Lumen Sets a New Standard for Enterprise Connectivity Speed with RapidRoutes

By: Lumen Technologies via Business Wire

September 09, 2025 at 08:45 AM EDT

Ready-to-deploy 100G and 400G Wavelengths Now Delivered in 20 Days

As AI and cloud network architectures rewrite the rules of connectivity, Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) is responding with Wavelength RapidRoutes℠—a faster way for enterprises to get the high-capacity connections they need. Enterprises purchasing wavelength services can wait months for provisioning. Lumen’s ready-to-deploy network paths remove delays, guesswork, and complexity when creating wavelength services, and include an industry-leading 20-day delivery service level agreement (SLA)*. This bold approach means more enterprises can scale quickly by slashing the time to turn up services.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909962678/en/

“Enterprises can’t afford to wait for critical connectivity,” said Dave Ward, chief technology and product officer for Lumen Technologies. “With RapidRoutes, we’re eliminating the friction—no more long quoting periods or engineering delays. We’re giving customers a simple promise: get the capacity you need, exactly when you need it. With a 20-day SLA for service delivery and speeds up to 400G on prioritized routes across Lumen’s intercity fiber network—with plans to grow to over 47 million miles by the end of 2028—we’re redefining what it means to connect with confidence and speed.”

Supporting Data-Intensive Industries

Built for the AI era, RapidRoutes are pre-defined, high-demand network connections delivering 100G and up to 400G connections for enterprises, hyperscalers, content providers, government organizations and critical industries that need to move massive amounts of data quickly. By removing the need for custom engineering, Lumen can provision prioritized routes almost instantly, making network procurement predictable and effortless.

Expanding 400G Reach

To help industries move massive volumes of data at faster speeds, Lumen is also aggressively expanding its 400G-enabled footprint to 100,000 wavelength route miles, adding 1.26 petabytes of new capacity at over 300 locations across 25 metro markets. Lumen Wavelength Solutions provide connectivity to more than 125 cloud on-ramps, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, and IBM. Combining this scale with pre-engineered routes enables enterprises to keep pace with AI and cloud growth.

Bringing a Digital Experience to Waves Management

Businesses can efficiently scale and manage their networks by quickly adding Lumen wavelength capacity through a portal equipped with AI-driven tools and more than 300 automated workflows. Leveraging RapidRoutes alongside these advanced technologies allows organizations to grow their networks faster and easily adjust their bandwidth.

In March, Lumen and Ciena completed a 1.2 terabit wavelength service trial over 3,050 kilometers of Lumen’s Ultra-Low-Loss fiber network, setting a record for the longest non-regenerated signal at that speed. Using 800G interfaces, they tested and confirmed that the network could support wavelength, Ethernet, and IP services from Denver to Dallas.

More information about Lumen Wavelength Solutions can be found at Wavelength Solutions | Lumen.

*Based on publicly available SLAs and service installation data for major U.S. wavelength providers, and market share data from the July 2024 Atlantic-ACM North American Business Connectivity Survey SLAs may vary by provider, location, and contract terms. 20-business-day service installation starts from the date order and order addendum are fully executed and received by Lumen.

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.