Cogent Communications: Hyperscaler Dark Fiber Demand & Cloud Optimisation

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I'd like to revisit a topic we discussed earlier in the year. At that time, Cogent hadn't yet completed the acquisition of Sprint. They finalized that in May. Now, six months later, I'm curious if you've had any interaction with them regarding the network and what your impressions have been, if any.

Yes, we have been interacting with Cogent and the impression has been positive. We are discussing specific routes in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic. These are the Sprint Wireline assets. These routes are valuable to us because they offer diversity. There are two use cases. There are some new sites that we're looking to connect, and some existing sites where Cogent could offer us diversity from our existing routes today.

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I see. How did this come about? Did you have a specific need in the Southeast and Mid Atlantic, or was it presented to you?

Yes. The selling process is quite different for hyperscalers. It involves us approaching the suppliers and specifying our needs, such as a city pair or a facility pair. We ask them about their ANZ capabilities and what they can provide, whether it's a Wave request or dark fiber.

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Are you conducting the zero 0DTR? I can't recall the exact acronym. It's something like signal loss along a route. Do you gather that data? How do you evaluate it? What's your workflow to complete that evaluation, especially if it's currently in progress?

I believe we will end up entering an arrangement where we test certain circuits or routes. This will likely be a paid exercise, despite our preference for a no-cost solution. The time and effort involved on both sides, ours and Cogent's, to establish new wave circuits is significant. We would have to commit and take the risk.

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