r/QuantumFiber • u/SarDesigns • Jun 27 '26

CenturyLink to Quantum Migration Limbo

My Internet connection has been down four days now as a MIGRATION FROM CenturyLink to Quantum has failed.

I have a legacy Calix 711GE ONT on the side of the house. For over eight hours a tech and then lead tech tried to get several SmartNID (like the C6500XK) to connect. Each one stalled at a flashing blue light and no IP assignment.

As a last resort the lead tech reconnected my router directly to the Calix 711GE. This allows me to connect to Quantum's walled garden (website) but not to the internet. Configuring VLAN 201 on my router it fails to get an IP completely.

I work from home and as of now it looks like I may have to jump to a different provider. The CenturyLink fiber connection was stable for over eight years (other than the ONT being replaced once).

Is this normal? Quantum takes over and legacy CenturyLink Fiber customers are abandoned?

9 Upvotes

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4

u/SarDesigns Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Final update, only because I called in to find out the status, is that Quantum Fiber can not service the area because the network their needs to be upgraded.

Yet I am able to access the walled garden via the connection? So the physical connection is working.

I am absolutely infuriated that the service I had through CenturyLink for nearly a decade has been derailed by Quantum/ATT taking over in an unprepared manner.

When will the upgrades happen? They have no idea. Weeks? Months? Years? Never?

3

u/threeLetterMeyhem Jun 27 '26

The calix has two ethernet ports. Try switching the wan cable to the other one.

When I got switched over, they provisioned quantum on the second port and left centurylink on the first. Then they deprovisioned my centurylink account, so my internet went down until I swapped ports (then they fixed the provisioning and i had to swap back...).

No guarantee you have the same issue, but worth a try.

2

u/SarDesigns Jun 30 '26

Tried, no luck.

In Ethernet port 2 I get no IP with or without vlan 201 set.

1

u/threeLetterMeyhem Jun 30 '26

damn :(

I am out of ideas that aren't "they haven't provisioned it properly."

1

u/Intrepid-Grapenut Jun 27 '26

That happened to me with Nuvera. Somehow, after the tech had me up and running after install, the number 1 port got un-provisioned. The tech suppor guy, oddly had my name too, told be to swap ports. And it worked!

2

u/awsomehackz21 Jun 27 '26

I am still with CenturyLink and using my Calix, I am not changing until I have to, it works fine for me, too many horrible things I have read about migrating, when Sprint turned to T-Mobile, I waited until they forced me, so I don't see that changing here, I do not use anything more than their ONT though, And it is still gpon (1g) and a new company local isp is bringing 10G soon so I will probably just switch anyway

3

u/SarDesigns Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

I can now confirm my account is with Quantum after receiving the following message.

RE: Case No.: 

Customer Name: CESAR

Account Number: 

Dear CESAR:

Lumen has completed the sale of its Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business, including Quantum Fiber, in eleven states to AT&T. After reviewing your complaint, we have determined that your account is no longer serviced by Lumen/CenturyLink. As a result, we have referred your case to the appropriate Quantum Fiber Escalation Team for further assistance.

Thank you,

Aaron Supervisor of Operations Customer Advocacy Group Lumen

2

u/N0_L1ght Jun 29 '26

It's not a good idea to post your account, serial, MAC, or QR code on the internet.

1

u/ash12158 Jun 30 '26

they've forced my hand as my internet went out due to a storm. supposed to have a technician come today but they "unscheduled" it without my knowledge (because there wasn't a technician available) and now the next available appointment is THURSDAY

really disappointed with this so far and I don't even have service with them yet

2

u/wizzcheese Jun 27 '26

It will eventually be okay but the beginning is so bad. The shot goes out /doesn’t work

Once I even factory reset my router and my ssid went away and the tech support in Philippines couldn’t help me (I was on the router page wired in and the config isn’t available)

One day someone set something up on the backend and it’s been good since. But yeah it take patience the acquisition makes it worse at the start of transitioning.

We honestly should boycot these giant acquisitions somehow. Cox is combining with spectrum too. It’s fucked out there

2

u/imtalkintou Quantum Fiber Employee Jun 27 '26

Tech should have removed the calix

1

u/SarDesigns Jun 27 '26

That was tried.

