Lumen to Expand U.S. Intercity Fiber Reach

DENVER--Lumen Technologies has diligently responded to businesses’ needs for more network capacity and recently created the largest ultra-low-loss fiber network in the world. Lumen is now investing another 6 million fiber miles to meet the continuing demand for fiber, which is expected to be installed by 2026.

Once complete, Lumen's U.S. intercity investment will reach nearly 12 million fiber miles, creating diverse routes to more than 50 major cities across the country. To set this network apart from others, Lumen continues upgrading its infrastructure using a multi-conduit system, allowing for the quick deployment of the latest fiber technology.

"We are creating a next-gen network and fiber type matters," said Andrew Dugan, Lumen’s chief technology officer. "As demand for optical fiber increases and technology evolves, Lumen's multi-conduit infrastructure means we can install the latest fiber type quickly and economically. It's difficult to upgrade legacy intercity networks without multiple conduits. These networks end up being stuck with older fiber technology. Lumen is fixing that issue with our upgraded technology. 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 differentiating us from other network providers."

Lumen continues using Corning's SMF-28® ULL fiber and SMF-28® Ultra fiber to upgrade its intercity infrastructure and add capacity to its network. This is the latest in optical technology.

Lumen has upgraded over 24,000 route miles across its U.S. intercity network. This enhances network performance levels and supports the deployment of its Next-Generation Optical platform. This platform was specifically designed to handle increasing network traffic. This fiber technology can now support customer Wavelength services up to 400G and increase customer speeds in the future. This helps meet businesses’ high bandwidth needs and allows their data to be acquired and analyzed in real-time.
Businesses will benefit through this fiber network that offers a faster connection to the big cloud service providers. They can also design and build their own network services to support their digital needs using an app called Topology Viewer.
Companies seeking highly reliable, low-latency network infrastructure along their digital journeys will benefit from this latest fiber technology. That includes businesses, government agencies and providers seeking fiber to build their own secure, scalable networks for next-generation applications.