‘With AI, the workloads are very sporadic and bumpy, so having the ability to dial up and down internet on demand and having that flexibility is, I think, the future of connectivity,’ says one Lumen partner of the company’s latest offering.
Lumen Intelligent Internet, launched Monday, takes aim at traditional internet services that offer fixed capacity. While storage and compute can be scaled up and down, connectivity hasn’t evolved in the same way. Lumen’s new offering aims to “fix” that, according to Ryan Asdourian, executive vice president and chief marketing and strategy officer at Lumen, told CRN.
“Think of it as the enterprise internet that you can buy in minutes, you can change on demand, you can scale up and down. It’s a story about control. Traditionally, you bought internet the same way you bought real estate, [but] today and tomorrow, you get internet the way enterprises need it. That way, they can get ready for AI,” Asdourian told CRN.
And perhaps most importantly, it serves as a foot in the door to the Lumen Connected Ecosystem, a way for partners and customers to purchase, provision and manage their network services as easily as they do their cloud solutions, he said.
[Related: AWS Turns to Lumen Technologies For Last‑Mile Enterprise Cloud Connectivity]
Lumen Connected Ecosystem, which includes a bevy of Network-As-A-Service (NaaS) offerings, was first introduced in July 2025.
“Lumen, with [Intelligent Internet], is trying to set the pace of what internet connectivity should look like in a modern world,” said Emanuel Bertolin, CRO of San Francisco-based AppDirect, a longtime Lumen partner with a telecom services distribution arm.
Bertolin expects Lumen’s latest on-demand internet connectivity offering to be well-received, especially among enterprises and those leveraging AI.
“With AI, the workloads are very sporadic and bumpy, so having the ability to dial up and down internet on demand and having that flexibility is, I think, the future of connectivity,” he said.
Bertolin agrees that the latest product can serve to introduce more customers to Lumen’s broader ecosystem of cloud services.
“This could be like the entry product for a lot of companies,” he added. “I think [businesses] may experience Lumen for the first time this way.”
Lumen views Intelligent Internet as the next evolution of its enterprise internet offering because it provides partners, and in turn their customers, an “elastic” digital internet experience, Lumen’s Asdourian said.
“You’re giving [customers] elastic bandwidth that scales up and down, and you’re also giving them flexible pricing. That is something that our partners are able to use to then anticipate the needs of a customer [and] be that trusted adviser. … It’s giving [the customer] total control,” he said.
Lumen Intelligent Internet can reach 10 million U.S. business locations as of now and is scalable up to 100 gigabits per second, the company said.
While the new product is an upsell opportunity for the channel, it’s also a way to attract new partners and demonstrate the power of the Connected Ecosystem, Asdourian said.
“[Intelligent Internet] is going to not only enhance what our partners of today do but [also] attract more partners that will see this as that front door to an expansive portfolio that they can sell and deliver for their customers versus one static service,” he said.
Partners and customers via the new offering will be able to provision and adjust connectivity through Lumen Connect or APIs. Businesses can choose term-based pricing for a predictable monthly rate with the ability to adjust capacity when needed, Lumen said.
Lumen Intelligent Internet already has several high-profile early adopters, including the New York Yankees, according to the Monroe, La.-based company.
