Cogent Communications Commends FCC Chairman Wheeler on Proposed New Title II Framework to Protect Net Neutrality

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Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.

Feb 05, 2015, 05:04 ET

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI) today announced its support and commendation for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler's announcement of his proposed new framework to protect and promote an Open Internet under Title II.

Cogent, which has played a vital role in the explosive growth of the Internet, believes that Chairman Wheeler's approach strikes a reasonable balance between ensuring that consumers can access all lawful Internet content and limiting the regulatory burden on the multiple entities that comprise the Internet.

It will be critical in ensuring FCC net neutrality principles that the new Open Internet rules apply with equal force to ISPs' interconnection practices with other networks as they do to practices within an ISP's own network. Dave Schaeffer, Cogent's founder and chief executive officer, stated: "The apparent inclusion of interconnection in the Chairman's proposal is essential to delivering on the promise of an Open Internet. Without interconnection, there is no access to the entire Internet, only access to an ISP's own network." Moreover, as Mr. Schaeffer said, "because last-mile ISPs can use and have used their terminating access gatekeeper position to degrade end-users' Internet experience, Cogent urges the Commission to be vigilant in enforcing the new rules in a timely, efficient and robust manner in order to protect consumers."

The public process that has led to this point has facilitated a well-reasoned proposal, and Cogent looks forward to working with the Commission in the coming weeks to ensure that the ultimate order articulates a well-defined policy that promotes an Open Internet and makes clear that last-mile ISPs cannot violate those principles by requiring interconnecting parties to pay terminating access fees to avoid degraded service when a consumer is receiving lawful content from the consumer's chosen provider anywhere on the Internet.

About Cogent Communications
Cogent Communications (NASDAQ: CCOI) is a multinational, Tier 1 facilities-based ISP, consistently ranked as one of the top five Internet backbone networks in the world. Cogent specializes in providing businesses with high speed Internet access, Ethernet transport and colocation services. Cogent's facilities-based, all-optical IP network provides services in 190 markets globally.

Since its inception, Cogent has unleashed the benefits of IP technology, building one of the largest and highest capacity IP networks in the world. This network enables Cogent to offer large bandwidth connections at highly competitive prices. Cogent also offers superior customer support by virtue of its end-to-end control of service delivery and network monitoring.

Cogent Communications is headquartered at 1015 31st Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007. For more information, visit www.cogentco.com. Cogent Communications can be reached in the United States at (202) 295-4200 or via email at [email protected].

Information in this release may involve expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. as of the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. The statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Some of the factors and risks associated with our business are discussed in Cogent's registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in its other reports filed from time to time with the SEC.

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