Lumen Technologies Inc at UBS Women in Tech Summit Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : I just want to start maybe your background and how you ended up in tech. And you've had a long career here. And why did you stay in tech?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : That's great. And Lumen -- I've covered Lumen for many years. And from my perspective, it's a plain old telephone company. And I know you've been making --

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : But you are making changes. That's definitely clear. But what brought you to Lumen? From your perspective, wasn't Lumen a plain old phone company?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right. It requires a lot of change. Do you believe that people at Lumen are ready for that change?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : And you're also bringing in new leadership to drive that change. And are we done with that process? And what are some of the changes that they're making right now?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : That's great. I do want to talk and dig in a little bit more on what you're -- what these new services and products that they're developing are going to look like. But just if you could give us an overview of what you're seeing generally from maybe a macro perspective and sort of the enterprise segment. There is a bit of a view on the health of the enterprise right now. There are a lot of changes coming in. And we seem to hear that some of the enterprise spending is on pause because they don't necessarily know what they need to invest in. So let's just wait and see and then we'll pick up whatever GenAI is going to bring or kind of like keeping the status quo going. So your sense, how do you see the health of the enterprise segment?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 12, 2024 / 4:40PM, LUMN.N - Lumen Technologies Inc at UBS Women in Tech Summit

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Okay. I definitely want to touch on -- you made a lot of points, but maybe just starting with the digital transformation piece. What does that mean truly and where are we at Lumen in terms of that?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Surprised to hear that there are still four separate network architectures. Because I know Lumen is -- has come together to this day from integration of different assets over the years. But every time there was one, there was a synergy target, it was about cost cutting and integrating those networks. So from our seats, we thought that was done.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : How long does that take to go to a unique one network architecture?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Great. For network architecture, are you referring to maybe like the old quest as one, level three as one in those?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : It's been integrated for a long time supposedly, like time to follow more --

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Talk about the fiber connectivity. And yes, definitely all the capabilities that a data center will just stay there unless you have the pipe taking them somewhere else. What we hear is that it's a commodity. Everybody can provide that fiber. So you do mention that we're unique. Like how is Lumen unique?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right. They have the capabilities. But what you're saying is that they're really not focusing on this and they have other --

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Yeah. And when you talk about your competitors and you're entering this new world also, who do you think your competitors are? The old legacy telcos, the tech world? And in that sense, does it matter if you have on-net access? So you own the fiber or you just have good access to somebody else's?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Leave you alone. In terms of -- so there was a perception that, yeah, you do have the connectivity, but you're just a dumb pipe. And you are introducing all these new services to change that perception. How easy is that? Do you have the mindshare of the enterprises that you're talking with? And how do you prove out those capable -- that you have those capabilities?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right. It's very interesting. And sort of there's so much legacy that the new message needs to be out there and kind of like absorbed with people because it's kind of like it needs to start to show up in the numbers also for, I guess, people to believe in it and own.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right, very interesting. And in terms of all these capabilities, do you think that they will be mostly in-house driven or are you looking to build some partnerships as well?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Great. Let's see if there are any questions from the audience. I'll continue. So as you build these capabilities, they don't necessarily serve all the customer mix or -- that you have. So is there a customer mix that you are mostly focused on and that's where all the efforts are going? Or do you think that there will be wide set of services and products that could appeal to? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 12, 2024 / 4:40PM, LUMN.N - Lumen Technologies Inc at UBS Women in Tech Summit

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Let's talk a little bit about AI. What does it mean for Lumen? Is it more of an efficiency tool? Or is it a way to change product mix as well?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : It's great. Maybe just a couple of minutes left. I wanted to ask sort of like from our seat or investors looking at the progress that Lumen has been making and the changes that's in the pipeline, what are your maybe three metrics that we should really focus on to measure your success?

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : And maybe if you could -- a little timing around also --

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Not old. Awesome. That's great.

Question: Batya Levi - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Thank you so much. Thank you.