10-Q

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

xQUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the Quarterly Period Ended September 30, 2016

OR

oTRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File No. 000-51829

COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Delaware	46-5706863
(State of Incorporation)	(I.R.S. Employer
	Identification Number)

2450 N Street N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20037

(Address of Principal Executive Offices and Zip Code)

(202) 295-4200

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months, and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes   x   No   o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).  Yes  x   No   o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer   x	Accelerated filer   o
Non-accelerated filer   o	Smaller reporting company   o
(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  Yes o   No x

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.

Common Stock, $.001 par value 45,486,222 Shares Outstanding as of October 31, 2016

INDEX

PART I FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Item 1.	Financial Statements	3
	Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited)
	Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., and Subsidiaries as of September 30, 2016 (Unaudited) and December 31, 2015	3
	Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., and Subsidiaries for the Three Months Ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015 (Unaudited)	4
	Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., and Subsidiaries for the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015 (Unaudited)	5
	Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., and Subsidiaries for the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015 (Unaudited)	6
	Notes to Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited)	7
Item 2.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	12
Item 3.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	19
Item 4.	Controls and Procedures	19
PART II OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1.	Legal Proceedings	20
Item 2.	Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds	20
Item 6.	Exhibits	21
SIGNATURES		22
CERTIFICATIONS

2

PART I FINANCIAL INFORMATION

ITEM 1.FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC., AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

AS OF SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 AND DECEMBER 31, 2015

(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE DATA)

	September 30, 2016			December 31, 2015
	(Unaudited)
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$	148,151		$	203,591
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $1,804 and $1,757, respectively	33,487			30,718
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	20,642			17,030
Total current assets	202,280			251,339
Property and equipment, net	370,749			360,136
Deferred tax assets - noncurrent	36,716			45,142
Deposits and other assets - $132 and $355 restricted, respectively	7,877			6,199
Total assets	$	617,622		$	662,816
Liabilities and stockholders’ equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable	$	13,019		$	12,401
Accrued and other current liabilities	41,790			38,355
Installment payment agreement, current portion, net of discount of $106 and $678, respectively	1,028			11,901
Current maturities, capital lease obligations	6,122			6,247
Total current liabilities	61,959			68,904
Senior secured 2022 notes, net of unamortized debt costs of $1,121 and $1,252, respectively	248,879			248,748
Senior unsecured 2021 notes, net of unamortized debt costs of $2,703 and $3,305, respectively	186,522			196,695
Capital lease obligations, net of current maturities	134,229			129,763
Other long term liabilities	26,519			30,977
Total liabilities	658,108			675,087
Commitments and contingencies:
Stockholders’ equity:
Common stock, $0.001 par value; 75,000,000 shares authorized; 45,537,353 and 45,198,718 shares issued and outstanding, respectively	45			45
Additional paid-in capital	442,125			434,161
Accumulated other comprehensive income — foreign currency translation	(11,898		)	(14,693		)
Accumulated deficit	(470,758		)	(431,784		)
Total stockholders’ deficit	(40,486		)	(12,271		)
Total liabilities and stockholders’ deficit	$	617,622		$	662,816

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated balance sheets.

3

COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC., AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 AND SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE AND PER SHARE AMOUNTS)

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016			Three Months Ended September 30, 2015
	(Unaudited)			(Unaudited)
Service revenue	$	113,057		$	103,017
Operating expenses:
Network operations (including $161 and $126 of equity-based compensation expense, respectively, exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)	48,827			45,182
Selling, general, and administrative (including $2,830 and $2,578 of equity-based compensation expense, respectively)	30,050			27,318
Depreciation and amortization	18,804			17,634
Total operating expenses	97,681			90,134
Gain on capital lease termination	—			1,484
Gains on equipment transactions	687			1,152
Operating income	16,063			15,519
Interest income and other, net	207			50
Interest expense	(9,891		)	(10,002		)
Income before income taxes	6,379			5,567
Income tax provision	(2,920		)	(2,406		)
Net income	$	3,459		$	3,161
Comprehensive income:
Net income	$	3,459		$	3,161
Foreign currency translation adjustment	688			228
Comprehensive income	$	4,147		$	3,389
Net income per common share:
Basic and diluted net income per common share	$	0.08		$	0.07
Dividends declared per common share	$	0.38		$	0.34
Weighted-average common shares - basic	44,574,583			44,474,724
Weighted-average common shares - diluted	44,776,918			44,702,127

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated statements.

4

COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC., AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

FOR THE NINE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 AND SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

(IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT SHARE AND PER SHARE AMOUNTS)

	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
	(Unaudited)			(Unaudited)
Service revenue	$	331,304		$	299,057
Operating expenses:
Network operations (including $427 and $458 of equity-based compensation expense, respectively, exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)	143,976			128,673
Selling, general, and administrative (including $7,432 and $8,486 of equity-based compensation expense, respectively)	89,403			85,922
Depreciation and amortization	55,161			52,517
Total operating expenses	288,540			267,112
Losses on debt purchases and installment loan repayment	(587		)	—
Gain on capital lease terminations	—			11,593
Gains on equipment transactions	7,071			3,420
Loss on debt extinguishment and redemption	—			(10,144		)
Operating income	49,248			36,814
Interest income and other, net	677			566
Interest expense	(30,200		)	(31,000		)
Income before income taxes	19,725			6,380
Income tax provision	(8,688		)	(3,964		)
Net income	$	11,037		$	2,416
Comprehensive income (loss):
Net income	$	11,037		$	2,416
Foreign currency translation adjustment	2,795			(5,485		)
Comprehensive income (loss)	$	13,832		$	(3,069	)
Net income per common share:
Basic and diluted net income per common share	$	0.25		$	0.05
Dividends declared per common share	$	1.11		$	1.11
Weighted-average common shares - basic	44,563,279			44,907,505
Weighted-average common shares - diluted	44,758,202			45,190,206

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated statements.

