Cisco to Supply Cogent With National Optical Backbone Network Equipment; Cogent Nabs Lucent Veteran for CTO

Cisco Systems Inc.unications (Washington, DC), a specialized Internet Service Provider (ISP) has selected <%=company%> (San Jose, CA) to create the first end-to-end optical network to deliver Internet access service. The $280-million contract involves building a new Cisco Powered Network optimized for Internet traffic and will offer 100 times faster access than a T-1 connection. The new architecture will reduce network costs and enable Cogent to provide its customers unparalleled bandwidth with superior economic benefits.

Cisco will provide all of the technology needed to construct the network, specifically several products from Cisco's optical solutions portfolio, the ONS 15454 and ONS 15800, as well as the 12016 Gigabit Switch Router (GSR). These evolutionary optical products will allow Cogent to deliver fast Internet access, at 100 Megabits-per-second, directly to commercial customer premises in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Cogent's IP (Internet Protocol) backbone will connect 12 cities using OC-192 long haul Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and will use OC-48 metro DWDM connections within each city.

Cogent welcomes new member
Dr. R. Brad Kummer has joined the company as chief technology officer of Optical Transport. Previously, Kummer was employed at Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies for 25 years, where he was involved in a variety of R&D projects relating to optical fibers and systems. For the past seven years, he was the Chief Technology Officer of the Optical Fiber Systems Engineering group. In his most recent role at Lucent, he was responsible for the TrueWave fiber product development and technology evolution path.

Edited by Kristin Keiser