Cogent Communications
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq: CCOI S&P 600 Component | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Key people | Dave Schaeffer (CEO)/Founder/President |
| Revenue |  $ 380.0 million (2014)[1] |
 $ 53.90 million (2014)[1] | |
| $ 797,000 (2014)[1] | |
| Total assets | $761.7 million (2014)[1] |
| Total equity | $83.8 million (2014)[1] |
Number of employees | 772 (Feb 2014)[1] |
| Website | www.cogentco.com |
| ASN |
|---|
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.[2]
Cogent's Autonomous System (AS) number, 174, which is its collection of connected Internet Protocol (IP) routing prefixes, has one of the highest-ranked connectivity degrees on the Internet.[3][4] This indicates a high level of connectivity with other network nodes.
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] TeliaSonera (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]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Cogent Communications, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Feb 27, 2015". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Apr 23, 2015.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Nov 7, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ Visualizing Internet Topology at a Macroscopic Scale April 2005
- ^ AS ranking
- ^ a b "Cogent Communications, Form S-4, Filing Date Oct 16, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ Lightwave – Cogent Communications banks on Ethernet over IP
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 425, Filing Date Aug 29, 2001" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Feb 5, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Apr 4, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 3, 2003" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jan 8, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 31, 2004" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Sep 17, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Oct 29, 2004" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ "Cogent Communications, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 3, 2004". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Mar 27, 2013.
- ^ Noguchi, Yuki (2002-12-27). "'Peering' Dispute With AOL Slows Cogent Customer Access". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
- ^ Cogent Press release Level3 dispute Oct 7 2005
- ^ Kuri, Jürgen; Smith, Robert W. (2005-04-21). "France Telecom severs all network links to competitor Cogent". Heise online. Retrieved 2006-09-28.
- ^ Miller, Rich (30 September 2007). "Cogent De-peers Limelight Networks | Data Center Knowledge". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
- ^ a b The Telia-Cogent Spat Could Ruin the Web For Many, Om Malik, 2008-03-14
- ^ Sprint-Nextel Severs Its Internet Connection to Cogent Communications
- ^ Telia resolves internet dispute Archived 2008-06-07 at the Wayback Machine, http://thelocal.se, Peter Vinthagen Simpson, 2008-03-30
- ^ Important: Status regarding Cogent connectivity, Energy Sciences Network press release, Steve Cotter, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
- ^ "CenturyLink, Cogent sign new interconnection agreement | FierceTelecom". www.fiercetelecom.com. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
- ^ E-mail from Hurricane Electric explaining why the two networks are severed on the nanog (North American Network Operators Group) mailing list
- ^ adminhacks.org, March 2016
- ^ Murenin, Constantine A. (2017-02-25). "Cogent & Google IPv6". Retrieved 2017-03-02.
- ^ "Internet Backbone Provider Cogent Blocks Pirate Bay and other "Pirate" Sites - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 9 February 2017.
- ^ "A court order blocked pirate sites that weren't supposed to be blocked". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-03-02.