Service Provider is unresponsive to de-provision request for ExpressRoute.

Question

Service Provider is unresponsive to de-provision request for ExpressRoute.

Sebastian Hernandez 5

Our organization terminated eLynk/EVC service with Service Provider (Lumen/Century Link) in October of 2023. Physical circuits were disconnected and our organization moved out of service address. Despite multiple written requests via email and ticket submissions to Century Link, Service Provider has not changed ExpressRoute status to de-provisioned, causing our organization to continue to pay for a service that has not been used since October of 2023. We cannot delete this ExpressRoute circuit in Azure. We need Microsoft's assistance.

Vallepu Venkateswarlu 10,590 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-16T15:06:02.4133333+00:00

Hi @ Sebastian Hernandez,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform.

As per MS Document stated in Deprovisioning and deleting an ExpressRoute circuit.

As I understand, the service provider has not responded to your request to change the circuit to the “Not Provisioned” state. Without changing the circuit to the Not Provisioned state, you cannot delete the circuit, as it is a compliance requirement.

Please reach out to the service provider and request them to change the status. Once the status is updated, you can proceed with deleting the ExpressRoute circuit by following the Microsoft documentation. here

If the circuit service provider has deprovisioned the circuit (The Provider status has updated to Not provisioned), you can delete the circuit. This stops billing for the circuit.

Please "upvote" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.
Ganesh Patapati 12,170 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-31T15:52:58.67+00:00
Hello Sebastian Hernandez

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.

If these answer your question, click "Upvote" which may be beneficial to other community members reading this thread.
Nate D. Landis 5 Reputation points

2026-07-10T14:48:53.9233333+00:00

Hi @Sebastian Hernandez

We're in the same situation now with an ended Lumen service, but no de-provision to allow us to terminate our Azure service. Did you ever have any luck on this?

Appreciate any advice you have to share!

Thanks,

Nate
Ganesh Patapati 12,170 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T20:16:48.5066667+00:00

Hello Nate D. Landis

To remove it, you need to contact your service provider and request the deprovisioning of the circuit. Once the provider marks it as "Not Provisioned," the circuit's state in Azure will update accordingly. At that point, you can delete it from the Azure portal, CLI, or PowerShell.

NOTE: there is no way to force-delete a provisioned circuit entirely from Azure without the provider's deprovisioning, as ExpressRoute is a jointly managed resource.
Nate D. Landis 5 Reputation points

2026-07-14T20:49:30.89+00:00

Hi @Ganesh Patapati

We have canceled our service with Lumen and they have completed our cancelation request some time ago. Despite this, it still shows as provisioned. Since then, we have requested through multiple different routes for them to make it not provisioned, but to no luck. We are open to any ideas or suggestions to help us remove this service.
Ganesh Patapati 12,170 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-20T21:27:43.9966667+00:00

Hello Nate D. Landis

For better visibility could you please create a new thread with the details of your issue?

Once posted, our experts will be able to review it and provide guidance more effectively.

Thank you for your understanding.

1 answer

Your answer

Vallepu Venkateswarlu 10,590 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-16T15:06:02.4133333+00:00

Hi @ Sebastian Hernandez,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform.

As per MS Document stated in Deprovisioning and deleting an ExpressRoute circuit.

As I understand, the service provider has not responded to your request to change the circuit to the “Not Provisioned” state. Without changing the circuit to the Not Provisioned state, you cannot delete the circuit, as it is a compliance requirement.

Please reach out to the service provider and request them to change the status. Once the status is updated, you can proceed with deleting the ExpressRoute circuit by following the Microsoft documentation. here

If the circuit service provider has deprovisioned the circuit (The Provider status has updated to Not provisioned), you can delete the circuit. This stops billing for the circuit.

Please "upvote" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.
Ganesh Patapati 12,170 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-31T15:52:58.67+00:00

Hello Sebastian Hernandez

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.

If these answer your question, click "Upvote" which may be beneficial to other community members reading this thread.
Nate D. Landis 5 Reputation points

2026-07-10T14:48:53.9233333+00:00

Hi @Sebastian Hernandez

We're in the same situation now with an ended Lumen service, but no de-provision to allow us to terminate our Azure service. Did you ever have any luck on this?

Appreciate any advice you have to share!

Thanks,

Nate
Ganesh Patapati 12,170 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T20:16:48.5066667+00:00

Hello Nate D. Landis

To remove it, you need to contact your service provider and request the deprovisioning of the circuit. Once the provider marks it as "Not Provisioned," the circuit's state in Azure will update accordingly. At that point, you can delete it from the Azure portal, CLI, or PowerShell.

NOTE: there is no way to force-delete a provisioned circuit entirely from Azure without the provider's deprovisioning, as ExpressRoute is a jointly managed resource.
Nate D. Landis 5 Reputation points

2026-07-14T20:49:30.89+00:00

Hi @Ganesh Patapati

We have canceled our service with Lumen and they have completed our cancelation request some time ago. Despite this, it still shows as provisioned. Since then, we have requested through multiple different routes for them to make it not provisioned, but to no luck. We are open to any ideas or suggestions to help us remove this service.
Ganesh Patapati 12,170 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-20T21:27:43.9966667+00:00

Hello Nate D. Landis

For better visibility could you please create a new thread with the details of your issue?

Once posted, our experts will be able to review it and provide guidance more effectively.

Thank you for your understanding.

Answer 1

Hello Sebastian Hernandez

You cannot delete an ExpressRoute circuit directly in Azure if it remains provisioned by the service provider. This error indicates that the circuit is still in a "Provisioned" state on the provider's side.

To remove it, you need to contact your service provider and request the deprovisioning of the circuit. Once the provider marks it as "Not Provisioned," the circuit's state in Azure will update accordingly. At that point, you can delete it from the Azure portal, CLI, or PowerShell.

NOTE: there is no way to force-delete a provisioned circuit entirely from Azure without the provider's deprovisioning, as ExpressRoute is a jointly managed resource.

Refer to the official documentation on deprovisioning an ExpressRoute circuit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/expressroute/expressroute-howto-circuit-portal-resource-manager

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.