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Lumen Expands its U.S. Network with NorthLine, a New Northern Fiber Route Built for AI Data Movement
DENVER, May 12, 2026--The infrastructure behind AI is reshaping how and where data moves, and network routes must evolve with it. Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) today announced the expansion of its network with NorthLine, a new low latency fiber route that will directly connect Seattle to Minneapolis and expand connectivity across a key northern U.S. corridor between the Pacific Northwest and central U.S. markets.
About this update from Lumen Technologies, Inc.
Seattle to Minneapolis route will deliver 100G and 400G wavelength services to support large-scale traffic flows across a growing U.S. corridor DENVER, May 12, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The infrastructure behind AI is reshaping how and where data moves, and network routes must evolve with it. Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) today announced the expansion of its network with NorthLine, a new low latency fiber route that will directly connect Seattle to Minneapolis and expand connectivity across a key northern U.S. corridor between the Pacific Northwest and central U.S. markets. "Enterprises are building for what comes next —more AI workloads, more distributed infrastructure, and more demand for low latency capacity in the right places," said Lumen Chief Commercial Operations Officer Kye Prigg. "We’re not just building routes; we’re building a connected national fabric. NorthLine will deliver a new northern route paired with the predictable, high-capacity services customers need to make more confident infrastructure decisions." NorthLine will integrate with Lumen’s national network, enabling customers to extend connectivity beyond the route and build seamless cross-country paths on newly built fiber infrastructure. The route will support 100G and 400G wavelength services and be delivered through Lumen RapidRoutes—pre-engineered routes with validated capacity and a 20-day service level agreement for qualified deployments. This will enable customers to move faster from design to deployment and scale connectivity more predictably across key U.S. markets. "NorthLine is being built for long-term scale," said Prigg. "We’ll deploy the very latest optical technologies that maximize fiber efficiency today while creating a clear path to future 800G and 1.6 terabit wavelengths as demand continues to grow." Expected to be available by the end of 2026, NorthLine is designed to give enterprises, cloud providers, and AI innovators a more direct route option between key markets, simplifying architectures and reducing reliance on fragmented, multi-provider infrastructure. The route is being built along emerging northern U.S. data center corridors, where new power capacity is fueling AI infrastructure growth. As data growth accelerates, network designs are shifting. Traffic is increasingly moving east-west, data is clustering in emerging m...
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