CenturyLink Changes Name To Lumen Technologies, Intros SMB Fiber Offering

CenturyLink will now be known as Lumen Technologies, or Lumen, the carrier giant announced on Monday.

The rebrand to Lumen will highlight the company‘s focus on next-generation network services to help business customers transform, including smart cities, virtual collaboration, and high-performance networking and security, CenturyLink said.

Garrett Gee, senior vice president, indirect sales for CenturyLink and now Lumen, said that the company has maintained a successful partner program for more than 25 years because of its commitment to evolving and providing the critical services to its partners and their customers. “This change is no different,” Gee said in an email to CRN.

“Businesses across the world need solutions that offer a digital, on-demand experience and that is our focus with the Lumen Platform,“ he said. ”Our Platform is how we will deliver those critical solutions, including networking, security and communications and collaboration, in a much more integrated and efficient manner.”

[Related: CenturyLink Enterprise Customers ‘Buying Again’ While SMB Sales Slumps]

CenturyLink, based in Monroe, La., at the same time announced Quantum Fiber, a digital platform for delivering fiber-based products and services to residents and small business customers that‘s based on Lumen’s extensive fiber footprint and network infrastructure. Quantum Fiber will be delivered under the CenturyLink brand name, the carrier said.

The CenturyLink brand name will be retained for residential services and some small business services, the company said. Quantum Fiber will be a CenturyLink service and the brand will operate as a separate brand from Lumen. CenturyLink, which generates three-quarters of its revenue from business customers, announced in May 2019 that it was shopping around or looking for "strategic alternatives" for its consumer business.

“Our people are dedicated to furthering human progress through technology,” said CenturyLink-turned Lumen president and CEO Jeff Storey in a statement. “Lumen is all about enabling the amazing potential of our customers, by utilizing our technology platform, our people, and our relationships with customers and partners.”

CenturyLink/Lumen‘s technology and services will continue to lean on the carrier’s global fiber network infrastructure and edge cloud capabilities as a secure foundation for new application and data services that customers need right now, the carrier said.

“All of our futures will be driven by smart things, applications and digital services that use data for transformational purposes. To serve this colossal need and further human progress through technology, we have launched Lumen and are delivering our technology through the Lumen Platform, a platform for amazing things,” said CenturyLink/Lumen‘s Chief Marketing Officer Shaun Andrews in a statement.

CenturyLink said it doesn’t plan on changing its financial strategy or financial reporting as a result of the name change. The company‘s stock ticker will change from CTL to LUMN on the opening of the trading day on Sept. 18, 2020.

CenturyLink’s stock was up more than 3 percent to $11.02 on Monday after the news was announced.