[Infowarrior] - Net Neutrality? Sprint cuts Cogent net routing

[Richard Forno]

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/sprint-nextel-severs-its-internet-connection-to-cogent-communications,603138.shtml

Sprint-Nextel Severs Its Internet Connection to Cogent Communications

Posted : Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:41:31 GMT
Author : Cogent Communications
Category : Press Release

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 DC-Cogent-Sprint-Law


WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On October 30 at 4:30 pm
Sprint-Nextel severed its Internet connection to Cogent thereby  
partitioning
the Internet.  It is no longer possible for many Sprint customers and  
Cogent
customers to directly communicate across the Internet.  Sprint did so in
violation of a contractual obligation to exchange Internet traffic  
with Cogent
on a settlement free peering basis.  Sprint and Cogent are engaged in
litigation over this matter.  Cogent regrets that Sprint chose to take  
this
unilateral action rather than await a determination by the court as to  
the
rights of the parties. Cogent remains ready to reestablish, on the same
settlement free basis as previously existed, the connections that  
Sprint has
severed.

In the over 1300 on-net locations worldwide where Cogent provides  
service,
Cogent is offering every Sprint-Nextel wireline customer that is  
unable to
connect to Cogent's customers a free 100 megabit per second connection  
to the
Internet for as long as Sprint continues to keep this partitioning of  
the
Internet in place.  Unfortunately, there is no way that Cogent can do  
the same
for the wireless customers of Sprint-Nextel.


All other major wireless carriers have full connectivity to Cogent and  
are
unaffected by this event.