Lumen and AWS co-develop a last mile interconnect service that accelerates secure, scalable cloud access.
Enterprises are scaling AI/ML workloads and next-gen applications at record speed, and cloud connectivity plays a critical role in that acceleration. But the journey is rarely straightforward. The last-mile connection from branch offices and data centers has been a major source of delay, complexity and operational friction. Current connectivity models force customers to navigate a maze of partner selection, manual configuration, inconsistent last-mile performance and lengthy activation timelines. Every capacity change or business continuity requirement creates a new project, and potential downtime during maintenance leaves SLAs vulnerable. The result is a cascade of business impacts: extended time-to-value, deployment delays driven by configuration errors, risk of outages and operational burden. These challenges slow down innovation, delay cloud adoption and limit agility for teams that need to move fast.
Today, we are pleased to announce a gated preview for AWS Interconnect Last Mile designed to alleviate these challenges through a fully managed, jointly developed solution from Lumen and AWS that is designed to eliminate last-mile bottlenecks and simplify connectivity to AWS.
This Lumen-AWS news is part of the Cloud 2.0 strategy from Lumen to transform the network foundation for modern enterprises. Cloud 2.0 delivers high bandwidth, low latency and flexible data center connections to help businesses deploy and scale advanced workloads like AI and machine learning quickly and reliably. Programmable, on-demand network fabrics put control directly in customers’ hands to solve last-mile challenges, reduce activation time and minimize operational risks. With a vast, high-capacity network and close collaboration with partners like AWS, Lumen brings secure, high-speed cloud connections online in minutes. The launch of AWS Interconnect Last Mile demonstrates this strategy in action—showing how Lumen can connect enterprises to AWS rapidly and dependably, so they can innovate and adapt without barriers.
Designed for a simpler, faster and more resilient path to AWS
AWS Interconnect Last Mile will redefine how organizations extend their networks to the cloud by making connectivity fast, simple and reliable. Co-developed by Lumen and AWS, this fully managed service will allow customers to connect their branch locations, data centers or remote sites directly to AWS with just a few clicks—all through AWS or Lumen Connect Console.
The service provides resilient connectivity that removes complexity and accelerates time-to-value. Customers can activate private, high-speed connections in minutes with scalable bandwidth from 1G to 100G. In addition, customers benefit from a 99.99% Availability SLA up to the Direct Connect port, along with real-time performance visibility across connections. AWS Interconnect Last Mile delivers the cloud connectivity experience modern enterprises have been waiting for—frictionless, scalable and built for the speed of innovation.
The mechanics of simplifying the Last Mile Connectivity
When a customer requests a connection, the service automatically provisions four connections between four router-pairs across two distinct Direct Connect locations, based on the customers’ bandwidth. During planned maintenance, the service always maintains at least three operational links, enabling no downtime. The service also provides customers with end-to-end monitoring and visibility, including availability, health, latency and packet loss on the connections.
The gated preview of the service will initially be available in U.S. East, with global reach to any AWS region.
A new standard for cloud connectivity
With ~340,000 route miles, direct fiber access to ~163,000+ buildings and 2,200+ third-party data centers, and a global backbone capacity of +350 Tbps, the 400G enabled Lumen Network now spans more than 100,000 route miles and achieves latency less than five milliseconds at the edge, covering up to 97% of U.S. business demand.
AWS Interconnect Last Mile represents a major milestone in the AWS + Lumen relationship—combining AWS’s cloud innovation with the extensive Lumen network footprint to redefine how businesses connect to the cloud.
Explore AWS Interconnect Last Mile with Lumen and join the gated preview.
This blog contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including statements regarding management’s expectations with respect to our business, strategy and operations as well as statements identified by words such as “estimates,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are not promises nor guarantees of future results, are based on our current expectations only and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as updated in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated by us in these statements due to several factors, including those referenced in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
This content is provided for informational purposes only and may require additional research and substantiation by the end user. In addition, the information is provided “as is” without any warranty or condition of any kind, either express or implied. Use of this information is at the end user’s own risk. Lumen does not warrant that the information will meet the end user’s requirements or that the implementation or usage of this information will result in the desired outcome of the end user. All third-party company and product or service names referenced in this article are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with Lumen. This document represents Lumen products and offerings as of the date of issue. Services not available everywhere. Lumen may change or cancel products and services or substitute similar products and services at its sole discretion without notice. ©2025 Lumen Technologies. All Rights Reserved.