5

COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC., AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

FOR THE NINE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 AND SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

(IN THOUSANDS)

	Nine months Ended September 30, 2016			Nine months Ended September 30, 2015
	(Unaudited)			(Unaudited)
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net income	$	11,037		$	2,416
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization	55,161			52,517
Amortization of debt discount and premium	879			(10		)
Equity-based compensation expense (net of amounts capitalized)	7,859			8,944
Losses on debt extinguishment and redemption	—			10,144
Gain on capital lease termination	—			(11,593		)
Loss on debt purchases and installment loan repayment	587			—
Gains — equipment transactions and other, net	(7,124		)	(3,018		)
Deferred income taxes	8,453			3,830
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable	(2,478		)	1,118
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	(3,256		)	(3,254		)
Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other long-term liabilities	4,499			766
Deposits and other assets	(1,529		)	(50		)
Net cash provided by operating activities	74,088			61,810
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchases of property and equipment	(38,039		)	(30,620		)
Proceeds from disposition of assets	—			111
Net cash used in investing activities	(38,039		)	(30,509		)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Dividends paid	(50,011		)	(50,269		)
Purchases of common stock	(1,666		)	(39,394		)
Purchases of senior unsecured 2021 notes	(10,775		)	—
Net proceeds from issuance of senior secured 2022 notes	—			248,603
Redemption of senior secured 2018 notes	—			(251,280		)
Proceeds from exercises of stock options	894			288
Principal payments on installment payment agreement	(21,203		)	(95		)
Principal payments of capital lease obligations	(9,658		)	(16,942		)
Net cash used in financing activities	(92,419		)	(109,089		)
Effect of exchange rates changes on cash	930			(2,712		)
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents	(55,440		)	(80,500		)
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period	203,591			287,790
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period	$	148,151		$	207,290
Supplemental disclosure of non-cash financing and investing activities:
Non-cash component of network equipment obtained in exchange transactions	$	7,071		$	5,717
PP&E obtained for installment payment agreement	19,875			15,602
Fair value of equipment acquired in leases	1,744			595
Capital lease obligations incurred	$	13,120		$	17,820

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensed consolidated statements.

6

COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC., AND SUBSIDIARIES

NOTES TO INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. Description of the business and recent developments:

Reorganization and merger

On May 15, 2014, pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (the “Merger Agreement”) by and among Cogent Communications Group, Inc. (“Group”), a Delaware corporation, Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Holdings”) and Cogent Communications Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Merger Sub”), Group adopted a new holding company organizational structure whereby Group is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Holdings.  Holdings is a “successor issuer” to Group pursuant to Rule 12g-3(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).  References to the “Company” for events that occurred prior to May 15, 2014 refer to Cogent Communications Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries and on and after May 15, 2014 the “Company” refers to Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Description of business

The Company is a Delaware corporation and is headquartered in Washington, DC. The Company is a facilities-based provider of low-cost, high-speed Internet access and Internet Protocol (“IP”) communications services. The Company’s network is specifically designed and optimized to transmit data using IP. The Company delivers its services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, communications service providers and other bandwidth-intensive organizations in North America, Europe and Asia.

The Company offers on-net Internet access services exclusively through its own facilities, which run from its network to its customers’ premises. The Company is not dependent on local telephone companies to serve its customers for its on-net Internet access services because of its integrated network architecture. The Company offers its on-net services to customers located in buildings that are physically connected to its network. The Company’s on-net service consists of high-speed Internet access and IP connectivity ranging from 100 Megabits per second to 100 Gigabits per second of bandwidth. The Company provides its on-net Internet access services to its corporate and net-centric customers. The Company’s corporate customers are located in multi-tenant office buildings and typically include law firms, financial services firms, advertising and marketing firms and other professional services businesses. The Company’s net-centric customers include bandwidth-intensive users such as universities, other Internet service providers, telephone companies, cable television companies, web hosting companies, content delivery network companies and commercial content and application service providers. These net-centric customers obtain the Company’s services in carrier neutral data centers and in the Company’s data centers. The Company operates data centers throughout North America and Europe that allow its customers to collocate their equipment and access the Company’s network.

In addition to providing its on-net services, the Company provides Internet connectivity to customers that are not located in buildings directly connected to its network. The Company provides this off-net service primarily to corporate customers using other carriers’ facilities to provide the “last mile” portion of the link from the customers’ premises to the Company’s network. The Company also provides certain non-core services that resulted from acquisitions. The Company continues to support but does not actively sell these non-core services.

Basis of presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared by the Company pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the opinion of management, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all normal recurring adjustments that the Company considers necessary for the fair presentation of its results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods covered, and of the financial position of the Company at the date of the interim condensed consolidated balance sheet. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in the annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations. The operating results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the operating results for the entire year. While the Company believes that the disclosures are adequate to not make the information misleading, these interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include all wholly-owned subsidiaries. All inter-company accounts and activity have been eliminated.

Use of estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with United States generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

7

Financial instruments

At September 30, 2016, the carrying amount of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, prepaid and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses approximated fair value because of the short-term nature of these instruments. The Company measures its cash equivalents at amortized cost, which approximates fair value based upon quoted market prices (Level 1). Based upon recent trading prices (Level 2 — market approach) at September 30, 2016 the fair value of the Company’s $189.2 million senior unsecured notes was $193.0 million and the fair value of the Company’s $250.0 million senior secured notes was $256.6 million.

The Company was party to letters of credit totaling $0.1 million as of September 30, 2016 and $0.3 million as of December 31, 2015. These letters of credit are secured by investments that are restricted and included in other assets.

Gross receipts taxes, universal service fund and other surcharges

Revenue recognition standards include guidance relating to taxes or surcharges assessed by a governmental authority that are directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between a seller and a customer and may include, but are not limited to, gross receipts taxes, excise taxes, Universal Service Fund fees and certain state regulatory fees. Such charges may be presented gross or net based upon the Company’s accounting policy election. The Company records certain excise taxes and surcharges on a gross basis and includes them in its revenues and costs of network operations. Excise taxes and surcharges billed to customers and recorded on a gross basis (as service revenue and network operations expense) were $2.4 million, $6.5 million, $1.8 million and $1.9 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively.

Basic and diluted net income (loss) per common share

Basic earnings per share (“EPS”) excludes dilution for common stock equivalents and is computed by dividing net income or (loss) available to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted EPS is based on the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during each period, adjusted for the effect of dilutive common stock equivalents.  Shares of restricted stock are included in the computation of basic EPS as they vest and are included in diluted EPS, to the extent they are dilutive, determined using the treasury stock method. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, the Company’s employees exercised options for 10,995, 39,473, 6,883 and 19,507 common shares, respectively.

The following details the determination of diluted weighted average shares:

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Weighted average common shares - basic	44,574,583	44,474,724	44,563,279	44,907,505
Dilutive effect of stock options	29,400	33,370	33,792	42,182
Dilutive effect of restricted stock	172,935	194,033	161,131	240,519
Weighted average common shares - diluted	44,776,918	44,702,127	44,758,202	45,190,206

The following details unvested shares of restricted common stock as well as the anti-dilutive effects of stock options and restricted stock awards outstanding:

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Unvested shares of restricted common stock	999,464	1,028,197	999,464	1,028,197
Anti-dilutive options for common stock	75,687	136,220	87,611	118,517
Anti-dilutive shares of restricted common stock	—	617,243	126,993	360,101

Recent accounting pronouncements—to be adopted

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The ASU will replace most existing accounting for lease guidance when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2019. Early application is permitted. The standard must be adopted using the modified retrospective approach. The standard will require the Company to record a right to use asset and a lease liability for most of the Company’s leases including the Company’s leases currently treated as operating leases. The Company is evaluating the effect that ASU 2016-02 will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures and has not yet determined the effect of the standard on its ongoing financial reporting.

