Lumen Unveils High-Speed RapidRoutes To Meet Enterprise AI Networking Needs

‘Built for the AI era,’ RapidRoutes are ready-to-deploy 100G and 400G wavelength services that can be provisioned for enterprises and hyperscalers in 20 days, according to Lumen.

Lumen Technologies, formerly CenturyLink, is introducing a new, high-capacity connection option for enterprises in the age of AI networking.

Wavelength RapidRoutes, introduced Tuesday, are ready-to-deploy 100G and 400G wavelength services that can be provisioned for businesses in 20 days, compared with many other wavelength services that take months to be turned up, the company said.

RapidRoutes, said Lumen, are “built for the AI era” and are pre-defined, high-demand network connections for enterprises, hyperscalers, content providers, government organizations and critical industries that need to move massive amounts of data quickly.

The offering is available through Lumen’s channel partners, a spokesperson for the company told CRN.

[Related: Lumen’s NaaS Platform Surpasses 1,000 Enterprise Users As Company Steers ‘Into AI Lane’]

Because RapidRoutes do not require custom engineering, Lumen can provision prioritized routes almost instantly, making network procurement predictable and effortless, the company said.

“Enterprises can’t afford to wait for critical connectivity,” Dave Ward, chief technology and product officer for Lumen Technologies, said in a statement. “With RapidRoutes, we’re eliminating the friction—no more long quoting periods or engineering delays. … With a 20-day SLA for service delivery and speeds up to 400G on prioritized routes across Lumen’s intercity fiber network—with plans to grow to over 47 million miles by the end of 2028—we’re redefining what it means to connect with confidence and speed.”

Lumen is also expanding its 400G-enabled footprint to 100,000 wavelength route miles, adding 1.26 petabytes of new capacity for more than 300 locations across 25 metro markets to help industries move massive volumes of data at faster speeds, according to the Monroe, La.-based company.

Lumen wavelength solutions bring connectivity to more than 125 cloud on-ramps, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle and IBM, Lumen said.

Thirty percent of Lumen’s network utilization in 2022 was generated by hyperscalers. While the company has not released figures for 2023 or 2024, the company projected that to grow to 45 percent for 2025.

Lumen has been focused on growing its enterprise services in recent months with the addition of several new offerings. One is Lumen Connectivity Fabric, a set of network services that can be remotely managed via the cloud. Services on the digital platform include connectivity, infrastructure, security and communications services, as well as media and entertainment.

Lumen in July took to its second-quarter 2025 earnings call to introduce Lumen Connected Ecosystem that customers can use to purchase, provision and manage their network services as easily as they do their cloud solutions, including Network as-a-Service.