News Release

Cogent Communications Selects Cisco Info Center to Manage First All-Optical Nationwide ISP Backbone

WASHINGTON, DC, April 24/PRNewswire/ -- Cogent
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Apr 24, 2000


WASHINGTON, DC, April 24/PRNewswire/ -- Cogent Communications, a commercial business ISP offering 100 megabit per second Internet access for $1,000 per month, announced today that it has chosen Cisco Info Center (CIC) to provide real-time end-to-end monitoring of its network infrastructure and service-level agreement management. This agreement to purchase CIC follows a contract Cogent recently signed with Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, to build an optical, Cisco Powered Network optimized for Internet traffic. This optimized network will offer Internet access at 100 times the speed of a T-1 connection.

CIC is a service-level monitoring and diagnostics tool that provides network fault and performance monitoring, trouble isolation, and real-time service-level management for large networks. CIC is based on the NETCOOL. Suite from Micromuse, the leading provider of fault and service-level management software. Cogent selected CIC because it is a comprehensive end-to-end solution that delivers real-time fault data on virtually every underlying network component of the new infrastructure. In addition, CIC will provide immediate visibility into the rollout of the network, allowing Cogent to collect and consolidate alarms from its optical IP network that is based on a nationwide OC-192 infrastructure. After rollout, CIC will monitor Cogent's progressive network architecture, allowing the data packets to remain on its 10-gigabit, non-blocking, distance insensitive infrastructure until the furthest peering point, rather than compete with other Internet traffic as it travels cross-country.

"Cisco Info Center will allow Cogent to manage its network on all levels, and react to the way businesses use the Internet today," said Dave Schaeffer, CEO of Cogent. "Being able to proactively spot and resolve any potential problems in the network infrastructure before they cause an outage in service is vital to Cogent's success as a service provider."

"Cisco Info Center allows operators to build views of services in real-time, helping them manage networks more efficiently. Because it is scalable and deploys rapidly, this solution allows Cogent to roll out and expand its network quickly," said Alan Cohen, senior director of marketing for Cisco's Communications Software Group. "We are excited to see New World networks that are able to use the increasing functionality of Cisco's growing family of OSS product infrastructures."


About Cogent Communications (www.cogentco.com)
Cogent Communications is offering Internet access at approximately 100x the speed of a T-1 connection and priced at a discount to a single T-1. Cogent's high-speed Internet access service is provided over a state-of-the-art end-to-end optical network optimized for Internet traffic. The company intends to roll out its service to large, multi-tenanted commercial buildings initially in 19 major markets in the U.S.


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