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which requires an entity to recognize the amount of revenue to which it expects to be entitled for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers. The ASU will replace most existing revenue recognition guidance in U.S. GAAP when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2018. Early application is permitted for annual periods beginning after December 31, 2016. The standard permits the use of either the retrospective or cumulative effect transition method. The Company is evaluating the effect that ASU 2014-09 will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. The Company has not yet selected a transition method nor has it determined the effect of the standard on its ongoing financial reporting.

8

2. Property and equipment:

Depreciation and amortization expense related to property and equipment and capital leases was $18.8 million, $55.2 million, $17.6 million and $52.5 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The Company capitalized salaries and related benefits of employees working directly on the construction and build-out of its network of $2.2 million, $6.6 million, $2.1 million and $6.3 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Exchange agreement

In the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, the Company exchanged certain used network equipment and cash consideration for new network equipment. The fair value of the equipment received was estimated to be $1.6 million, $14.1 million, $2.7 million and $11.0 million, respectively.  After considering the fair value of the new network equipment less the carrying amount of the returned used network equipment and the cash paid, the transactions resulted in gains of $0.7 million, $7.1 million, $1.1 million and $3.3 million respectively. The estimated fair value of the equipment received was based upon the cash consideration price the Company pays for the new network equipment on a standalone basis (Level 3).

Installment payment agreement

In March 2015, the Company entered into an installment payment agreement (“IPA”) with a vendor.  Under the IPA the Company is able to purchase up to $25.0 million of network equipment in exchange for interest free note obligations each with a twenty-four month term.  There are no payments under each note obligation for the first six months followed by eighteen equal installment payments for the remaining eighteen month term. In June 2016, the Company elected to repay the outstanding $17.1 million principal balance of the IPA prior to its maturity resulting in a loss of $0.4 million from the remaining unamortized discount. During the three months ended September 30, 2016 the Company entered into additional note obligations totaling $2.7 million. As of September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015 there was $2.7 million and $21.2 million, respectively, of note obligations outstanding under the IPA, secured by the related equipment.  The Company records the net present value of each note obligation utilizing an imputed interest rate.  The resulting discount of $0.1 million and $0.8 million as of September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively, is amortized over the note term using the effective interest rate method.

Gains on capital lease terminations

In March 2015 the Company elected to terminate certain IRU capital lease obligations in Spain with a vendor.  The Company has obtained alternative fiber to serve its customers in Spain. Under its estimate of the termination provisions of the related contracts the Company has recorded an estimated termination liability of $8.1 million included in accrued and other current liabilities.  The difference between the remaining carrying amount of the related IRU capital lease liabilities ($29.9 million), the remaining net book value of the IRU assets ($10.0 million) and the termination liability and amounts due through the termination date was recorded as a gain on capital lease termination of $10.1 million.

In July 2015, the Company settled a dispute for the payment of the remaining balances for certain IRU capital lease obligations in Europe with a vendor.  The IRU assets were fully depreciated in 2012 when the related fiber was replaced and was no longer used by the Company. The difference between the remaining net present value of the related IRU capital lease obligations ($1.8 million) and the settlement liability ($0.4 million) was recorded as a $1.5 million gain on termination of capital lease obligations.

3. Long-term debt:

Senior unsecured notes- $189.2 million

Group is obligor on $189.2 million (originally $200.0 million) of 5.625% Senior Notes due 2021 (the “2021 Notes”).  The 2021 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A.  Holdings provided a guarantee of the 2021 Notes but Holdings is not subject to the covenants under the indenture.

In the second quarter of 2016, the Company paid $10.9 million for the purchase of $10.8 million of par value and accrued interest on its 2021 Notes reducing the principal amount to $189.2 million and resulting in a loss of $0.2 million.  The loss resulted from the write off of the remaining unamortized debt issuance costs related to the purchased notes.

Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million senior secured notes

In March 2015, Group redeemed its $240.0 million 8.375% senior notes due in 2018 (the “2018 Notes”) with the proceeds from its February 2015 issuance of $250.0 million of 5.375% senior secured notes (the “2022 Notes”) and existing cash on hand. In February 2015 the Company deposited $251.6 million with the trustee for the benefit of the holders of the 2018 Notes in order to redeem on March 12, 2015 the entire outstanding amount of 2018 Notes at a redemption price of 104.188% of the $240.0 million principal amount thereof plus accrued and unpaid interest. As a result of this transaction the Company incurred a loss on debt extinguishment and redemption of $10.1 million.

The 2022 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A and mature on March 1, 2022. Interest accrues at 5.375% beginning on February 20, 2015 and is paid semi-annually in arrears on March 1 and September 1 of each year, commencing on September 1, 2015. The net proceeds from the offering were $248.7 million after deducting discounts and commissions and offering expenses.

9

Senior secured notes- $240.0 million

On January 26, 2011 and on August 19, 2013, the Company issued its 8.375% 2018 Notes for aggregate principal amounts of $175.0 million and $65.0 million, respectively, in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A. The 2018 Notes were secured and bore interest at 8.375% per annum. Interest was payable in cash semiannually in arrears on February 15 and August 15, of each year. On January 26, 2011, the Company received net proceeds of $170.5 million after deducting $4.5 million of issuance costs from issuing $175.0 million of its 2018 Notes. On August 19, 2013, the Company received net proceeds of approximately $69.9 million after deducting $1.0 million of issuance costs from issuing $65.0 million of 2018 Notes. The 2018 Notes sold in August 2013 were sold at 109.00% of par value. The resulting $5.9 million premium was being amortized as a reduction to interest expense to the maturity date using the effective interest rate method.  In March 2015, the 2018 Notes were extinguished and redeemed with the proceeds of the Company’s issuance of its $250.0 million of 2022 Notes and cash on hand.

Limitations under the indentures

The indentures governing the 2022 and 2021 Notes, among other things, limit the Company’s ability to incur indebtedness; to pay dividends or make other distributions; to make certain investments and other restricted payments; to create liens; consolidate, merge, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of its assets; to incur restrictions on the ability of a subsidiary to pay dividends or make other payments; and to enter into certain transactions with its affiliates. Limitations on the ability to incur additional indebtedness (excluding IRU agreements incurred in the normal course of business) include a restriction on incurring additional indebtedness if the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio, as defined in the indentures, is greater than 5.0. The indentures prohibit certain payments, such as dividends and stock purchases, when the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio, as defined by the indentures, is greater than 4.25. A certain amount of such unrestricted payments is permitted notwithstanding this prohibition. The unrestricted payment amount may be increased by the Company’s consolidated cash flow, as defined in the indentures, as long as the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio is less than 4.25. The Company’s consolidated leverage ratio is currently below 4.25 as of September 30, 2016, and as a result a total of $169.4 million is permitted for investment payments including dividends and stock purchases.

