GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Level 3 Peering Update from Cogent CEO

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 11:05 AM
To:
Subject: Level 3 Peering Update from Cogent CEO

To: Valued Cogent Customer
From: Dave Schaeffer, Cogent Founder, Chairman and CEO

I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to all Cogent customers with the latest information on our peering issues with Level 3.

First and foremost, I want to express sincere regret to our customers who were adversely impacted by Level 3's decision to de-peer Cogent on October 5, 2005. Immediately following the incident, Cogent: (1) contacted Level 3 at the highest levels; and (2) recruited Level 3 customers to directly connect to our network so Cogent customers could access them. Within 72 hours, under considerable pressure from us and from its own customers, who were also harmed by this action, Level 3 reinstated connectivity. Level 3 has stated its intention to take action again on November 9, 2005, but we are in active discussions to try and prevent this.

Let me now take a minute to address several concerns we have heard from our customers.

Many have asked why we did not provide advance notification of the event. The reality is that we had conflicting information from Level 3. Although they suggested plans to de-peer legacy companies acquired by Cogent, the targeted date came and went. They were concurrently upgrading peering locations with us, which we interpreted as their intention to remain peered with Cogent. Most importantly, as far as we knew, Level 3 had not notified its customers or made a public announcement of the de-peering.
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Many have also asked why we did not send traffic destined for the Level 3 network over a different route. Peering is a direct connection as opposed to a choice of routes. Most peering agreements prohibit one party from sending traffic to the other party that has an ultimate destination on a third party's network. Our only alternative would have been to buy a paid connection from Level 3 itself or from another network operator that peered with Level 3. Since the advent of the Internet, the practice of peering has enabled Tier 1 networks to freely exchange traffic and made the Internet an efficient and inexpensive means to communicate. We were and are unwilling to allow Level 3 to impose a toll charge on access to its customers. If Level 3 is allowed to do this other network operators will do the same and the Internet will become more expensive and less efficient. I want to assure you that Cogent is committed to the philosophy of settlement-free peering and has stated repeatedly that it does not and will not request payment for peering from other Tier 1 players.

And finally, many have asked what we are doing to help in the event Level 3 takes this action again. We are offering Level 3 customers direct connections to the Cogent network at no cost. This is not a ?perk? for Level 3 customers, but rather an alternate way by which Cogent customers can access these businesses. We have diverted substantial resources to this no-revenue effort with the sole objective of protecting our customers against future risk .

Please be assured that I am personally in active discussions with Level 3 senior management and am doing everything possible to create an arrangement amenable to both parties; I will continue to communicate our progress to you. We appreciate the notes of support that we have received from many of you who share our goal to maintain the integrity of the Internet.

Sincerely,
Dave Schaeffer
CEO, Cogent Communications

For additional reading, please see news links below.
http://telephonyonline.com/home/news...evel_3_100505/
http://isp-planet.com/business/2005/cogent_level_3.html

As a reminder, Cogent's Network Status page is kept up to date with any network-affecting issues:
http://status.cogentco.com/