Cogent Communications

Overview of Cogent

Cogent is a multinational Tier 1 Internet Service Provider consistently ranked as one of the top five networks in the world. Our primary service offering consists of Internet access and data transport, offered over our award-winning fiber optic, IP data-only network, along with colocation in any of our 53 Internet data centers. We service two customer segments: "Corporate" (small businesses to Fortune 100 companies) and "NetCentric" (Carriers / Service Providers and Application / Content Providers, whose businesses rely primarily on Internet access).

Our innovative, facilities-based network spans across North America, across the Atlantic throughout Europe, and across the Pacific to Asia. With over 57,400 route miles of intercity fiber and more than 34,100 metro fiber miles, we provide service to over 204 major markets and interconnect with over 6,760 other networks.

Cogent was founded on the premise that bandwidth can be treated like a commodity—produce mass amounts and position it for sale based on price. Leveraging new technologies, we built our own IP data network independent of the traditional voice-based networks owned by the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies). By doing so, we believed we could reduce the cost of high-quality bandwidth down to a level never before offered in the marketplace. Less than five years after lighting our network backbone, we have become widely recognized as one of the largest carriers of Internet traffic in the world.

We stand apart from our competitors in many areas, but key differentiators include:

Our customer connections are dedicated and non-oversubscribed
Our prices are the lowest in the industry
Our diversity from traditional carriers enables redundancy for customer data
Our simple network structure allows for rapid provisioning
Our 'self-healing' ring architecture design minimizes outages
Cogent is Smart Business Internet
Cogent Communications is a public company trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol CCOI. Cogent is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America.

History

Cogent started operations in 1999. Since then, it has dynamically expanded to become a top-five global service provider in over 204 major markets and 43 countries.

Cogent began construction of a network optimized for data traffic and launched service in four initial markets in 2000. That same year, major telcos announced for the first time ever that global networks carried more data traffic than voice traffic. Cogent was perfectly positioned to step into this growing market. Today we are one of the largest carriers of data traffic in the world.

Acquisition History

Although debuting at the height of the telecom industry, Cogent soon found vast market wealth eradicated and many other ISPs thrown into a state of turmoil. In a survival of the fittest competition, Cogent became the consolidator in a consolidating market. Over three brief years, Cogent completed 13 acquisitions of other flailing providers. Whether it was an entire company or just select assets, Cogent was able to acquire valuable network assets, customers, peering relationships and building access agreements for pennies on the dollar.

Among Cogent's 13 acquisitions to date include three of the original generation Internet Service Providers who were pioneers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These companies—PSINet (originally Performance Systems International), NetRail and Aleron (originally AGIS/Net99)—were the earliest providers of commercial Internet service. While these first-generation ISPs made great contributions to the rapid growth and success of the Internet, their business models and networks could not keep pace with technology and market demands.

Other strategic acquisitions include assets from Allied Riser, OnSite Access, Fiber City, Fiber Network Solutions, Applied Theory, LambdaNet France and Spain, Carrier1, Unlimited Fiber Optics, Global Access, Aleron, NTT/Verio.

Geographic Expansion History
Cogent aims to serve top tier markets where connectivity demands are highest.

At the end of 2000, we launched service in just four U.S. cities. In 2001, we completed our network rollout to 20 major U.S. cities. The next year, we expanded our network into Toronto, Canada, and also began offering Off-Net (T1/T3) services in more than 30 new markets.

In 2004, we crossed the Atlantic into Europe and expanded gradually across the continent. We added the Nordics in 2005, Italy in 2006, stretched as far north as Glasgow and as far east as Romania by 2008, and to Estonia and Ukraine by 2009. We currently serve over 140 European markets with products that include Dedicated Internet Access, IP transit, Colocation Services, and Ethernet VPN connectivity.

In 2009, Cogent also moved into Mexico and today connects multiple cities across the country.

In 2011, Cogent expanded our network to Tokyo, Japan. We have continued our expansion in Asia to Hong Kong and Singapore.

In 2018, Cogent extended our geographic reach to the southern hemisphere by launching service in Sydney, Australia and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Our successful geographic expansion at such a rapid pace has been, in part, due to our ability to surgically acquire the network assets we need most from financially troubled companies. Today, we carry an impressive share of the world’s Internet traffic, serving over 200 markets in 43 countries across six continents.