AT&T’s Lumen deal sharpens fiber focus with broadband growth set to accelerate

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has completed its $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen Technologies’ (NYSE: LUMN) mass-market fiber business, a move that materially advances its ambitions in high-speed broadband and reinforces its long-term infrastructure strategy.

The transaction, finalized in early February, brings more than 1 million fiber subscribers and access to over 4 million locations across 11 US states, extending AT&T’s footprint into new metropolitan areas and strengthening its position against cable and wireless rivals.

The deal underpins AT&T’s target of reaching 60 million fiber locations by 2030, part of a broader industry push to capture rising demand for data-intensive services, including streaming, cloud computing and AI-driven applications.

Against this backdrop, AT&T’s consumer wireline business is expected to see a step-up in momentum. Visible Alpha consensus points to an additional 2,130,926 broadband net additions in 2026, taking total broadband connections to 16,873,831, a 15% increase year-on-year, as the enlarged fiber footprint translates into customer growth.

AT&T’s consumer wireline/broadband business generated $14.2 billion in revenue in 2025, accounting for 11% of the company’s operating revenues. Segment revenues are poised for an 8.3% growth in 2026, with fiber revenues seeing a strong 19% year-on-year growth to $10.3 billion. This growth is set to be partly offset by continued declines in revenues across other businesses within consumer wireline/broadband, including non-fiber, legacy voice and data services, and other service and equipment revenues.

This article was published by Visible Alpha, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.