4. Commitments and contingencies:

Current and potential litigation

In accordance with the accounting guidance for contingencies, the Company accrues its estimate of a contingent liability when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. Where it is probable that a liability has been incurred and there is a range of expected loss for which no amount in the range is more likely than any other amount, the Company accrues at the low end of the range. The Company reviews its accruals at least quarterly and adjusts them to reflect the impact of negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other information and events pertaining to a particular matter. The Company has taken certain positions related to its obligations for leased circuits for which it is reasonably possible could result in a loss of up to $2.3 million in excess of the amount accrued at September 30, 2016.

In December 2011, certain former sales employees of the Company filed a collective action against the Company in the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division alleging misclassification of the Company’s sales employees throughout the United States in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit sought to recover pay for allegedly unpaid overtime and other damages, including attorney’s fees. In March 2014, the judge de-certified the collective action. Each of the former employees that opted-in to the collective action retained the right to file an individual action. Approximately 70 former employees did so. The Company has settled a number of the cases that were filed and made the required settlement payments. Currently, only one case in California remains (Ambrosia v. Cogent Communications, Inc. in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California). On January 4, 2016, the judge provisionally certified a class and collective action related to the employees in California. The Company denies the claims and believes that the claims for unpaid overtime are without merit. The Company believes its classification of sales employees is in compliance with applicable law.

In the ordinary course of business the Company is involved in other legal activities and claims. Because such matters are subject to many uncertainties and the outcomes are not predictable with assurance, the liability related to these legal actions and claims cannot be determined with certainty. Management does not believe that such claims and actions will have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations. Judgment is required in estimating the ultimate outcome of any dispute resolution process, as well as any other amounts that may be incurred to conclude the negotiations or settle any litigation. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions and such differences could be material.

5. Income taxes:

The components of income (loss) before income taxes consist of the following (in thousands):

10

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016			Three Months Ended September 30, 2015			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Domestic	$	11,971		$	9,343		$	36,589		$	10,245
Foreign	(5,592		)	(3,776		)	(16,864		)	(3,865		)
Total	$	6,379		$	5,567		$	19,725		$	6,380

6. Common stock buyback program:

The Company’s Board of Directors has approved purchases of the Company’s common stock under a buyback program (the “Buyback Program”) through December 31, 2016.  At September 30, 2016, there was approximately $46.1 million remaining for purchases under the Buyback Program.  During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 the Company purchased 46,983, 46,983, 0.4 million and 1.2 million shares of its common stock for $1.7 million, $1.7 million, $12.2 million and $39.4 million, respectively.

7. Dividends on common stock:

Dividends are recorded as a reduction to retained earnings. Dividends on unvested restricted shares of common stock are paid as the awards vest. The Company’s initial quarterly dividend payment was made in the third quarter of 2012.

On October 31, 2016, the Company’s Board of Directors approved the payment of our quarterly dividend of $0.40 per common share. The dividend for the fourth quarter of 2016 will be paid to holders of record on November 22, 2016. This estimated $16.9 million dividend payment is expected to be made on December 9, 2016.

The payment of any future dividends and any other returns of capital, including stock buybacks, will be at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors and may be reduced, eliminated or increased and will be dependent upon the Company’s financial position, results of operations, available cash, cash flow, capital requirements, limitations under the Company’s debt indentures and other factors deemed relevant by the Company’s Board of Directors. The Company is a Delaware Corporation and under the General Corporate Law of the State of Delaware distributions may be restricted including a restriction that distributions, including stock purchases and dividends, do not result in an impairment of a corporation’s capital, as defined under Delaware Law. The indentures governing the Company’s notes limit the Company’s ability to return cash to its stockholders.

8. Incentive award plan:

The Company has an award plan, the 2004 Incentive Award Plan, as amended (the “Award Plan”), under which grants of stock and options are made.  In May 2016 the Company granted 73,450 restricted shares under the Award Plan with a grant date fair value of $2.9 million that are subject to certain performance conditions based upon the Company’s operating metrics and will be recognized as equity-based compensation expense on a straight line basis over the service period. In the second quarter of 2016, the Company also granted 247,180 restricted shares to certain of its employees that will vest on a quarterly basis in 2019 and over a four year period.  These restricted shares had a grant date fair value of $9.6 million and will be recognized as equity-based compensation expense on a straight line basis over the service period.

9. Related party transactions:

Office leases

The Company’s headquarters was located in an office building owned by Niobium LLC (a successor to 6715 Kenilworth Avenue Partnership). The two owners of Niobium LLC are the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, David Schaeffer, who has a 51% interest in Niobium LLC and his wife who has a 49% interest. The lease was scheduled to end on August 31, 2016 and was cancellable by the Company upon 60 days’ notice. The Company terminated the lease effective as of May 10, 2015. In April 2015, the Company entered into a new lease agreement for its headquarters building with Sodium LLC whose two owners are the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, who has a 51% interest in Sodium LLC and his wife who has a 49% interest. The Company moved into the new headquarters building in May 2015. The fixed annual rent for the new headquarters building is $1.0 million per year plus an allocation of taxes and utilities. The lease term is for five years and is cancellable by the Company upon 60 days’ notice. The Company’s audit committee reviews and approves all transactions with related parties. The Company paid $0.5 million, $1.3 million, $0.3 million and $0.7 million in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, for rent and related costs (including taxes and utilities) to these lessors for these leases.

10. Segment information:

The Company operates as one operating segment. The Company’s service revenue and long lived assets by geographic region are as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016		Three Months Ended September 30, 2015		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Revenues
North America	$	94,597	$	85,084	$	276,080	$	245,914
Europe	18,460		17,933		55,224		53,143
Total	$	113,057	$	103,017	$	331,304	$	299,057

11

	September 30, 2016		December 31, 2015
Long lived assets, net
North America	$	289,275	$	285,187
Europe	81,500		74,976
Total	$	370,775	$	360,163

The majority of North American revenue consists of services delivered within the United States.

ITEM 2.MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis together with our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes included in this report. The discussion in this report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. The cautionary statements made in this report should be read as applying to all related forward-looking statements wherever they appear in this report. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed here. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to:

Future economic instability in the global economy, which could affect spending on Internet services; the impact of changing foreign exchange rates (in particular the Euro to US dollar and Canadian dollar to US dollar exchange rates) on the translation of our non-US dollar denominated revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities; legal and operational difficulties in new markets; changes in government policy and/or regulation, including rules regarding data protection, cyber security and net neutrality; increasing competition leading to lower prices for our services; our ability to attract new customers and to increase and maintain the volume of traffic on our network; the ability to maintain our Internet peering arrangements on favorable terms; our reliance on an equipment vendor, Cisco Systems Inc., and the potential for hardware or software problems associated with such equipment; the dependence of our network on the quality and dependability of third-party fiber providers; our ability to retain certain customers that comprise a significant portion of our revenue base; the management of network failures and/or disruptions; and outcomes in litigation as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

General Overview

We are a leading facilities-based provider of low-cost, high-speed Internet access and IP communications services. Our network is specifically designed and optimized to transmit data using IP. We deliver our services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, communications service providers and other bandwidth-intensive organizations in North America, Europe and in Asia.

