Backbone Directory: Cogent

Cogent built an all-Cisco, all-fiber network spanning the United States. More recently, the company acquired the building contracts of Allied Riser Communications and the U.S. operations of PSINet.

Current Network Map

Cogent has built an all-Cisco, all-fiber network that reaches the tier-1 cities in the United States. Founded in August, 1999, the company grew rapidly.

Cogent offers end users in buildings it serves a flat rate fee of 100 Mbps for $1000 per month (100 times the bandwidth of a T-1 for about the same price).

Cogent's pricing for ISPs is only slightly more complex. Hooking up to Cogent's metro area fiber loops appears to be a particularly good deal, at $500 per month for 100 Mbps.

In its early years, the company leased dark fiber as it also built its own nationwide network. More recently, the company purchased Allied Riser Communications as well as the U.S. operations of PSINet.

Cogent claims to never oversubscribe its local loop. Cogent Communications says it will only provision bandwidth on a metro ring up to the physical capacity of that ring. For example, in the metropolitan OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) ring, Cogent Communications will not provision more than 24 100 Mbps (2.4 Gbps) customers per OC-48 drop.

Major hub cities
[U.S.] Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Diego.

Peering points
[U.S.] SD-Nap La Jolla, CA; PAIX I Palo Alto, CA; PAIX-ATL Atlanta, GA; PAIX-DAL Dallas, TX; PAIX-LA Los Angeles, CA; PAIX-NY New York, NY; PAIX-SEA Seattle, WA; PAIX-BOS Boston, MA; PAIX-VA Vienna, VA; AADS Nap Chicago, IL; PacBell San Francisco, CA; MAE Central (Dallas) Dallas, TX; MAE East Vienna, VA; MAE West San Jose, CA; Bell South MIX Miami, FL; Equinix-VA Herndon, VA; Equinix-CA San Jose, CA; Equinix-TX Dallas, TX