AT&T acquiring Quantum Fiber from CenturyLink’s owner for $5.75 billion

Lumen Technologies the successor of Qwest Communications International and owner of CenturyLink has reached an agreement to sell its consumer fiber business called Quantum Fiber to AT T for billion in cash the two companies informed Wednesday AT T will obtain accounts for nearly million fiber subscribers across more than million locations with Quantum Fiber in states and plans to transfer them to its AT T Fiber grid after the deal is completed in the first half of Lumen has been actively expanding its high-speed Quantum Fiber organization to more homes in metro Denver switching over CenturyLink s fiber and copper phone and DSL customers when it reaches them AT T Fiber will gain greater access to residential and small-business customers in Denver Las Vegas Minneapolis-St Paul Orlando Phoenix Portland Salt Lake City and Seattle while Lumen will pay down debt and devote more support to its backbone fiber grid and to large content users We are sharpening our focus on enterprise customers and this transaction enhances our financial flexibility enabling us to reimagine networking for enterprises in a multi-cloud AI-first world mentioned Kate Johnson president and CEO of Lumen in a news release Lumen Technologies is based in Monroe La the home of CenturyLink a legacy phone facility provider But the company maintains a large employee presence in Denver which is where its fiber setup originated via Qwest and Broomfield-based Level Communications Lumen explained it plans to use billion from the sale and cash on hand to pay down billion in debt reducing its interest expenses by million a year The sale frees up billion a year that Lumen was spending to build its mass arena fiber grid but will cost the company million a year in revenues The purchase represents a small-scale coming full circle of sorts AT T spun off Mountain Bell and other baby bells in because of antitrust concerns The rebranded US West merged with Qwest a pioneering fiber optic architecture provider in in a billion stock deal CenturyLink purchased Qwest for billion in It added Level Communications another broadband provider in a cash and stock deal valued at billion in AT T will soon gain the last-mile communications arrangement and residential customers several acquisitions and technological innovations removed that descended from one of the baby bells it was forced to put up for adoption four decades ago Related Articles Englewood-based EchoStar despite bumps in the road is on the upswing Star Wars Star Trek mashup part of architect s bold look for aerospace company We re leading the race to connect more Americans with fiber the best broadband connectivity apparatus available stated John Stankey AT T s chairman and CEO revealed in a news release This deal with Lumen represents a essential stake in U S connectivity infrastructure that will create jobs and spur economic activity in numerous regions and major metro areas across states Stankey mentioned AT T Fiber plans to double its arrangement by the end of If so more homes and businesses across the state could receive direct fiber access More than a dozen fiber-to-the-home providers are operational in Colorado the largest being Quantum Fiber But they cover only about half the state according to the website Best Neighborhoods Quantum Fiber has full or near-full coverage in several Denver neighborhoods But its reach is spottier in the outer suburbs other parts of the Front Range and along the I- corridor It is largely absent in rural areas