Cogent to Speed Up

Washington, D.C.-based Cogent Communications, which describes itself as a next-generation optical Internet service provider (ISP), said it plans to immediately increase the size of its existing network backbone to 80 Gbps, due to larger than anticipated customer demand.

Cogent's backbone infrastructure currently operates across the country connecting 13 cities via two, interconnected rings, built to operate multiple OC-192 wavelengths. Each OC-192 wavelength operates at 10 Gbps speeds.

As of today, Cogent said it has commenced work on lighting an additional seven wavelengths, increasing the overall capacity to 80 Gbps -- similar to accommodating over 150 billion e-mails per second.

This expansion is expected to be completed by third quarter of 2001.

"We are extremely pleased by the demand that both our service provider and commercial end-user customers have demonstrated for Cogent services, and this expansion will enable us to respond to their needs," said Dave Schaeffer, chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Cogent Communications.

Cogent also said its flagship retail offering of 100 Mbps of optical bandwidth and Internet connectivity for a flat monthly rate of $1000 is currently being provided in four metropolitan areas in the Eastern U.S. (New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Chicago) and will be rolled out in 13 cities across the U.S. during the balance of 2001.