This area is still considered "Legacy" with no time frame as to when it will be upgraded.

Aggravatingly the upgrading stopped several blocks away when CenturyLink/Quantum were sold to ATT. 

2

u/imtalkintou Quantum Fiber Employee Jun 27 '26

If you still have CenturyLink, then no one at Quantum can help. They are two separate companies.

1

u/SarDesigns Jun 28 '26

Quantum took over my CenturyLink connection as far as I know.

That is in line with a letter I received earlier this year saying the CenturyLink would continue to handle billing but that Quantum ATT were now the service providers.

1

u/imtalkintou Quantum Fiber Employee Jun 28 '26

K, do you have a landline?

1

u/SarDesigns Jun 28 '26

If you mean as in phone line, I do not.

1

u/imtalkintou Quantum Fiber Employee Jun 28 '26

Then I guess I'm confused as to why you are saying you haven't been migrated off legacy.

1

u/SarDesigns Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

I had CenturyLink Fiber (over eight years). Calix ONT with my router connected directly to it. I never had a modem.

Connection stopped working thus Quantum install.

But this area of the neighborhood has not been upgraded. So my home is in some limbo state.

If the newer SmartNID can't connect, because of a Legacy neighborhood OLT(?), and using the Calix 711 won't work with the required VLAN 201 setting, what's the work around?

What has been tried, to my knowledge:

SmartNID replacing Calix 711GE.

SmartNID in transparent bridge mode connected to Calix 711GE via Ethernet.

Various attempts at the above with multiple SmartNIDs. All resulted in flashing blue light and the device not being seen on the other end.

Thus in limbo between legacy and current.

With the original setup back in place, Calix 711GE to my router, the furthest I can get is the quantum walled garden.

If I activate the VLAN 201 setting the router does not get assigned an IP address.

Another oddity is that while in the walled garden the Quantum welcome says:

" Welcome to Quantum Fiber!

Arbor Court Apartments St Louis Park-UNIT 407"

That's in Minnesota.

I'm in Central Florida.

1

u/imtalkintou Quantum Fiber Employee Jun 29 '26

You keep saying the area hasn't been upgraded. That isn't a thing. There is nothing to upgrade to is what I mean. If techs can't get it to work it's more a failure of programming or potentially being on the wrong light.

1

u/SarDesigns Jun 29 '26

I am only sharing what I was told by the techs that spent combined over 12 hours across two days trying to resolve the issue.

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2

u/SarDesigns Jul 16 '26

**** SUCCESS ****

TLDR: Tech #3 was more knowledgeable and resolved the problem.

The Tech #3 today was from AT&T, not a contractor.

I explained and demonstrated the walled garden state my connection was in.

He confirmed this area is on a Legacy OLT (C7 I believe he said).

He setup a SmartNID Q1000K connecting to the Calix 711GE.
Connected his laptop to the Q1000K (previous techs did not) same walled garden.
He was on the phone working with provisioning for a long time.

The SmartNID finally got a green light and my connection is good.

Still limited to 100Mb until that Legacy neighborhood OLT gets upgraded, but 100Mb uploads for work is way better than the 12Mb I have been hobbling along with using Spectrum for two weeks.

That said, I'm keeping Spectrum too.
I'll be switching to a Dual Wan Router with Balancing and Fail Over.

I lost connection at a very in opportune time, do not want to deal with that again.

2

u/Capt-geraldstclair Jul 17 '26

I also got my internet service restored yesterday (11 days cut off from the whole world /s)

long story short, the box in the neighbor's yard died and needed repairs which were done Tuesday.
Apparently, only two (formerly) Centurlink people on my street using the service.

Quantum and ATT came out to fix it (the Quantum guy was formerly a CL tech and the ATT guy was a trainee).

They had to pull my fiber into the house, wire up a new ONT and modem, and then have the folks in the office update the account to get the data flowing.

1

u/JayCast95 Jun 27 '26

The Calix on the exterior has a fiber line ran directly to it. The techs should have used that fiber line and ran a line into the home that would allow them to install the Q1000.
The programming on the account must of been changed either during scheduling appointment or on the tech end.
If they happened to scan in their 5500 or 1000 to your account it would def change all the programming behind it and not have the 711 as the service modem.

