DENVER — The infrastructure behind AI is reshaping how and where data moves, and network routes must evolve with it. Lumen Technologies announced the expansion of its network with NorthLine, a new low latency fiber route that will directly connect Seattle to Minneapolis and expand connectivity across a key northern U.S. corridor between the Pacific Northwest and central U.S. markets.
“Enterprises are building for what comes next —more AI workloads, more distributed infrastructure, and more demand for low latency capacity in the right places,” said Lumen Chief Commercial Operations Officer Kye Prigg. “We’re not just building routes; we’re building a connected national fabric. NorthLine will deliver a new northern route paired with the predictable, high-capacity services customers need to make more confident infrastructure decisions.”
NorthLine will integrate with Lumen’s national network, enabling customers to extend connectivity beyond the route and build seamless cross-country paths on newly built fiber infrastructure. The route will support 100G and 400G wavelength services and be delivered through Lumen RapidRoutes—pre-engineered routes with validated capacity and a 20-day service level agreement for qualified deployments. This will enable customers to move faster from design to deployment and scale connectivity more predictably across key U.S. markets.
“NorthLine is being built for long-term scale,” said Prigg. “We’ll deploy the very latest optical technologies that maximize fiber efficiency today while creating a clear path to future 800G and 1.6 terabit wavelengths as demand continues to grow.”
Expected to be available by the end of 2026, NorthLine is designed to give enterprises, cloud providers, and AI innovators a more direct route option between key markets, simplifying architectures and reducing reliance on fragmented, multi-provider infrastructure. The route is being built along emerging northern U.S. data center corridors, where new power capacity is fueling AI infrastructure growth.
As data growth accelerates, network designs are shifting. Traffic is increasingly moving east-west, data is clustering in emerging markets, and infrastructure demand is expanding beyond traditional hubs. These shifts are driving the need for routes that align to where compute, power, and connectivity are scaling.
Why the Route Matters Now
- Adds geographic diversity across the northern U.S.: Creates an additional path for moving data between regions, to improve latency, resiliency, and traffic distribution.
- Aligns to emerging data center and power corridors: Built near key markets where new power capacity is fueling AI and cloud infrastructure growth.
- Extends into Lumen’s national network: Will enable seamless, cross-country connectivity without relying on multiple providers, while supporting transpacific traffic flows from West Coast entry points into central U.S. markets.
- Enables simpler, more resilient network architectures: Supports more direct routing and reduces operational complexity across distributed environments.
NorthLine demonstrates Lumen’s ongoing commitment to enhancing fiber infrastructure across strategic growth corridors. As demand for AI-scale connectivity increases, Lumen is building routes that align to how data is moving today—across clouds, between data centers, and into emerging compute regions.
Organizations interested in NorthLine can visit https://pages.lumentech.com/northline-route.html for build updates and notifications when availability and quoting timelines are announced.
Tagged with AI, data centers