Our on-net service consists of high-speed Internet access and IP connectivity ranging from 100 Megabits per second to 100 Gigabits per second of bandwidth. We offer our on-net services to customers located in buildings that are physically connected to our network. We provide on-net Internet access to corporate customers and net-centric customers. Our corporate customers are located in multi-tenant office buildings and in our data centers and typically include law firms, financial services firms, advertising and marketing firms and other professional services businesses. Our net-centric customers include bandwidth-intensive users such as universities, other Internet service providers, telephone companies, cable television companies, web hosting companies, content delivery networks and commercial content and application service providers. These net-centric customers generally receive our services in colocation facilities and in our data centers.

Our off-net services are sold to businesses that are connected to our network primarily by means of “last mile” access service lines obtained from other carriers, primarily in the form of metropolitan Ethernet circuits. Our non-core services, which consist primarily of legacy services of companies whose assets or businesses we have acquired, primarily include voice services (only provided in Toronto, Canada). We do not actively market these non-core services and expect the service revenue associated with them to continue to decline.

Our network is comprised of in-building riser facilities, metropolitan optical fiber networks, metropolitan traffic aggregation points and inter-city transport facilities. Our network is physically connected entirely through our facilities to 2,334 buildings in which we provide our on-net services, including 1,577 multi-tenant office buildings. We also provide on-net services in carrier-neutral data centers, Cogent controlled data centers and single-tenant office buildings. We operate 51 Cogent controlled data centers totaling 565,000 square feet. Because of our integrated network architecture, we are not dependent on local telephone companies or cable companies to serve our on-net customers. We emphasize the sale of our on-net services because we believe we have a competitive advantage in providing these services and these services generate gross profit margins that are greater than the gross profit margins of our off-net services.

We believe our key growth opportunity is provided by our high-capacity network, which provides us with the ability to add a significant number of customers to our network with minimal direct incremental costs. Our focus is to add customers to our network in a way that maximizes its use and at the same time provides us with a profitable customer mix. We are responding to this opportunity by increasing our sales and marketing efforts including increasing our number of sales representatives and expanding our network to locations that we believe can be economically integrated and represent significant concentrations of Internet traffic. One of our keys to developing a profitable business will be to carefully match the cost of extending our network to reach new customers with the revenue expected to be generated by those customers. In addition, we may add customers to our network through strategic acquisitions.

12

We believe some of the most important trends in our industry are the continued long-term growth in Internet traffic and a decline in Internet access prices on a per megabit basis. The effective price per megabit for our corporate customers is declining as the bandwidth utilization and connection size of our corporate customer connections increases. As Internet traffic continues to grow and prices per unit of traffic continue to decline, we believe we can continue to load our network and gain market share from less efficient network operators. However, continued erosion in Internet access prices will likely have a negative impact on the rate at which we can increase our revenues and our profitability. Our revenue may also be negatively affected if we are unable to grow our Internet traffic or if the rate of growth of Internet traffic does not offset an expected decline in our per unit pricing. We do not know if Internet traffic will increase or decrease, or the rate at which it will increase or decrease. Changes in Internet traffic will be a function of the number of Internet users, the amount of time users spend on the Internet, the applications for which the Internet is used, the bandwidth intensity of these applications and the pricing of Internet services, and other factors.

We are a facilities-based provider of Internet access and communications services. Facilities-based providers require significant physical assets, or network facilities, to provide their services. Typically when a facilities-based network services provider begins providing its services in a new jurisdiction losses are incurred for several years until economies of scale have been achieved. Our foreign operations are in Europe, Canada, Mexico and Asia. Europe accounts for roughly 80% of our foreign operations. Our European operations have incurred losses and will continue to do so until our European customer base and revenues have grown enough to achieve sufficient economies of scale.

Due to our strategic design of network assets and equipment, we believe we are well positioned to grow our revenue base. We continue to purchase and deploy network equipment to parts of our network to maximize the utilization of our assets and to expand and increase the capacity of our network. Our future capital expenditures will be based primarily on the expansion of our network, the addition of on-net buildings, augmenting the capacity on existing network segments and the maintenance of our network. We plan to continue to expand our network and to increase the number of on-net buildings we serve including multi-tenant office buildings, carrier neutral data centers and Cogent controlled data centers. Many factors can affect our ability to add buildings to our network. These factors include the willingness of building owners to grant us access rights, the availability of optical fiber networks to serve those buildings, the cost to connect buildings to our network and equipment availability.

Three Months Ended September 30, 2016 Compared to the Three Months Ended September 30, 2015

The following summary table presents a comparison of our results of operations with respect to certain key financial measures. The comparisons illustrated in the table are discussed in greater detail below.

	Three months ended September 30,				Percent
	2016		2015		Change
	(in thousands)
Service revenue	$	113,057	$	103,017	9.7	%
On-net revenue	81,846		75,088		9.0	%
Off-net revenue	30,972		27,688		11.9	%
Network operations expenses (1)	48,827		45,182		8.1	%
Selling, general, and administrative expenses (2)	30,050		27,318		10.0	%
Gains on equipment transactions	687		1,152		-40.4	%
Gain on capital lease termination	—		1,484		NM
Depreciation and amortization expenses	18,804		17,634		6.6	%
Interest expense	9,891		10,002		-1.1	%
Income tax provision	2,920		2,406		21.4	%

(1)          Includes equity-based compensation expenses of $161 and $126 in the three months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

(2)          Includes equity-based compensation expenses of $2,830 and $2,578 in the three months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

NM Not meaningful

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Percent
	2016		2015		Change
Other Operating Data
Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU)
ARPU—on net	$	544	$	586	(7.2	)%
ARPU—off-net	$	1,272	$	1,369	(7.1	)%
Average Price per Megabit — installed base	$	1.28	$	1.57	(18.4	)%
Customer Connections—end of period
On-net	51,079		43,364		17.8	%
Off-net	8,259		6,897		19.7	%

13

Service Revenue. Our service revenue increased 9.7% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015. The impact of exchange rates resulted in an increase of revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2016 of approximately $0.1 million.  All foreign currency comparisons herein reflect our third quarter 2016 results translated at the average foreign currency exchange rates for the third quarter of 2015.  Revenue recognition standards include guidance relating to any tax assessed by a governmental authority that is directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between a seller and a customer and may include, but is not limited to, gross receipts taxes, Universal Service Fund fees and certain state regulatory fees. We record these taxes billed to our customers on a gross basis (as service revenue and network operations expense) in our consolidated statements of operations. The impact of these taxes including the Universal Service Fund resulted in an increase of our revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2016 of approximately $0.6 million.

