Lumen stopped selling voice.
It did not shut yours off.
As of August 1, 2026, Lumen no longer sells or renews business voice contracts. Your existing service keeps running. Support continues. No end-of-life date has been announced.
That's the whole story. Everything else you've been told this month is worth checking.
You get back your contract term date, a number inventory, your 911 exposure, and two costed options. One business day, no cost, no obligation.
Your invoice probably doesn't say "Lumen"
This company has changed names more times than most of its customers realize. If your business phone bill says any of these, this page is about you:
CenturyLink isn't a retired brand sitting in a filing cabinet — it's still Lumen's active retail name for a large share of business customers. If your invoice says CenturyLink, you're a Lumen customer.
What's confirmed, and what people are making up
There has been a lot of noise about this since early July, and not all of it holds up. Here's the honest split, so you're not making decisions off something nobody actually confirmed.
- No new sales and no renewals of Lumen voice after August 1, 2026
- The products, by name: SIP and SIP trunking, Voice Complete, Microsoft Teams voice services, Zoom voice services
- Existing contracts run to term. Service continues, support continues, partner commissions continue
- At term, service converts to month-to-month — there is no Lumen voice product to renew into
- Roughly 90 positions eliminated from Lumen's Global Partner Solutions organization on July 1, 2026
- Legacy DDoS protection and Black Lotus Labs threat-intelligence SKUs are also being sunset
- Q2 2026: Lumen's legacy portfolio (voice and copper) fell 15%; its strategic portfolio grew 14%
- Any shutoff or disconnect date. Lumen has explicitly not set one.
- That toll-free is in scope. This is circulating widely in emails and on social. Lumen has never confirmed it.
- Who owns the migration work. Lumen was asked directly by trade press and declined to answer.
- That residual commissions are stopping. They are not. Lumen says it will keep paying on existing contracts.
- Any connection to the AT&T fiber deal. That was Lumen's residential Quantum Fiber business, sold to AT&T and closed in February 2026. Different deal, residential customers, unrelated.
"We announced end of sale. End of life is a different story; we're going to be aggressive about that and make the right financial decisions. We will meet the obligations of our big customers, we'll meet the regulatory obligations we have; beyond that, this is not our future."
That's the clearest statement available on timing, and it doesn't contain a date. Anyone giving you one is guessing.
This isn't about you, and it isn't a surprise
Lumen is redirecting toward network services — fiber, network-as-a-service, wavelength, VPN, managed security, and the cloud networking portfolio it acquired this year. Its legacy voice and copper business shrank 15% last quarter while its strategic portfolio grew 14%. On the earnings call, Lumen's CFO said voice "is not our future."
It's also part of a wider pattern. AT&T has been filing copper discontinuances with the FCC. Verizon is working through POTS and PRI sunsets. The carriers are exiting voice as a product line.
The practical consequence for you is narrow and specific: the layer underneath your phones — the SIP trunking and PSTN connectivity — now has an end date on it, and that date is your contract term.
Four things, in this order
- Find your contract term end date. It's on the contract, not the invoice, and it's usually sooner than people expect. If you can't find it, ask Lumen for it in writing.
- Inventory your numbers. Main lines, direct dials, toll-free, 911 locations, contact center queues, and anything easy to forget — alarm lines, elevator phones, fax, fire panels. Porting has a lead time. Nothing else here does.
- Decide the scope. Replacing a carrier is not the same as replacing a phone system. Most businesses only need the first one.
- Set your own date. A straightforward SIP swap runs a few weeks. A full multi-site cloud migration runs a few months. If your term ends within the next two or three quarters, your runway is already thinner than it looks.
You probably don't need a new phone system
The most common wrong assumption about this is that it forces a rip-and-replace. It doesn't. Lumen is stepping back from one layer. That's the only layer that has to change.
| Consideration | Keep your phone system | Move to Webex Calling |
|---|---|---|
| What changes | The carrier layer only | Platform and carrier |
| Your PBX | Stays exactly as it is | Retired |
| Your phone numbers | Ported across, unchanged | Ported across, unchanged |
| Your handsets | Stay | Usually replaced over time |
| Impact on staff | None. Nobody notices. | Training, new capabilities |
| Typical timeline | Weeks | Months |
| Right when | Your phone system still does what you need | Your system is aging, unsupported, or multi-site is a mess |
We'll tell you which one fits, including when it's the first one. That's the smaller sale for us, and it's the right answer more often than not.
