The Quilt Patches Into Cogent

WASHINGTON -- Cogent Communications, a Tier One, optical ISP, today announced that it will provide a number of regional GigaPoPs , that are participants of The Quilt, with a significant amount of high quality/low cost bandwidth on a nationwide basis. This Cogent bandwidth will enable GigaPoPs that provide regional network aggregation for universities, research institutions, government agencies, and non-profits to continue their work and research using bandwidth intensive applications without the fear of reaching bandwidth restrictive budget caps.Cogent’s offered competitive pricing to regional GigaPoPs, such as MAGPI (Mid-Atlantic GigaPoP in Philadelphia for Internet2), the Northern Crossroads (NoX), MERIT and CENIC, that will enable them to get the lowest priced bandwidth in the country at the equivalent of $10 per megabit per month. The deal will eventually result in over 15 Gigabits of additional Cogent IP transit ports with participants of the Quilt in 2003 and 2004.“As a participant of The Quilt organization, MAGPI views the relationship with Cogent Communications as being strategic to its mission of providing affordable and sustainable connectivity to the region's research and educational communities,” said Greg Palmer, MAGPI Director. “Justification for connectivity to the Internet2 and MAGPI networks has been made possible in many cases based on the savings experienced through Cogent Internet access, thereby enabling applications that would not have otherwise been possible.”“Cogent communications was designed from the ground up to be the highest quality/lowest cost provider of Internet service in the country. After operating for several years, our business model is proving itself to be both a market disruptor and a business enabler at the same time,” said Dave Schaeffer, CEO Cogent Communications. “Today, hundreds of network service providers like the regional participants of The Quilt connect to Cogent so they too, can offer higher quality Internet service at lower, more competitive pricing to their customers.”To date, Cogent Communications has connected a variety of Universities and Colleges, some of which include the University of Pennsylvania, The George Washington University, Tufts University, Stanford University, DePaul University and University of California, Berkeley.Cogent Communications Group Inc.The Quilt