Lumen Technologies reported first-quarter 2025 revenue of $3.182 billion, a 3% decline year-over-year, as the company continued to reshape its enterprise-focused infrastructure business. Despite a drop in total revenue, Lumen saw strength in its “Grow” product category and reported rising demand for Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) ports and metro fiber access, particularly through a new partnership with Google Cloud.
North America Business revenue reached $2.438 billion, down just 2% year-over-year. Public Sector revenue surged 15% to $483 million, offsetting declines in mid-market enterprise and wholesale segments. Lumen’s high-performance optical “Grow” category posted $1.136 billion in revenue, up 7% year-over-year.
The company highlighted the quarter’s network momentum, including:
- Increased NaaS port deployments, reinforcing customer interest in consumption-based connectivity
- Strong customer uptake of optical Waves services and metro-fiber access
- Continued investments in the Lumen Digital Platform to support AI workloads
Lumen generated $929 million in adjusted EBITDA excluding special items, representing a 29.2% margin. Free cash flow excluding special items totaled $354 million. Capital expenditures rose 11% year-over-year to $791 million, reflecting network upgrades and new customer deployments.
CEO Kate Johnson emphasized operational discipline and long-term infrastructure value creation: “We continue to expand our network capacity and utilization and create a growth engine with our Lumen Digital platform. As we transform, we will drive more innovation on top of our world-renowned fiber network.”
The company reaffirmed its full-year 2025 guidance, including $3.2 to $3.4 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $700 to $900 million in free cash flow. Lumen also completed a refinancing of $2.4 billion in term loan debt to improve financial flexibility.
Additional Network Metrics:
- Grow product revenue rose 7% YoY to $1.136 billion
- Public Sector grew to $483 million (+15% YoY)
- NaaS port adoption increased sequentially
- Business segment revenue totaled $2.524 billion
- Wholesale declined 4% YoY to $705 million