Cogent Communications

Cogent Communications is a multinational internet service provider based in the United States. Cogent's primary services consist of Internet access and data transport, offered on a fiber optic, IP data-only network, along with colocation in data centers.[4]

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.
TypePublic
NASDAQ: CCOI
S&P 600 Component
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1999
HeadquartersWashington, D.C., U.S.
Key people
Dave Schaeffer (CEO)/Founder/President
Revenue US$485.175 million (2017)[1]
US$75.918 million (2017)[1]
US$5.876 million (2017)[1]
Total assets US$710.588 million (2017)[1]
Total equity US$62.857 million (2017)[1][2]
Number of employees
897[1] (February 1, 2017)
Websitewww.cogentco.com
Primary ASN174
Traffic Levels10 Tbps+[3]

Acquisition history

Cogent was founded in 1999 at the peak of the industry's growth and was funded by angel investors including members of Keiretsu Forum.[5] In three years, Cogent acquired 13 other failing carriers, purchasing $14 billion in capital for $60 million, including $4 billion worth of Property, Plant and Equipment.[6]

  • September 2001 – Acquires the assets of NetRail[5]
  • February 2002 – Acquires Allied Riser[7][8]
  • April 2002 – Acquires Building Access Agreements from OnSite Access
  • April 2002 – Acquires Major US Assets of PSINet[9]
  • September 2002 – Acquires Major Assets of FiberCity Networks
  • February 2003 – Acquires Fiber Network Solutions[10]
  • May 2003 – Acquires Assets of Applied Theory
  • January 2004 – Acquires LambdaNet France & Spain[11]
  • March 2004 – Acquires Fiber Network and Equipment in Germany Out of Former Carrier1 Assets[12]
  • September 2004 – Acquires Global Access[13]
  • October 2004 – Acquires Aleron Broadband[14]
  • December 2004 – Acquires NTT/Verio Dedicated Access Business in U.S.[15]

Peering

Cogent has been controversial in the ISP market for low bandwidth pricing and its public disputes over peering with AOL (2003),[16] Level 3 Communications (2005),[17] France Telecom (2006),[18] Limelight Networks (2007),[19] Telia Carrier (March 2008),[20] and Sprint Nextel (October 2008).[21]

On March 14, 2008, after Cogent stopped routing packets from European network provider Telia (AS 1299), their two networks lost mutual connectivity.[20] The connection was reestablished March 28, 2008 with interconnection points in both the United States and Europe.[22]

On June 6, 2011, Cogent automatically stopped peering with The Department of Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) causing a disruption for 3 days.[23]

In November 2015, CenturyLink signed a new long-term bilateral interconnection agreement with Cogent Communications.[24]

Cogent has yet to agree on peering with the biggest IPv6 connectivity provider, Hurricane Electric. As of March 2016, direct connectivity between the two networks is impossible.[25] Cogent and Google have also stopped IPv6 peering in 2016.[26] This is rumored to be closely tied to Cogent leveraging Google's IPv4 traffic via a paid customer or to maintain Settlement-Free Interconnect with another network.[27]

In February 2017, Cogent blocked many piracy and streaming sites including The Pirate Bay.[28] This was unintentional due to a poorly crafted Spanish court order.[29]

Cogent Communications is considered a Tier 1 Internet Service Provider because of their peering agreements with all other Tier-1 networks.[30]

References
  1. "2017 Cogent Communications SEC Form 10-K". Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  2. "2016 Cogent Communications SEC Form 10-K". Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  3. https://telcodb.net/AS174. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "Cogent Communications, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Nov 7, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  5. "Cogent Communications, Form S-4, Filing Date Oct 16, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  6. Lightwave – Cogent Communications banks on Ethernet over IP
  7. "Cogent Communications, Form 425, Filing Date Aug 29, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  8. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Feb 5, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  9. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Apr 4, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  10. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 3, 2003" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  11. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jan 8, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  12. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 31, 2004" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  13. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Sep 17, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  14. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Oct 29, 2004" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  15. "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 3, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
  16. Noguchi, Yuki (2002-12-27). "'Peering' Dispute With AOL Slows Cogent Customer Access". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  17. "Cogent's Standing Offer to Level 3: Turn the Connection Back On, Then…". archive.is. 2012-09-07. Archived from the original on 2012-09-07. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  18. Kuri, Jürgen; Smith, Robert W. (2005-04-21). "France Telecom severs all network links to competitor Cogent". Heise online. Retrieved 2006-09-28.
  19. Miller, Rich (30 September 2007). "Cogent De-peers Limelight Networks | Data Center Knowledge". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  20. The Telia-Cogent Spat Could Ruin the Web For Many, Om Malik, 2008-03-14
  21. Sprint-Nextel Severs Its Internet Connection to Cogent Communications
  22. Telia resolves internet dispute Archived 2008-06-07 at the Wayback Machine, http://thelocal.se, Peter Vinthagen Simpson, 2008-03-30
  23. Important: Status regarding Cogent connectivity, Energy Sciences Network press release, Steve Cotter, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
  24. "CenturyLink, Cogent sign new interconnection agreement | FierceTelecom". www.fiercetelecom.com. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  25. "E-mail from Hurricane Electric explaining why the two networks are severed on the nanog (North American Network Operators Group) mailing list". Archived from the original on 2009-10-16.
  26. adminhacks.org, March 2016
  27. Murenin, Constantine A. (2017-02-25). "Cogent & Google IPv6". Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  28. "Internet Backbone Provider Cogent Blocks Pirate Bay and other "Pirate" Sites - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 9 February 2017.
  29. "A court order blocked pirate sites that weren't supposed to be blocked". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  30. "About Cogent". cogentco.com. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
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