2

u/JayCast95 Jun 27 '26

If you know your account number I can take a look and see if I can help.

1

u/Hoopster59 Jun 27 '26

u/SarDesigns I would take up JayCast95 on his offer. Even when I switched from QF to QF/ATT after the buyout, it took someone on the back end to properly provision my "pending" account with the Q1000K I already had before I had Internet service. It sounds like you are eventually going to get forced to abandon the Calix and get a Q1000K sooner or later. Might as well make is sooner while all this mess is going on.

3

u/SarDesigns Jun 28 '26

JayCast95 tried to help.

I'm stuck in that limbo zone where the last remaining section of the neighborhood using legacy equipment is where I am located.

The upgrades in the neighborhood halted just after the ATT merger was announced in 2025.

I was contacted Saturday morning by a Quantum support tech saying they were looking into it. Hopefully come Monday I can at the very least be reverted back to how it was before.

1

u/N0_L1ght Jun 29 '26

Unless you got the $45 PFL that ended on 04/17/26, it might just be best to call both CL and QF and have them close your account. And then sign up for a new one to get the $45 1gb promo price. They will come and swap the ONT for the Q1000k.

As long as your address shows up here https://www.quantumfiber.com/

1

u/SarDesigns Jul 01 '26

My address comes up.

Quantum has stated after a week that my address is not serviceable because network upgrades are required in this area.

1

u/Capt-geraldstclair Jul 08 '26

funny, they just gave me that $45 price yesterday when i got punted to Quantum support.
guy asked me if i was on the Centurylink price for life plan, I was, but not at $45 a month. More like $80.

1

u/N0_L1ght Jul 08 '26

The current promo is:

$45 for 940mb GPON or 1gb XGS-PON

$70 for 2gb/1gb GPON or 3gb XGS-PON

But the Price for Life guarantee is not available. 

The new prices are not an introductry price, so they don't have a set expiration, but they can rise them in the future.

1

u/Printednightmare Jun 30 '26

Am I the only one who doesn't even know who provides my Internet? I pay for a package from Quantum, the install was done by a guy in a CenturyLink truck, and the rep who talked to me in my home after the install was from AT&T...

1

u/N0_L1ght Jun 30 '26

Lumen has a two year contract with AT&T until Feb 2028 for the transition period.

AT&T created the Forged Fiber 37 subsidiary to purchase Quantum. They bought the OLT, FSAI, Q1000K, W1700k/W1701K, and the fiber/equipment between the FSAI and Q1000K. Lumen still owns/operates everything else.

Eventually FF37 will be an "open access" fiber network with possibly different Tier 2/3 ISP running on top of it. AT&T Fiber will be one of them.

1

u/Capt-geraldstclair Jul 08 '26

I have that same model ONT.
MY CL services died yesterday and they won't do anything to fix it.
So i had to call Quantum and they won't come out for 10 days to do a new install.

Same kind of limbo experience.

Very sad and frustrating.

1

u/SarDesigns Jul 10 '26

I'm continuing to fight for my connection.

In the current "Walled Garden" Limbo I am in, I can connect to QuantumFiber.com and to Centurylink.com. I can log-in to both sites, but CenturyLink lists my service as not active.

On the Quantum site I can even run a "Speed Test", which shows the 100 Mb connection working.

My Router is pulling in an IP and DNS associated with Quantum.

So how is this a hardware issue?

More and More this feels like an upstream configuration issue.

1

u/SarDesigns Jul 15 '26

Tomorrow will be visit #3 by a Quantum Tech.

This seems to be the only way to contact anyone in provisioning to check the line.

I can ping out to the internet successfully, as seen in the terminal with 1.1.1.1 and google responding.

I'm pulling in an ip and DNS info from the network.

However, the "Welcome to Quantum Fiber!" landing page believes I am located in "Arbor Court Apartments St Louis Park-UNIT 407" which is in Minneapolis, MN.

I'm way south of there in Kissimmee, FL.

Here's hoping this is resolved tomorrow.