cogentco.com technical analysis?

Tue Jun 12 22:36:40 UTC 2001

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with Cogent Inc. They are
one of the companies offering high speed internet (fast ethernet/GigE) at
rock 
bottom prices. :-)

I know the adage "you get what you pay for" typically applies but
I was looking for some concrete end user experiences.  I'm not trying to
break the charter of this mailing list by devoting a discussion to various
emotion based opinions about a particular vendor.  I am actually seeking
technical opinions on whether what is being advertised is actually
being delivered with reliability. More specific questions: do Cogent's
peering arrangements seem adequate to the amount of bandwidth
they are offering? Or are these major bottlenecks to an otherwise
good network? Are any of Cogent's competitors worth taking a look
at? Any non-obvious reason why? Does anyone have any statistics to provide
that paints a picture
about what you get from their products? I guess if enough people
complained that this was too off topic, I could still request direct
replies and I could put a summary together for any interested parties.
But I reread the charter before putting this together and it seems 
fair game.  When is Worldcom, et al going to start offering these
products?  ( maybe when companies like cogent start succeeding?)
Thanks,
-BM