Company honored for reimagining digital network infrastructure for the AI era

Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) is proud to have been named on Fast Company's prestigious list of the World's Most Innovative Companies of 2026, ranked among the top organizations in the Enterprise category for delivering technologies that make other businesses more efficient and effective. This marks the first time Lumen is included on this global list, which recognizes organizations shaping industries and culture through innovation.

"This recognition comes as Lumen enters the growth phase of its transformation and reflects our team's work to reinvent Lumen for the AI era," said Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen Technologies. "We've transformed a legacy telecom into a digital networking infrastructure company built for the next generation of innovation—connecting data centers, clouds, enterprises, and AI systems that will power the global economy. Innovation for us isn't just about technology; it's about reimagining what a network can do in the AI economy."

As part of its transformation into a digital network services company, Lumen is rapidly expanding its high-capacity fiber network and developing a new generation of programmable network services. The company plans to reach 58 million intercity fiber miles by 2031, connecting the world's fastest-growing digital ecosystems—including AI data centers, hyperscalers, and global enterprises.

Central to the company's innovation is Lumen's Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform, which has surpassed 2,000 customers and enables the rapid provisioning of secure, high-performance connectivity in minutes rather than months. Through Lumen Connect, a self-service digital portal, customers gain real-time control over how they deploy, manage and scale network services. Together with a growing connected ecosystem of technology partners, Lumen is redefining how networks are designed, delivered, and consumed—building programmable infrastructure required to support real-time data movement, AI workloads, and the next generation of digital applications.

Lumen's vision was recently spotlighted at Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Summit, where CEO Kate Johnson spoke about revolutionizing telecom for the AI era.

The World's Most Innovative Companies is Fast Company's hallmark franchise and one of its most anticipated editorial efforts of the year. To determine honorees, Fast Company's editors and writers review companies driving progress around the world and across industries, evaluating thousands of submissions through a competitive application process. The result is a globe-spanning guide to innovation today, from early-stage startups to some of the most valuable companies in the world.

"Our list of the Most Innovative Companies is about spotlighting organizations that don't just adapt to change—they drive it," said Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. "The companies we honor this year are redefining what leadership looks like in 2026, pairing bold ideas with measurable impact and turning breakthrough innovation into real-world value. They are setting the pace for their industries and offering a blueprint for what sustained innovation can achieve."

The full list of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies honorees can be found at fastcompany.com.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen is unleashing the world's digital potential. We ignite business growth by connecting people, data, and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. As the trusted network for AI, Lumen uses the scale of our network to help companies realize AI's full potential. From metro connectivity to long-haul data transport to our edge cloud, security, managed service, and digital platform capabilities, we meet our customers' needs today and as they build for tomorrow.

For news and insights visit news.lumen.com, LinkedIn: /lumentechnologies, X: lumentechco, Facebook: /lumentechnologies, Instagram: @lumentechnologies and YouTube: /lumentechnologies. Lumen and Lumen Technologies are registered trademarks of Lumen Technologies LLC in the United States. Lumen Technologies LLC is a wholly owned affiliate of Lumen Technologies, Inc.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow business publication Inc. For more information, please visit fastcompany.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release 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.

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Media Contact:

Joe Goode

Joseph.Goode@lumen.com

+1 781-799-6048

Investor Contact:

Jim Breen, CFA

Investor.Relations@lumen.com

+1 603-404-7003

Lumen Technologies Named to Fast Company's 2026 List of the World's Most Innovative Companies