Sprint restores Cogent network connection, but only for now

Sprint today restored its network connection to Cogent Communications for the time being, after service disruptions rocked customers during the month of October.

Communications between the the networks of Sprint and Cogent are now temporarily up and running, following Sprint's restoration of ten interconnections severed between October 7 and October 30.

As a result of the broken peer connection, Sprint customers could not see Cogent-hosted Web sites.

In a statement on Sunday, Sprint said that it re-established its peer connection with Cogent "so that customers would have temporary access while longer-term alternate and permanent access options are explored."

A similar spat between Level 3 and Cogent disrupted services to customers almost exactly three years ago, before those two providers reached an agreement. Cogent has also engaged in similar squabbles with AOL and Scandinavian provider Telia.

Sprint contended on Sunday that it had broken off the ten interconnections with Cogent -- at the rate of roughly one or two a week -- because Cogent hadn't met the minimum traffic requirement of a "settlement-free" peering agreement between the two. Under that pact, reached in 2006, Sprint and Cogent agreed not to charge one another if traffic between the two providers was about the same. The two companies are now suing each other in court about the deal.

However, in the latest network status message on Cogent's network, updated Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 5:03 pm EST, Cogent said that, "At this time there are no ongoing network outages or issues."

Meanwhile, back in 2005, Level 3 also cut off services to Cogent, due to an angry fight over financial arrangements.

At the beginning of October 2005, Level 3 restored access to Cogent removed the previous month, also stating the agreement was temporary. Level 3 said that it was allowing temporary access only so customers could make other arrangements by November 9 of that year, when a peering connection was scheduled to be permanently disbanded.

Yet at the end of that month, Level 3 and Cogent announced they had agreed to terms that would keep Internet traffic flowing between customers of the two providers. Although all stipulations were not disclosed, the deal put caps on the amount of traffic each company could send.

"As a result of the agreement, Level 3 will not proceed with disconnection on November 9, as previously announced," Level 3 said in a statement on October 28, 2005.