Revenues from our corporate and net centric customers represented 60.6% and 39.4% of total service revenue, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2016 and represented 58.8% and 41.2% of total service revenue, respectively, for the three months ended September 30, 2015.  Revenues from corporate customers increased 13.0% to $68.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from $60.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015.  Revenues from our net-centric customers increased by 5.1% to $44.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from $42.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015.

Our on-net revenues increased 9.0% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015. We increased the number of our on-net customer connections by 17.8% at September 30, 2016 from September 30, 2015. On-net customer connections increased at a greater rate than on-net revenues primarily due to the 7.2% decline in our on-net ARPU, primarily from a decline in ARPU for our net centric customers.  ARPU is determined by dividing revenue for the period by the average customer connections for that period. Our average price per megabit for our installed base of customers is determined by dividing the aggregate monthly recurring fixed charges for those customers by the aggregate committed data rate for the same customers. The decline in on-net ARPU is partly attributed to volume and term based pricing discounts. Additionally, on-net customers who cancel their service from our installed base of customers, in general, have an ARPU that is greater than the ARPU for our new customers due to declining prices primarily for our on-net services sold to our net-centric customers. These trends resulted in the reduction to our on-net ARPU and a 18.4% decline in our average price per megabit for our installed base of customers.

Our off-net revenues increased 11.9% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015.  Our off-net revenues increased as we increased the number of our off-net customer connections by 19.7% at September 30, 2016 from September 30, 2015. Our off-net customer connections, which are primarily corporate customer connections, increased at a greater rate than our off-net revenue primarily due to the 7.1% decrease in our off-net ARPU.

Network Operations Expenses. Network operations expenses include the costs of personnel associated with service delivery, network management and customer support, network facilities costs, fiber and equipment maintenance fees, leased circuit costs, access and facilities fees paid to building owners and excise taxes billed to our customers and recorded on a gross basis. Non-cash equity-based compensation expense is included in network operations expenses consistent with the classification of the employee’s salary and other compensation. Our network operations expenses, including non-cash equity-based compensation expense, increased 8.1% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015. The increase is primarily attributable to an increase in costs related to our network and facilities expansion activities including the expansion of Cogent controlled data centers, a $0.6 million increase in taxes billed to our customers recorded on a gross basis (in service revenue and cost of network operations expense) and the increase in our off-net revenues. When we provide off-net services we also assume the cost of the associated tail circuits.

Selling, General, and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses. Our SG&A expenses, including non-cash equity-based compensation expense, increased 10.0% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015. Non-cash equity-based compensation expense is included in SG&A expenses consistent with the classification of the employee’s salary and other compensation and was $2.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016 and $2.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015. SG&A expenses increased primarily from an increase in salaries and related costs required to support our expansion and the increase in our sales efforts and a $0.5 million increase in our legal and economic analysis fees primarily associated with U.S. net neutrality and interconnection regulatory matters. Our sales force headcount increased by 8.9% from 474 at September 30, 2015 to 516 at September 30, 2016 and our total headcount increased by 6.2% from 808 at September 30, 2015 to 858 at September 30, 2016.

Gains on Equipment Transactions.  In the three months ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, we exchanged certain used network equipment and cash consideration for new network equipment resulting in gains of $0.7 million and $1.2 million, respectively, based upon the estimated fair value of the new network equipment less the carrying amount of the returned used network equipment and the cash paid.

Gain on capital lease termination.  In July 2015, we settled a dispute for the payment of the remaining balances for certain IRU capital lease obligations with a vendor.  The IRU assets were fully depreciated in 2012 when the related fiber was replaced and was no longer used by us. The difference between the remaining net present value of the related IRU capital lease obligations and the settlement liability was recorded as a gain of $1.5 million.

Depreciation and Amortization Expenses. Our depreciation and amortization expense increased 6.6% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015. The increase is primarily due to the depreciation expense associated with the increase in deployed fixed assets.

14

Interest Expense. Interest expense results from interest incurred on our $250.0 million of senior secured notes that we issued on February 20, 2015, $200.0 million of senior unsecured notes that we issued on April 9, 2014, interest on our installment payment agreement that we entered into in March 2015 and interest on our capital lease obligations. Our interest expense decreased by 1.1% for the three months ended September 30, 2016 from the three months ended September 30, 2015.  In the second quarter of 2016, we paid $10.9 million for the purchase of $10.8 million of par value and accrued interest of our $200.0 million senior unsecured notes reducing the principal to $189.2 million and resulting in a loss of $0.2 million.  The loss resulted from the write off of the remaining unamortized debt issuance costs related to the purchased notes. In June 2016, we elected to repay the outstanding $17.1 million principal balance of the installment payment agreement prior to its maturity resulting in a loss of $0.4 million from the remaining unamortized discount.

Income Tax Provision.  Our income tax provision was $2.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016 and $2.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015. The increase in our income tax provision was related to an increase in deferred income tax expense from an increase in income before taxes in the United States.

Buildings On-net. As of September 30, 2016 and 2015, we had a total of 2,334 and 2,221 on-net buildings connected to our network, respectively.

Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016 Compared to the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015

The following summary table presents a comparison of our results of operations with respect to certain key financial measures. The comparisons illustrated in the table are discussed in greater detail below.

	Nine months ended September 30,				Percent
	2016		2015		Change
	(in thousands)
Service revenue	$	331,304	$	299,057	10.8	%
On-net revenue	240,091		218,331		10.0	%
Off-net revenue	90,476		79,940		13.2	%
Network operations expenses (1)	143,976		128,673		11.9	%
Selling, general, and administrative expenses (2)	89,403		85,922		4.1	%
Gains on equipment transactions	7,071		3,420		106.8	%
Gains on lease terminations	—		11,593		NM
Depreciation and amortization expenses	55,161		52,517		5.0	%
Interest expense	30,200		31,000		(2.6	)%
Loss on debt extinguishment and redemption	—		10,144		NM
Income tax provision	8,688		3,964		119.2	%

(1)          Includes equity-based compensation expenses of $427 and $458 in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

(2)          Includes equity-based compensation expenses of $7,432 and $8,486 in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

NM — not meaningful

	Nine Months Ended September 30,				Percent
	2016		2015		Change
Other Operating Data
Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU)
ARPU—on net	$	553	$	583	(5.3	)%
ARPU—off-net	$	1,294	$	1,370	(5.5	)%
Average Price per Megabit — installed base	$	1.37	$	1.64	(16.6	)%
Customer Connections—end of period
On-net	51,079		43,364		17.8	%
Off-net	8,259		6,897		19.7	%

Service Revenue. Our service revenue increased 10.8% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from the nine months ended September 30, 2015. The impact of exchange rates resulted in a decrease of revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 of approximately $0.6 million.  All foreign currency comparisons herein reflect our results for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 translated at the average foreign currency exchange rates for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.  Revenue recognition standards include guidance relating to any tax assessed by a governmental authority that is directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between a seller and a customer and may include, but is not limited to, gross receipts taxes, Universal Service Fund fees and certain state regulatory fees. We record these taxes billed to our customers on a gross basis (as service revenue and network operations expense) in our consolidated statements of operations. The impact of these taxes including the Universal Service Fund resulted in an increase of our revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 of approximately $4.7 million.

