Lumen reportedly laid off around 90 employees in the Global Partner Solutions unit including national channel managers and partner success managers across the country. The move was part of larger cuts to its commercial organization as the company shifts away legacy voice products and toward its NaaS (network-as-a-service) portfolio and data center connectivity driven by AI.
In an email to Channel Dive, the firm said: “Lumen continues its transformation to support long-term growth as the trusted network for AI. We are making difficult but necessary changes to align our workforce to business needs and strategic priorities. We recently took steps to further align our commercial resources to Lumen’s goals, including the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles within our Growth organization.”
Lumen this week confirmed it is ending voice sales, eliminating compensation for voice services across new voice sales and contract renewals going forward. The firm is expected to reload it’s channel support with new hires and part of its shift in emphasis to NaaS following its acquisition of cloud networking provider Alkira.
