Lumen Technologies announced the sale of its ILEC business to Brightspeed for $7.5bn which it believes will provide new business and growth opportunities.
An Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) is any U.S. telephone company that provided local service when the U.S. Telecommunications Act was passed in 1996.
Lumen's ILEC is operational in 20 states, and the North Carolina-based broadband and telecoms service provider, Brightspeed, reported it had received regulatory approval from each of these 20 state governments in June this year.
Jeff Storey, Lumen president and CEO, said:
"This is an important step in realizing long-term shareholder value while focusing our portfolio on the strongest growth opportunities, including investments in markets where we can concentrate our resources to reach more customers with maximum efficiency.
"Brightspeed has acquired a business with a strong customer base, dedicated employees and a platform for future growth. I'm very proud of our team for their dedicated work in closing this transformational project."
In August 2020, Lumen announced plans to sell its CenturyLink assets to Apollo Funds for the same price of $7.5bn. As part of the deal, Lumen kept hold of 687,000 fibre subscribers, as well as assets in 16 states. Apollo gained assets in 20 states and fibre subscribers.
Soon after, Apollo plied $200m into FirstDigital Telecom, a Utah-based carrier.
Two months later, Apollo acquired a Lendlease telecoms platform and, in May the following year, it bought Verizon's media assets for $5bn.
The next year, in November 2021, Apollo created Brightspeed, adding another telecoms notch to its belt.
Brightspeed said recently that it will invest over $2bn across the next five years to provide Quantum Fiber broadband to millions of homes and businesses, "including in many rural and suburban locations where fibre and advanced technology have not yet been deployed."
In August 2022, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) approved the sale of Lumen's ILEC to Brightspeed.
Brightspeed's VP of Public Policy and Government Affairs, Tom Dailey, commented that it would help to "close the digital divide in communities across the country that are most in need of high-quality broadband."
