‘Soaring’ AI demand accelerates Lumen’s multibillion-dollar network expansion | Computer Weekly

Lumen Technologies has released a status report on its infrastructure build-out during 2025, claiming milestones on its mission to build 47 million intercity fibre miles.

Altogether, Lumen said construction was underway coast-to-coast, and that it has delivered “significant” progress in its mission to build the backbone for the artificial intelligence (AI) economy. It added that it was moving forward with a multibillion-dollar build, with plans to add 34 million intercity fibre miles by the end of 2028, as part of the 47 million intercity fibre mile target. The company said it has already delivered network capacity upgrades and high-speed connectivity enhancements in 2025 to build the network infrastructure enterprises need to power their AI workloads.

“This isn’t incremental: we’re positioning Lumen as the trusted network for AI, ensuring our customers have the network scale, speed and reliability to confidently innovate and grow without constraints,” said Kye Prigg, executive vice-president of enterprise operations at Lumen Technologies.

Highlighting specific milestones, the company said that in terms of new fibre deployed by the end of August 2025, it put down more than 2.2 million new intercity fibre miles (2,500+ route miles). This is projected to reach 16.6 million total intercity fibre miles by the end of the year. Lumen noted that it is utilising next-generation fibre optic cable from Corning to fit two times more fibre into existing conduits.

Construction efforts for signal boosters are now underway at 176 in-line amplifier (ILA) sites. Lumen observed that ILA shelters built on these sites are designed to serve as giant signal boosters along the network, with as much as triple the power density compared with traditional ILA shelters, and be updated, renewed and scaled for the future

The company has also expanded Conduit Access, completing indefeasible right of use conduit deployments across 55 additional routes expanding its ability to add and control fibre on these routes by securing long-term rights to underground pathways.

In terms of network capacity, Lumen said that by August 2025, it added 5.9+ Pbps of total capacity to its network so far this year, and that it was preparing to deliver the bandwidth needed to handle large volumes of data processing. It has also extended faster speeds, earmarking more than $100m to bring high-speed connectivity up to 400Gbps across clouds, datacentres and metros, creating what the firm believes is the required high-performance pipeline for AI workloads. The Lumen 400G-enabled network now spans more than 100,000 route miles.

With diverse routes connecting more than 50 major cities, Lumen said it operates the largest ultra-low-loss intercity fibre network in North America using fibre with 25% less optical loss than competitors. This is calculated on less loss translating to less frequent need for fibre optic signal regeneration, decreasing equipment costs with the 25% figure based on a comparison to vintage 2,000 fibre (decrease from .22 db/km loss to.17 db/km).

The network is also attributed with having 60% more capacity than traditional designs so it can move data more efficiently and at greater scale. The Lumen network is also attributed with offering less than five millisecond latency at the edge, covering up to 97% of US business demand.

Another key facet highlighted in the status report was an update on the Lumen Private Connectivity Fabric. Designed for AI workloads, its aim is to help businesses unite services and drive efficiency with a self-service portal and full lifecycle automation. It allows them to purchase, deploy and remotely manage consumption-based services with the speed and agility demanded by a multi-cloud, AI-first world.

“Every mile of new fibre and capacity upgrade adds to the strength of our Private Connectivity Fabric,” said Prigg. “Lumen is doing more than expanding infrastructure, we’re laying the foundation for the AI economy.”