Exhibit 99.2
IRU Mechanics Video Script
As AI reshapes our daily lives and how we work, the world is awakening to the fact that companies need powerful network infrastructure to thrive in today’s digital economy. Data volumes are dramatically increasing, spurring data center growth, and as such, a significant rising demand for Lumen’s nationwide conduit, fiber network, and growing portfolio of new digital services.
Last week, we announced Lumen’s Private Connectivity Fabric (or PCF for short), a custom network that includes dedicated access to existing fiber in the Lumen network, the installation of new fiber on existing and new routes, and the use of Lumen’s new digital services. This AI-ready infrastructure will strengthen the connectivity capabilities between datacenters by providing the network capacity, performance, stability, and speed that customers need as data demands increase.
This offering, and the partnerships we have been forging, represent a significant business opportunity and an acceleration of Lumen’s business transformation. These partnerships will fund more than just custom networks to support the advancement of AI. They will also provide incremental cash to help accelerate Lumen’s digital transformation, enabling Lumen to reduce costs, improve capital structure, strengthen our balance sheet, and improve operational efficiency.
Today, we want to provide some color around an element of our PCF solution set called IRUs, or Indefeasible Rights of Use. This long-term IRU structure has been in our industry and Lumen’s business for many years, but we felt a refresher course around IRU mechanics would be helpful for investors, given we believe they will become a more significant part of our financial story.
While each partnership is different and may include a combination of different PCF solutions, as it pertains to IRUs specifically, they are defined in our 10-K as the “exclusive right to use a specified amount of capacity or fiber for a specified term, typically 20 years.”
However, the economics of each IRU lease can vary depending upon the infrastructure elements which compose the fiber and/or capacity being delivered. The total capacity being delivered, the geographic reach of the fiber network, and whether it is existing or new fiber, can all impact the ultimate size and profitability of an IRU.
Generally speaking, revenue and cash flows from IRUs come from three main components:
First, the fiber infrastructure, where we receive meaningful upfront cash collections to fund the specific project investment with the remaining cash tied to contract milestones. Revenue is recognized over the remaining life of the contract but does not start until delivery of each specific fiber route and may take several years to reach the full amortized run rate.