Frequently asked
Is Lumen shutting off my phone service?
No. Lumen has not announced an end-of-life date for existing voice service, and its CFO stated publicly that end of life is a separate decision that hasn't been made. What changed on August 1, 2026 is that Lumen stopped selling and renewing voice contracts.
What happens when my contract ends?
Your service converts to a month-to-month arrangement instead of a new term contract, because there is no Lumen voice product left to renew into.
Which Lumen products are affected?
On Lumen's own record: SIP offerings and SIP trunking, Voice Complete, Microsoft Teams voice services, and Zoom voice services.
Is toll-free included?
Unconfirmed. It has circulated widely in partner emails and social posts, but Lumen has not confirmed it. Treat anyone stating it as fact with caution.
My bill says CenturyLink, not Lumen. Does this apply to me?
Yes. CenturyLink is Lumen's active retail brand for a large share of business customers. The same applies to Qwest, CenturyTel, US West, Embarq, and Level 3.
Do I have to move right now?
No. There's no forced deadline today. The risk isn't service disappearing — it's waiting until a hard date forces a rushed decision instead of using the runway you have now to plan properly.
Will my phone numbers change?
No. Numbers port across to a new provider. Porting is the part with a real lead time, which is the main reason to start before your term date rather than at it.
Is this related to Lumen selling its fiber business to AT&T?
No. That was the residential Quantum Fiber business, closed February 2026. It covers residential customers, not business voice. Easy to conflate; entirely separate.
What does the free readiness review actually include?
Your contract term end date, an inventory of every number you'd need to port, your 911 location exposure, and two costed options — one that keeps your existing phone system and replaces only the carrier layer, and one that moves you to Webex Calling. One page, one business day, no obligation.
You're here because a carrier decided voice wasn't its future
The obvious response is to find a different carrier. The problem with the obvious response is that it doesn't change anything structural — you've traded one company's strategy risk for another's.
Perdigon Group is a Cisco Webex and Meraki partner. We're not a carrier looking to become your next carrier. Collaboration isn't a side line Cisco might step away from; it's the business.
And because we work the Cisco installed base, we usually already know your environment — your subscription, your SKUs, your renewal dates, often your Cisco account manager — before the first conversation.
Your PBX stays
We replace the layer Lumen is leaving. Your phone system, your handsets, your numbers, your users' habits — all unchanged.
We already know your environment
We work the Cisco installed base directly. Most conversations start with us telling you things about your setup, not asking.
We'll tell you to do nothing
If your term is years out, the review will say so. We'd rather be right and reach you at the right time.
Get a free Lumen Exit Readiness Review
Answer what you know. Company, name, and a work email are all we need to get started — the rest is optional and just makes the review more specific.
Sending…
Sending your request…
Got it. One step to a specific answer.
Prefer we just reach out first? We have your details either way — expect a PDF within one business day. Anything urgent: 435-777-7811 · contact@perdigon-group.com
Got it. Watch for a PDF within one business day.
It'll come from Perdigon Group — and because you're not on Webex yet, a Perdigon engineer will call you back within one business day to walk through it.
While you wait, the two things worth doing regardless of who you end up working with:
- Find your contract term end date. It's on the contract, not the invoice. If you can't locate it, ask Lumen for it in writing — they'll give it to you.
- List every number you'd have to port. Main lines, direct dials, toll-free, and the ones everyone forgets — alarm lines, elevator phones, fire panels, fax.
Anything urgent before then: 435-777-7811 · contact@perdigon-group.com
Every claim here traces to one of these
We've linked them so you can check.
- Channel Dive — Lumen's voice pullback leaves partners uneasy, July 8, 2026
- Channel Dive — Lumen clarifies product cuts, July 17, 2026
- Channel Dive — Lumen's voice exit: no end date and no plan for partners, August 6, 2026
- Lumen Technologies — Q2 2026 results
Last reviewed: 2026-08-10. If Lumen issues a formal end-of-life notice, we'll update this page and say so here.