Lumen lights up terrestrial backhaul for JUNO Trans-Pacific Cable U.S. landing

Operated by Seren Juno Network Co., the JUNO cable is 10,000 kilometers long and engineered to deliver up to 350 Tbps across 20 fiber pairs, using next-generation Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) technology.

“An undersea cable can carry massive amounts of data across oceans, but it’s the strong terrestrial network that completes the journey,” said Ashley Haynes-Gaspar, Lumen EVP and Chief Revenue Officer. “Lumen designed and developed a dark fiber solution that the JUNO system could quickly deploy to meet their launch date.”

Making new connections

Lumen’s dark fiber backhaul gives JUNO custom, private network configurations. Connecting JUNO at the cable landing station to two critical Points of Presence (PoPs) helps data reach major cloud hubs, data centers, and enterprise networks across the United States.

Businesses in both Japan and the US will have access to increased bandwidth and new connections.

JUNO’s cable system and Lumen’s terrestrial network will create a bridge between Asia and North America, supporting next-gen applications, enabling global scale for AI, and helping enterprises enhance their digital footprint.

The key ingredient to connect directly to cloud regions, edge compute sites, and primary data centers is terrestrial backhaul.

“Our partnership with Lumen is a critical milestone in delivering on JUNO’s promise to revolutionize trans-Pacific data transport,” said Yoshio Sato, CEO of Seren Juno Network Co.

Dark fiber benefits

While the JUNO deal is its most recent announcement of a dark fiber service, Lumen has positioned itself as a key provider to submarine cable providers and data centers.

What’s compelling about dark fiber solutions is that they allow a wholesale customer like JUNO to have control over their bandwidth capacity. Lumen’s dark fiber platform will enable customers to combine it with its Managed Optical Fiber Network (MOFN) product for bandwidth management, scalability and control.

Customers can purchase dedicated dark fiber sold by IRU or lease it. Additionally, they can buy hardware from a vendor, VAR, or Lumen. The provider also offers professional services.

By reaching a deal to sell its consumer fiber broadband business to AT&T, Lumen has set itself on a path to becoming an enterprise-centric service provider. This comes in tandem with plans to expand its fiber network.

Following the $8.5 billion in AI-driven networking contracts with hyperscalers, Lumen plans to scale its network to 47 million intercity fiber miles by 2028. Lumen will continue to scale the Lumen Digital platform to enhance customer experience for businesses.

It will also strategically leverage the combination of its physical infrastructure and digital platform to deliver increased performance, capacity, intelligence and security through new network architectures such as Direct Fiber Access (DFAs), Cloud On-ramps, and Multicloud Gateways.

Just how serious is Lumen about being a fiber-centric provider to carriers and enterprises? Consider the fact that Lumen inked a deal with Corning that reserves 10% of Corning's global fiber capacity for each of the next two years to interconnect AI-enabled data centers.

These moves position Lumen to take advantage of other submarine cables that need terrestrial backhaul and the growing data center interconnectivity trends being driven by AI.

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