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NewsGlobe: Interviews
Cogent scales the Ethernet curve
Maintains focus as a low-cost alternative ramp to the Internet
by Sean Buckley
Click here to listen to the Audiocast
Founded during the go-go bubble year of 1999, Cogent, unlike many
other competitive providers that emerged at the time, was able to
weather the so-called nuclear winter while maintaining its focus on low-
cost Ethernet-based Internet access. In the following Audiocast, hear
Executive Editor Sean Buckley talk to
Dave Schaeffer, Founder, President and CEO of Cogent Communications
about Cogent’s view of Ethernet and the ever-evolving telecom services
landscape.
In the following Audiocast, Schaeffer answers these questions:
• Since its humble beginnings in the early '70s at Xerox as a protocol for the
LAN, Ethernet has made a strident move into the carrier space as a
trusted service for enterprises. What’s your take on the evolution of
Ethernet?
• To start, talk about Cogent’s momentum as the low-cost Ethernet
provider and what are the plans for growth in 2008?
• Unlike a traditional incumbent carrier that has to maintain hundreds if not
thousands of legacy services, Cogent has had the advantage of starting
with a clean sheet of paper that uses its own private optical network.
Do you believe that gives you an advantage in delivering Ethernet to
high-end business customers?
• Outside the enterprise and wholesale service domains, Cogent continues
to provide its wares to household name large broadcasters. Given the
large amounts of bandwidth such entities consume, do you see a
growing reliance of such entities on high speed Ethernet? Why?
• Even though it’s clear that the competitive telecom provider landscape
may be heading towards another round of “correction,” Cogent once said
that it thinks its real competition will be really the traditional content
carriers as the Internet is becoming a portal to any kind of content. Can
you talk about that evolution and how Cogent is addressing that trend?
Click here to listen to the Audiocast
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