15

Revenues from our corporate and net centric customers represented 60.3% and 39.7% of total service revenue, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and represented 57.8% and 42.2% of total service revenue, respectively, for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.  Revenues from corporate customers increased 15.5% to $199.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from $172.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.  Revenues from our net-centric customers increased by 4.3% to $131.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from $126.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.  The negative impact of foreign exchange had a more significant impact on our net-centric revenues.

Our on-net revenues increased 10.0% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from the nine months ended September 30, 2015. We increased the number of our on-net customer connections by 17.8% at September 30, 2016 from September 30, 2015. On-net customer connections increased at a greater rate than on-net revenues primarily due to the 5.3% decline in our on-net ARPU, primarily from a decline in ARPU for our net centric customers and from the negative impact of foreign exchange. ARPU is determined by dividing revenue for the period by the average customer connections for that period. Our average price per megabit for our installed base of customers is determined by dividing the aggregate monthly recurring fixed charges for those customers by the aggregate committed data rate for the same customers. The decline in on-net ARPU is partly attributed to volume and term based pricing discounts. Additionally, on-net customers who cancel their service from our installed base of customers, in general, have an ARPU that is greater than the ARPU for our new customers due to declining prices primarily for our on-net services sold to our net-centric customers. These trends resulted in the reduction to our on-net ARPU and a 16.6% decline in our average price per megabit for our installed base of customers.

Our off-net revenues increased 13.2% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from the nine months ended September 30, 2015.  Our off-net revenues increased as we increased the number of our off-net customer connections by 19.7% at September 30, 2016 from September 30, 2015. Our off-net customer connections, which are primarily corporate customer connections, increased at a greater rate than our off-net revenue primarily due to the 5.5% decrease in our off-net ARPU.

Network Operations Expenses. Network operations expenses include the costs of personnel associated with service delivery, network management and customer support, network facilities costs, fiber and equipment maintenance fees, leased circuit costs, access and facilities fees paid to building owners and excise taxes billed to our customers and recorded on a gross basis. Non-cash equity-based compensation expense is included in network operations expenses consistent with the classification of the employee’s salary and other compensation. Our network operations expenses, including non-cash equity-based compensation expense, increased 11.9% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from the nine months ended September 30, 2015. The increase is primarily attributable to an increase in costs related to our network and facilities expansion activities including the expansion of Cogent controlled data centers, a $4.7 million increase in taxes billed to our customers recorded on a gross basis (in service revenue and cost of network operations expense) and the increase in our off-net revenues. When we provide off-net services we also assume the cost of the associated tail circuits.

Selling, General, and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses. Our SG&A expenses, including non-cash equity-based compensation expense, increased 4.1% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from the nine months ended September 30, 2015. Non-cash equity-based compensation expense is included in SG&A expenses consistent with the classification of the employee’s salary and other compensation and was $7.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and $8.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. SG&A expenses increased primarily from an increase in salaries and related costs required to support our expansion and the increase in our sales efforts and were partly offset by a $1.1 million reduction in non-cash equity based compensation expense and a $0.4 million decrease in our bad debt expense. Our sales force headcount increased by 8.9% from 474 at September 30, 2015 to 516 at September 30, 2016 and our total headcount increased by 6.2% from 808 at September 30, 2015 to 858 at September 30, 2016.

Gains on Equipment Transactions.  In the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, we exchanged certain used network equipment and cash consideration for new network equipment resulting in gains of $7.1 million and $3.4 million, respectively, based upon the estimated fair value of the new network equipment less the carrying amount of the returned used network equipment and the cash paid.

Gains on capital lease terminations. In March 2015 we elected to terminate certain IRU capital lease obligations with a vendor.  Under our estimate of the termination provisions of the related contract we recorded an estimated termination liability of $8.1 million.  The difference between the remaining net present value of the related IRU capital leases, the remaining net book value of the IRU assets and the termination liability and amounts due through the termination date was recorded as a gain on capital lease termination of $10.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2015.

In July 2015, we settled a dispute for the payment of the remaining balances for certain IRU capital lease obligations with a vendor.  The IRU assets were fully depreciated in 2012 when the related fiber was replaced and was no longer used by us. The difference between the remaining net present value of the related IRU capital lease obligation and the settlement liability was recorded as a gain on lease obligations of $1.5 million.

Depreciation and Amortization Expenses. Our depreciation and amortization expense increased 5.0% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 from the nine months ended September 30, 2015. The increase is primarily due to the depreciation expense associated with the increase in deployed fixed assets.

16

Interest Expense. Interest expense results from interest incurred on our $250.0 million of senior secured notes that we issued on February 20, 2015, $200.0 million of senior unsecured notes that we issued on April 9, 2014, $240.0 million of senior secured notes that we issued in August 2013 and January 2011 and redeemed in March 2015, interest on our installment payment agreement that we entered into in March 2015 and interest on our capital lease obligations. Our interest expense decreased by 2.6% primarily due to the March 2015 redemption of our $240 million of 8.375% senior secured notes that carried a higher interest rate than our $250.0 million of 5.375% senior secured notes that we issued in February 2015. Additionally, in March 2015 we elected to terminate $29.9 million of capital lease obligations in Spain with a vendor reducing our interest expense on our capital leases.

In the second quarter of 2016, we paid $10.9 million for the purchase of $10.8 million of par value and accrued interest of our $200.0 million senior unsecured notes reducing the principal to $189.2 million and resulting in a loss of $0.2 million.  The loss resulted from the write off of the remaining unamortized debt issuance costs related to the purchased notes. In June 2016, we elected to repay the outstanding $17.1 million principal balance of the installment payment agreement before its maturity date resulting in a loss of $0.4 million from the remaining unamortized discount.

Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million.  In March 2015, we redeemed our $240.0 million 8.375% senior notes due in 2018 at a redemption price of 104.188% of the $240.0 million principal amount thereof plus accrued and unpaid interest with the proceeds from our February 2015 issuance of $250.0 million of 5.375% senior secured notes and existing cash on hand. As a result of this transaction we incurred a loss on debt extinguishment and redemption of $10.1 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2015.

