AT&T has completed the acquisition of Lumen's mass market fiber business for $5.75 billion.

The announcement comes a few days after AT&T's CEO confirmed the carrier was close to finalizing the deal that it first announced in May of last year.

The acquisition is a significant boost for AT&T's fiber ambitions, with the company aiming to roll out fiber to 60 million locations by 2030.

“AT&T Fiber will be available to millions more people as we expand the service in 32 states," noted John Stankey, CEO, AT&T. "This investment will create good-paying jobs, boost US connectivity, and bring the benefits of high-speed connections to more communities across the country.”

AT&T's fiber network currently extends to 32 million locations as of the end of 2025. The carrier wants to increase this to 40 million by the end of this year. For the full year, AT&T added a million net fiber subscribers for the eighth consecutive year.

Following the completion of the Lumen deal, AT&T has added an additional one million fiber customers.

As part of the deal, AT&T will add Lumen's four million customer locations across 11 states.

The carrier aims to ramp up its fiber construction from three million new locations in 2025 to a run rate of four million by the end of this year.

Pascal Desroches, chief financial officer at AT&T, noted on the company's earnings call last week that Lumen's fiber network has around only 25 percent customer penetration, which is less than AT&T's 40 percent penetration.

AT&T is also adding fiber customers via its Gigapower fiber JV with investment company BlackRock.

The carrier faces competition in the fiber market from its rivals Verizon and T-Mobile, which have also made high-profile acquisitions in recent months.

Lumen CEO: Pivotal moment for company

Lumen's CEO Kate Johnson has stated that the sale will enable the company to focus on the digital infrastructure required to support AI opportunities.

“The divestiture of our consumer fiber-to-the-home business marks a pivotal moment for Lumen. We are doubling down on where we are strongest and where the opportunity is greatest for us – powering the digital infrastructure that enterprises and public sector organizations need to win in the AI era,” said Johnson.

“With a stronger balance sheet and a clear path to sustainable growth, we are accelerating our efforts to modernize our network, scale our digital platform, and build the connected ecosystem that drives real outcomes for our customers and creates lasting value for shareholders.”

Lumen said plans to apply approximately $4.8bn of the transaction proceeds and cash to retire all super priority debt, reducing the company’s interest expense by approximately $300 million annually and accelerating its transformation strategy. The completed transaction is expected to reduce the company’s debt to less than $13bn.