CenturyLink

In August 2015, CenturyLink accepted Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II support to deploy broadband service to over one million locations in thirty-three states. Using that support, CenturyLink has now enabled broadband service at speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps to more than 1.1 million customer locations in CAF II census blocks in those states. On a state-by-state basis, CenturyLink’s current year-end data reflect that it met or exceeded the program’s December 31, 2020 milestone in ten states. CenturyLink may not yet have reached the 100% deployment target in the other states.

The mad spring rush for capacity is behind us, and now companies are assessing how the pandemic impacted their businesses. While we are starting to see some clients return to normal with their data and application transport requests, entire segments, such as hospitality or small and medium businesses, remain cautious. It’s a good time to take pause and figure out what’s next. A lot of what we think is new is really just stuff that was already in place before the crisis hit.

CenturyLink CEO Jeff Storey said the companies' fiber-rich network was well suited to handle the increased demand for the company's services during the coronavirus pandemic. Overall, CenturyLink has seen a 30% to 40% growth in its backbone during the pandemic, and "a correspondingly significant increase in average usage across our CDN, end-user IP, voice and conferencing platforms," Storey said.  CenturyLink saw a net loss of 11,000 total broadband subscribers in the first quarter.

CenturyLink provided the Federal Communications Commission notice that its current year-end data shows it met or exceeded the Connect America Fund Phase II program’s interim broadband deployment milestone in ten states, but, based on preliminary year-end data, it may not have met the CAF Phase II 80 percent interim deployment milestone in 23 states. Additional information coming by March 1, 2020.