Lumen Technologies, Inc. has successfully concluded the sale of its Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) business to AT&T, an agreement that had been announced in May 2025. The deal encompasses consumer fiber assets spanning 11 states, including those under the Quantum Fiber brand. The transaction was completed for a total cash consideration of $5.75 billion, marking a significant step in Lumen's strategic portfolio reorganization.
The divested operations serve a substantial customer base, with the transfer including network infrastructure and service to over one million fiber customers. Additionally, the transaction covers access to more than four million fiber-enabled premises across the affected states, indicating the sizeable scale of the fiber footprint exchanged.
Following the asset divestiture, Lumen will maintain possession of critical infrastructure components essential to its enterprise business model. These retained assets consist of comprehensive fiber networks at the national, regional, state, and metropolitan levels, central office facilities, and accompanying real estate holdings. This retention underscores the company's intent to preserve a robust backbone network supporting its evolving business services.
Beyond fiber, Lumen intends to continue supplying consumer-facing telecommunications services via its existing copper network infrastructure. This legacy infrastructure remains a consistent source of financial returns. Moreover, the company will sustain its engagements with enterprise and wholesale fiber clientele across all geographic markets, highlighting a commitment to comprehensive service offerings despite the consumer fiber sale.
Financially, the transaction provides Lumen with approximately $4.8 billion in net proceeds. Management has outlined plans to deploy these funds, combined with existing liquidity on hand, towards fully retiring the company's super-priority debt obligations. This strategy aims to reduce annual interest expenses by an estimated $300 million, directly enhancing the company’s cost structure and freeing resources to accelerate its broader transformation initiatives.
Consequent to these financial maneuvers, Lumen anticipates total indebtedness to decrease to below $13 billion. The associated leverage metric, represented by the net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio, is projected to fall beneath the 4.0x threshold, signaling a stronger balance sheet profile. These developments may improve financial flexibility as the company navigates industry challenges and investment opportunities.
Lumen Technologies plans to disclose its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on February 3, providing stakeholders with additional insights into the impact of the fiber business sale and the company's overall performance.
In the markets, shares of Lumen Technologies have responded positively to the completion of the deal. As of the latest update on Monday, the stock showed a gain of approximately 2.49%, trading around $9.05 per share. By contrast, AT&T shares experienced a milder uptrend, reflecting the ongoing integration of the acquisition.
This strategic divestment aligns Lumen's focus toward enterprise-grade telecommunications infrastructure and services, while streamlining its financial obligations substantially. The commitment to preserving consumer copper services along with enterprise and wholesale fiber business segments suggests a nuanced approach to balancing asset retention with capital optimization.