Creating a connected ecosystem with partnerships that extend Lumen’s reach, accelerate customer-first, AI-driven innovation, and unlock new opportunities across industries.
Johnson noted how Lumen’s growth is powered by a set of unique enablers that turn the company’s network into a true digital platform. With near-term product launches like self-service digital portal Lumen Connect, a universal Fabric Port, and new innovations in development that extend intelligence into the network edge, Lumen is making connectivity programmable and effortless. Combined with the company’s Network-as-a-Service business model and a connected ecosystem of data centers, hyper-scalers and technology partners, these enablers give customers the speed, security, and simplicity they need to thrive in the AI economy.
Lumen Technologies CEO Kate Johnson spotlights the company’s bold strategy, financial progress, and early look at product roadmap to reimagine digital networking for the AI economy at a gathering of industry analysts.
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Chief Financial Officer Chris Stansbury said 2026 is expected to mark an inflection point as new digital revenues, growth in IP and Wavelengths, and long-term hyper-scaler contracts begin to outpace legacy declines – setting up what he called a “trampoline moment” for expansion. Lumen projects business segment revenue growth in 2028 and a return to overall top-line growth in 2029, establishing a clear path from stabilization to value creation.
With a strengthened balance sheet and greater financial freedom, executives highlighted the bold investment in the company’s three strategic pillars, each designed to accelerate innovation and position Lumen for long-term industry leadership.
Lumen’s strategy begins with the physical network, which carries a significant portion of the world’s internet traffic. With construction underway coast-to-coast, the company is executing a multi-billion-dollar program to expand its intercity and metro fiber backbone:
- Adding 34 million new fiber miles by the end of 2028 for a total of 47 million intercity and metro miles.
- Connecting data centers, clouds, edge, and enterprise locations in any combination.
- Delivering 400G today and plans to scale to 1.6 terabits in the future.
Lumen’s substantial investments to expand high-speed connectivity ensures customers have the network scale, speed, and reliability to confidently innovate and grow without constraints.
The rise of AI is driving unprecedented demands for a new, Cloud 2.0 architecture with distributed, low-latency, high-bandwidth networks that can move and process massive amounts of data across multi-cloud, edge, and enterprise locations. Lumen is meeting this challenge by cloudifying and agentifying telecom, turning its expansive fiber footprint into a programmable digital platform that strips away the complexity of legacy networking.
Lumen plans to make its network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform [1.] available to more customers, regardless of their existing internet connection. At the company’s Analyst Forum, The NaaS platform includes new innovations like Lumen Fabric Port (Q4 2025), Lumen Multi-Cloud Gateway (Q4 2025), and Lumen Connect (Q1 2026). Together, these technologies digitize the entire service lifecycle, so customers can provision, manage, and scale thousands of services across thousands of locations, within minutes.
Note 1. Network as a Service (NaaS) is a cloud-based model that allows businesses to rent networking services from a provider on a subscription or pay-per-use basis, instead of building and maintaining their own network infrastructure. NaaS provides scalable and flexible network capabilities, shifting the cost from a capital expense (CapEx) to an operational expense (OpEx). NaaS functions by using a virtualized, software-defined network, meaning the network capabilities are abstracted from the physical hardware. Businesses access and manage their network resources through a web-based interface or portal, and the NaaS provider manages the underlying infrastructure, including hardware, software, updates, and troubleshooting.
Lumen CTO Dave Ward unveiled “Project Berkeley,” a network interface device that essentially expands the company’s NaaS services, like on-demand internet, Ethernet and IP VPN, to off-net sites using any access type. Those access types can be 5G, fiber, copper, fixed wireless access, satellite and more. Project Berkeley leverages digital twin technology, which lets Lumen have “a full replicate understanding of exactly what’s going on in this device running out of our cloud.”
Ward said on the company’s website:
“Lumen is taking the network out of its hardware box and transforming it into a true digital platform. Technology and Product Officer Dave Ward. “By cloudifying our fiber assets into software and disrupting cloud economics, we’re giving customers the ability to turn up services within minutes, scale as their AI workloads demand, and innovate at cloud speed. This is what the future of digital networking should deliver.”
Lumen has been growing its NaaS platform for some time. It launched its first offering in 2023 and now counts over 1,000 enterprise NaaS customers. The company now plans to bring its connectivity products to over 10 million off-net buildings, said Ward. The device will also allow hyper-scalers to integrate and sell these products in their respective marketplaces.
In closing the Analyst session, CEO Johnson underscored that Lumen’s strategies are the foundation of the company’s momentum today – transforming the industry with innovation to fuel growth, strengthening financial performance, and positioning the company as a critical enabler in the digital economy.
“We’re thrilled by the energy and engagement we’ve seen from the analyst community. The discussions around how Lumen is delivering an expansive network, digital platform, connected ecosystem and winning culture to meet the exponential enterprise demands of AI demonstrate the urgent need for innovation in our industry, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of that conversation.”
About Lumen Technologies:
Lumen is unleashing the world’s digital potential. We ignite business growth by connecting people, data, and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. As the trusted network for AI, Lumen uses the scale of our network to help companies realize AI’s full potential. From metro connectivity to long-haul data transport to our edge cloud, security, managed service, and digital platform capabilities, we meet our customers’ needs today and as they build for tomorrow.
For news and insights visit news.lumen.com, LinkedIn: /lumentechnologies, X: lumentechco, Facebook: /lumentechnologies, Instagram: @lumentechnologies and YouTube: /lumentechnologies. Lumen and Lumen Technologies are registered trademarks of Lumen Technologies LLC in the United States. Lumen Technologies LLC is a wholly owned affiliate of Lumen Technologies, Inc.
References:
For a replay of the webcast, visit Lumen’s investor website
https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/lumen-says-its-taking-its-naas-new-level
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