Cogent Communications Launches New Channel Partner Program; Strengthens Indirect Sales Channel

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cogent Communications Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI) today announced that it is launching a new Channel Partner Program that will focus on relationships with national telecommunications master agents. Cogent sees substantial value in supplementing its direct sales efforts through the channel, recognizing that many enterprise customers purchase their Internet access and Ethernet transport through a trusted advisor such as a value-added reseller (VAR) or Agent.

"Cogent will methodically roll out its channel program beginning with 4-5 master agents in 2014," said Mike Kopp, Director of Partner Channel at Cogent. "Our goal is to build a solid foundation for the channel with competitive compensation and a simple contract, as well as rules of engagement and procedures that make sense. Cogent's product portfolio is not complicated, making it easy to do business with us."

Cogent is investing in the channel with dedicated resources that will assist partners from quote to close, including a new partner portal and a dedicated, experienced team to run the program. The initial beta launch will include two notable master agents, WTG and AB&T Telecom.

"As a long-standing, top-performing Cogent agent, we are elated with the new experienced, channel-friendly leadership, compensation and evergreen structure.  We expect to truly define success with a leader in 'big bandwidth' for our Agent & VAR partner arsenal," said Vince Bradley, CEO of WTG.  "Exciting times are ahead for all of us as cloud computing is now so prevalent.  Speed will be extremely important as cloud-based services continue to grow. With Cogent's excellent backbone ranking, they will help us get there faster and within budget."

"Cogent is recognized as a disruptive price and performance leader in high speed bandwidth and that fits well with the demanding price sensitivity of our VAR and Agent channel customers," said Emmet Tydings, President of AB&T Telecom. "AB&T is familiar with and confident in the seasoned channel sales team that is launching the new Cogent Channel Partner Program, and we are psyched to be a part of it."

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 over 180 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 Group, 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.

SOURCE Cogent Communications Group, Inc.