Cogent Communications

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About Cogent

Cogent is a global Tier 1 internet service provider consistently ranked as one of the top 5 networks in the world

Our primary service offering consists of Internet access and data transport offered over our award-winning fiber optic, IP data-only network, along with colocation in any of our 54 Internet data centers.

​We service two customer segments: "corporate" (small businesses to Fortune 100 companies) and "netcentric" (carriers / service providers and application / content providers, whose businesses rely primarily on Internet access). 

Our innovative, facilities-based network spans six continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. With over 60,800 route miles of intercity fiber and more than 40,100 metro fiber miles, we provide service to over 217 major markets and interconnect with over 7,625 other networks. 

Established in 1999

Cogent was founded on the premise that bandwidth can be treated like a commodity -produce mass amounts and position it for sale based on price. Leveraging new technologies, we built our own IP data network independent of the traditional voice-based networks owned by the RBOCs (regional bell operating companies). By doing so, we believed we could reduce the cost of high quality bandwidth down to a level never before offered in the marketplace. Today, we are widely recognized as one of the largest carriers of Internet traffic in the world.

How we stand out

  • Our customer connections are dedicated and non-oversubscribed
  • Our prices are among the lowest in the industry
  • Our diversity from traditional carriers enables redundancy for customer data
  • Our simple network structure allows for rapid provisioning
  • Our "self-healing" ring architecture design minimizes outages
  • Cogent is smart business internet

Our Executives

Dave Schaeffer
Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Dave Schaeffer

Dave Schaeffer founded Cogent Communications in August 1999 and is the Chief Executive Officer. Under Mr. Schaeffer's leadership, Cogent has become one of the world's largest Internet Providers. Mr. Schaeffer has led the efforts of 13 successful acquisitions, propelling Cogent's originally U.S.-based network into Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. Mr. Schaeffer has successfully founded and operated six other businesses prior to Cogent. These businesses span a wide array of industries from communications to commercial real estate. His diverse background and entrepreneurial successes have enabled him to build management teams that constructed and operate the only facilities-based, non-oversubscribed multinational network of its kind. In 2019, Mr. Schaeffer was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® in Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications.

Tad Weed
Chief Financial Officer

tad

Thaddeus “Tad” Weed joined Cogent in 2000 and served as Vice President and Controller. In May 2004 he became our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer until May 2020 when he assumed the new role of Senior Vice President of Audit & Operations. Under this position he implemented numerous process improvements and achieved substantial cost savings for Cogent. In May 2022, he reassumed his position as Cogent’s Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Weed served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Transaction Network Services, where he undertook a broad range of financial management responsibilities. From 1987 to 1997, Mr. Weed was employed at Arthur Andersen LLP where he served as Senior Audit Manager.


Cogent Communications is a public company trading on the NASDAQ with the symbol CCOI. ​
Cogent is headquartered in Washington, DC, United States of America.

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Interested in a career with Cogent?
View our job openings on our Careers page

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Cogent Communications

  • Cogent is one of the world's largest Internet Service Providers, delivering high quality Internet, Ethernet and Colocation services across over 94,884 Enterprise and NetCentric customer connections. Cogent serves over 217 markets in 51 countries across its facilities-based, all-optical IP network.
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