Lumen has spent years helping enterprises move beyond the limits of traditional networking. With Lumen® Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), enterprises can move from fixed, manual infrastructure to elastic, on-demand networking through one programmable platform. Now, as AI makes network demand less predictable and finance teams need cost visibility they can trust, enterprises are demanding a new balance: elastic scale, predictable TCO and greater control over the network that powers the business.

As part of Lumen NaaS, Lumen® Intelligent Internet term-based pricing gives enterprises what traditional network contracts can’t: a predictable cost foundation with the elasticity to scale when demand spikes.

Term-based pricing: the latest feature addition to Lumen NaaS

Intelligent Internet term-based pricing is the latest example of how Lumen continues to evolve its NaaS portfolio to meet changing enterprise requirements. Customers lock in a committed bandwidth floor at a fixed monthly rate for the term, up to 60 months, so the baseline cost is known on day one.

When network demand spikes for a product launch, seasonal peak, live event or AI workload burst, enterprises can scale above the floor in minutes, with no contract change and no renegotiation. When demand shifts, they can return to the committed floor. Finance gets rate stability, IT keeps on-demand control and the business gets capacity that matches demand without overprovisioning for peak periods.

Intelligent Internet gives customers the freedom to scale. Term-based pricing extends that flexibility with the price stability enterprises need for long-term planning.

Agility and financial control no longer need to compete

AI makes the old network tradeoff harder to defend. As AI initiatives move from pilots to production, adoption depends on how quickly enterprises can test, deploy and scale without waiting on static network plans or committing to peak capacity before demand is proven. Enterprises need a network model that gives IT elastic scale and finance the visibility to plan with confidence.

Traditional contracts give finance a number to plan around, but they limit how fast the network can move. Pure consumption models give IT agility, but they can make longer-term budgeting harder when demand spikes. As workloads move across cloud, edge and core environments, traffic patterns can shift without warning. Static circuits and overprovisioned capacity can turn that uncertainty into wasted spend.

Network modernization isn’t just about scaling capacity faster—it’s about giving enterprises predictable TCO finance teams can trust. Term-based pricing helps modernize both sides of the equation: customers get a committed foundation for everyday demand, with the flexibility to scale when demand spikes, align spending to real usage and avoid buying for the worst day of the year.

The future of NaaS starts with enterprise control

For enterprises with a network consumed on demand, trust comes from control. Lumen Network-as-a-Service runs on infrastructure that Lumen owns, with a programmable API-driven control plane for internet, private connectivity, multicloud orchestration and security. That means customers can move AI and multicloud workloads east-west across cloud, edge and core, scale capacity in minutes through Lumen Connect® or APIs, and see usage and cost in one place.

The outcome is predictable performance, elastic scale and cost visibility finance teams can trust. Together these capabilities demonstrate how Lumen continues to advance its NaaS portfolio and give enterprises greater control over their networks.

Build a network model that works the way your business runs. Learn how Lumen Network-as-a-Service brings on-demand connectivity, programmable control and term-based pricing together in one enterprise-ready platform.

_{1Flexera, State of the cloud report, 2025.}

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