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 43 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 56,200 route miles of intercity fiber and more than 16,850 metro fiber miles, we provide service to over 175 major markets and interconnect with over 3,900 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: