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Also, here's coverage of other key stories on Lumen:
· Lumen sharpens enterprise focus with consumer fiber sale to AT&T
· AT&T sets path to reach 60M fiber locations by 2030 with Lumen fiber business acquisition
· Lumen: fiber is key to disrupting the telco industry
· Lumen retains its wavelength service position
As Lumen makes its transition to become a business-centric provider, the service provider is shedding its consumer fiber business by reaching a deal to sell it to AT&T.
However, this move comes with a cost. The service provider incurred a nearly $50 million penalty from the FCC by withdrawing from the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program.
In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Joseph Calascione, Lumen stated that it was “returning all census block groups (“CBGs”) where it was awarded RDOF funding” in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington.
With Lumen’s relinquishing of its awards, census block groups may now become eligible for other federal, state, or local subsidy programs, such as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
“Following an agreement to sell our consumer fiber assets to AT&T, Lumen withdrew from the RDOF program,” said Chris Stansbury, CFO of Lumen, during the second-quarter earnings call. “This decision reflects a strategic shift toward building the next-generation digital networking infrastructure that powers the AI economy and serves enterprise, public sector and wholesale customers. Accordingly, we reported a $46 million one-time revenue and adjusted EBITDA giveback.”
Lumen’s RDOF giveback impacted year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margins by approximately 150 basis points.
Stansbury noted that while the giveback on RDOF hurt the quarter, “it’s not impactful to the enterprise business, which is our focus.”
Fiber footprint expansion continues
While Lumen works to finalize the sale of its Mass Markets fiber business to AT&T, the service provider continues to see progress in building out fiber to more locations and adding more customers.
During the quarter, Lumen added approximately 117,000 fiber-enabled homes, bringing its total to approximately 4.4 million as of June 30.
It added 34,000 Quantum Fiber customers, bringing fiber subs to approximately 1.2 million. Fiber ARPU was $64.
“At the end of the second quarter, our penetration of legacy copper broadband was approximately 7%, and our Quantum Fiber penetration stood at approximately 26%,” Stansbury said.
Broadband revenue boost
From a revenue perspective, broadband was a key driver in the telco’s second-quarter results.
Lumen’s fiber broadband revenue increased 19.9% year-over-year and represents 47% of its Mass Markets broadband revenue.
However, the service provider continued to see expected losses in its lower speed DSL and traditional telephone service categories.
Lumen’s other broadband revenue, which primarily includes revenue from lower-speed copper-based broadband services marketed under the CenturyLink brand, declined 17.8% to $245 million. Likewise, Voice and Other fell 33.6% to $140 million.
As a result of the legacy losses, Lumen’s overall Mass Markets segment revenue declined 12.8% to $602 million.
Lumen reported total revenue was $3.09 billion for the second quarter 2025, down from $3.27 billion for the second quarter 2024.
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About the Author
Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategy of Lightwave across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products.