Cogent Communications

Last updated
Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.
Company type Public
Industry Telecommunications
Founded1999;25 years ago (1999)
FounderDavid Schaeffer
Headquarters Washington, D.C., U.S.
Key people
  • David Schaeffer (CEO)
  • Thaddeus Weed (CFO)
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$940.922 million [1]  (2023)
Decrease2.svg US$(129.329) million [1]  (2023)
Increase2.svg US$1.273 billion [1]  (2023)
Total assets Increase2.svg US$3.211 billion [1]  (2023)
Total equity Decrease2.svg US$0.422 million [1]  (2023)
Number of employees
1,947 [1]  (2023)
ASN
  • 174
Traffic Levels100 Tbps+ [2]
Website www.cogentco.com

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. 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. [3] [4]

Contents

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]

In September, 2022, it was announced that Cogent was buying the Sprint Corporation wireline business from T-Mobile for $1.00, assuming some liabilities. [16]

Peering disputes

Cogent has been controversial in the ISP market for low bandwidth pricing and its public disputes over peering with AOL (2003), [17] Level 3 Communications (2005), [18] France Telecom (2006), [19] Limelight Networks (2007), [20] Telia Carrier (March 2008), [21] and Sprint Nextel (October 2008). [22]

On March 14, 2008, after Cogent stopped routing packets from European network provider Telia (AS 1299), their two networks lost mutual connectivity. [21] The connection was reestablished March 28, 2008 with interconnection points in both the United States and Europe. [23]

On June 6, 2011, Cogent automatically stopped peering with the US Department of Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) causing a disruption for three days. [24]

In November 2015, CenturyLink signed a new long-term bilateral interconnection agreement with Cogent Communications. [25]

In December 2015, Cogent sued Deutsche Telekom. Cogent claimed that DTAG failed to increase interconnection capacity between the two networks. According to a statement released by Cogent [26] “Deutsche Telekom has interfered with the free flow of Internet traffic between Cogent customers and Deutsche Telekom customers by refusing to increase the capacity of the interconnection ports that allow the exchange of traffic”

Cogent has yet to agree on peering with the biggest IPv6 connectivity provider, Hurricane Electric. As of March 2023, direct connectivity between the two networks is impossible. [27]

Cogent and Google have also stopped IPv6 peering in 2016. [28] 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. [29] [ speculation? ]As of November 2023, the two networks appear to be reachable over IPv6 via Tata Communications. [30]

In February 2017, Cogent blocked many piracy and streaming sites including The Pirate Bay. [31] This was unintentional due to a poorly crafted Spanish court order. [32]

In February 2024, Cogent withdrew peering with NTT in Europe, [33] [34] forcing all their peering traffic to go through their common remaining interconnections in USA, increasing latency and traffic loss between both networks, to complain against refusal of peering settlements in Asia from NTT.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2023 Cogent Communications Annual Report" (PDF). Cogent Communications . Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  2. ↑ Cogent Communications, Inc. "PeeringDB". PeeringDB. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Nov 7, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  4. ↑ "About Cogent". cogentco.com. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  5. 1 2 "Cogent Communications, Form S-4, Filing Date Oct 16, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Lightwave – Cogent Communications banks on Ethernet over IP". Archived from the original on 2009-06-15. Retrieved May 19, 2008.
  7. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 425, Filing Date Aug 29, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Feb 5, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Apr 4, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 3, 2003" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jan 8, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 31, 2004" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Sep 17, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Oct 29, 2004" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 3, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  16. ↑ Malik, Yuvraj (2022-09-07). "T-Mobile sells wireline business to Cogent for $1, expects hefty charge". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  17. ↑ 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 October 6, 2017.
  18. ↑ "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 January 16, 2020.
  19. ↑ Kuri, Jürgen; Smith, Robert W. (2005-04-21). "France Telecom severs all network links to competitor Cogent". Heise online . Retrieved September 28, 2006.
  20. ↑ Miller, Rich (30 September 2007). "Cogent De-peers Limelight Networks | Data Center Knowledge". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
  21. 1 2 The Telia-Cogent Spat Could Ruin the Web For Many Archived 2016-12-27 at the Wayback Machine , Om Malik, 2008-03-14
  22. ↑ "Sprint-Nextel Severs Its Internet Connection to Cogent Communications". Archived from the original on 2016-10-12. Retrieved 2015-12-06.
  23. ↑ Telia resolves internet dispute Archived 2008-06-07 at the Wayback Machine , http://thelocal.se, Peter Vinthagen Simpson, 2008-03-30
  24. ↑ "ESnet announcement Thurs". 2011-06-11. Archived from the original on 2011-06-11. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  25. ↑ "CenturyLink, Cogent sign new interconnection agreement | FierceTelecom". www.fiercetelecom.com. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  26. ↑ "Statement released in December 2015 when Cogent sued Deutsche Telekom | Cogent" (PDF). cogentco.com. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
  27. ↑ Leber, Mike. "IPv6 internet broken, cogent/telia/hurricane not peering". Archived from the original on 2009-10-16.
  28. ↑ adminhacks.org, March 2016
  29. ↑ Murenin, Constantine A. (2017-02-25). "Cogent & Google IPv6" . Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  30. ↑ Bonfiglio, Giorgio (2023-11-13). "Am I the only one who thinks this is disconcerting?" . Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  31. ↑ "Internet Backbone Provider Cogent Blocks Pirate Bay and other "Pirate" Sites - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 9 February 2017.
  32. ↑ "A court order blocked pirate sites that weren't supposed to be blocked". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  33. ↑ "Cogent starts de-peering with NTT due to lack of 'Asia connectivity'". LowEndTalk. 14 Feb 2024.
  34. ↑ "AS174 (Cogent) and AS2914 (NTT) have depeered in Europe". 14 Feb 2024.
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