WASHINGTON -- Cogent Communications Group, Inc. (Amex: COI), a Tier One, next generation, optical Internet service provider, announced today that C-SPAN has selected Cogent to provide a point-to-point, high bandwidth connection that is enabling an innovative, two-way, distance learning program for students at the University of Denver. Over Cogent's 100 Mbps dedicated transport connection, C-SPAN's distance learning program is taught by Dr. John Splaine, an award-winning professor who has taught at the University of Maryland's School of Education for 32 years. Dr. Splaine develops and teaches accredited courses to DU students based at the Distance Learning Studio of The Cable Center, which is adjacent to the DU campus. By conducting the course from Washington, D.C., Dr. Splaine is able to invite elected officials, national journalists and policy experts as speakers. He has access to C-SPAN's on-location field cameras, as they cover unfolding events, and to C-SPAN's archives containing thousands of hours of political programming. Cogent was selected for its cost-effectiveness, its reliability and quality of service. "Cogent's dedicated bandwidth and ring architecture provided C-SPAN with a level of comfort that no other ISP could match. Knowing that the bandwidth would be there all the time and that the transmission could not be interrupted -- even if there was a fiber cut -- was a big factor in selecting Cogent to provide the point-to-point connection," said Barry Katz, C-SPAN's Video Assets Manager. happen." Cogent Communications Inc.