Income Tax Provision.  Our income tax provision was $8.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and $4.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. The increase in our income tax provision was related to an increase in deferred income tax expense from an increase in income before taxes in the United States.

Buildings On-net. As of September 30, 2016 and 2015, we had a total of 2,334 and 2,221 on-net buildings connected to our network, respectively.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

In assessing our liquidity, management reviews and analyzes our current cash balances, accounts receivable, accounts payable, accrued liabilities, capital expenditure commitments, and required capital lease and debt payments and other obligations.

Cash Flows

The following table sets forth our consolidated cash flows.

	Nine months ended September 30,
(in thousands)	2016			2015
Net cash provided by operating activities	$	74,088		$	61,810
Net cash used in investing activities	(38,039		)	(30,509		)
Net cash used in financing activities	(92,419		)	(109,089		)
Effect of exchange rates on cash	930			(2,712		)
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents during period	$	(55,440	)	$	(80,500	)

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities.  Our primary sources of operating cash are receipts from our customers who are billed on a monthly basis for our services. Our primary uses of operating cash are payments made to our vendors and employees and interest payments made to our capital lease vendors and our note holders. Our changes in cash provided by operating activities are primarily due to changes in our operating profit and changes in our interest payments. Cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 includes interest payments on our note obligations of $19.1 million and $22.8 million, respectively.

Net Cash Used In Investing Activities.  Our primary use of cash for investing activities is for purchases of property and equipment. Purchases of property and equipment were $38.0 million and $30.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The changes in purchases of property and equipment are primarily due to the timing and scope of our network expansion activities including geographic expansion and adding buildings to our network and the use of our installment payment agreement for equipment purchases. In the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 we obtained $19.9 million and $15.6 million, respectively, of network equipment in exchange for a note payable under an installment payment agreement.

Net Cash Used In Financing Activities.  Our primary uses of cash for financing activities are for principal payments under our capital lease obligations and our installment payment agreement, dividend payments, stock purchases and in the nine months ended September 30, 2015 we redeemed our $240.0 million senior secured notes for a payment of $251.3 million.  During the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 we paid $1.7 million and $39.4 million for purchases of our common stock, respectively. Principal payments under our capital lease were $9.7 million and $16.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.  During the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 we paid $50.0 million and $50.3 million, respectively, for our quarterly dividend payments. During the nine months ended September 30, 2015 we received net proceeds of $248.6 million from the issuance of our $250.0 million senior secured notes. During the nine months ended September 30, 2016 we paid $10.9 million for the purchase of $10.8 million of par value and accrued interest of our $200.0 million senior unsecured notes and we elected to repay the outstanding $17.1 million principal balance of our installment payment agreement prior to its maturity date. Total installment payment agreement principal payments were $21.2 million and $0.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

17

Cash Position and Indebtedness

Our total indebtedness at September 30, 2016 was $582.3 million and our total cash and cash equivalents were $148.2 million. Our total indebtedness at September 30, 2016 includes $140.4 million of capital lease obligations for dark fiber under long term IRU agreements.

Summarized Financial Information of Holdings

Holdings is an unrestricted subsidiary as defined under the indentures governing our 2021 Notes and our 2022 Notes and Holdings is also a guarantor under these notes.  Under the indentures we are required to disclose financial information of Holdings including its assets, liabilities and its operating results (“Holdings Financial Information”).  The Holdings Financial Information as of and for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 is detailed below (in thousands).

	September 30,2016
	(Unaudited)
Cash and cash equivalents	$	104,359
Total assets	$	104,359
Investment from subsidiaries	$	253,902
Common stock	45
Retained deficit	(149,588		)
Total equity	$	104,359

	Nine Months Ended September 30,2016
	(Unaudited)
Equity-based compensation expense	8,735
Interest income	38
Net loss	$	(8,697	)

Common Stock Buyback Program

Our Board of Directors has approved purchases of our common stock under a buyback program (the “Buyback Program”).  We purchased 46,983 and 1.2 million shares for $1.7 million and $39.4 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. As of September 30, 2016 there was a total of $46.1 million available under the Buyback Program through December 31, 2017.

Dividends on Common Stock

Dividends are recorded as a reduction to retained earnings. Dividends on unvested restricted shares of common stock are paid as the awards vest. Our initial quarterly dividend payment was made in the third quarter of 2012. On October 31, 2016, our Board of Directors approved the payment of our quarterly dividend of $0.40 per common share. The dividend for the fourth quarter of 2016 will be paid to holders of record on November 22, 2016. This estimated $16.9 million dividend payment is expected to be made on December 9, 2016.

The payment of any future dividends and any other returns of capital, including stock buybacks, will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and may be reduced, eliminated or increased and will be dependent upon our financial position, results of operations, available cash, cash flow, capital requirements, limitations under our debt indentures and other factors deemed relevant by the our Board of Directors. We are a Delaware Corporation and under the General Corporate Law of the State of Delaware distributions may be restricted including a restriction that distributions, including stock purchases and dividends, do not result in an impairment of a corporation’s capital, as defined under Delaware Law. The indentures governing our notes limit our ability to return cash to our stockholders. See also Note 3 of our interim condensed consolidated financial statements.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

There have been no material changes to our contractual obligations and commitments included in Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 except as follows:

In the second quarter of 2016, we paid $10.9 million for the purchase of $10.8 million of par value and accrued interest of our $200.0 million senior unsecured notes.  In September 2016, we elected to repay the outstanding $17.1 million principal balance of our installment payment agreement before its maturity date.

18

Future Capital Requirements

We believe that our cash on hand and cash generated from our operating activities will be adequate to meet our working capital, capital expenditure, debt service, dividend payments and other cash requirements for the next twelve months if we execute our business plan.

Any future acquisitions or other significant unplanned costs or cash requirements in excess of amounts we currently hold may require that we raise additional funds through the issuance of debt or equity. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on terms acceptable to us or our stockholders, or at all. Insufficient funds may require us to delay or scale back the number of buildings and markets that we add to our network, reduce our planned increase in our sales and marketing efforts, or require us to otherwise alter our business plan or take other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. If issuing equity securities raises additional funds, substantial dilution to existing stockholders may result.

We may need to or elect to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness at or before maturity and we cannot provide assurances that we will be able to refinance any such indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In addition, we may elect to secure additional capital in the future, at acceptable terms, to improve our liquidity or fund acquisitions or for general corporate purposes. In addition, in an effort to reduce future cash interest payments as well as future amounts due at maturity or to extend debt maturities, we may, from time to time, issue new debt, enter into debt for debt, or cash transactions to purchase our outstanding debt securities in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. We will evaluate any such transactions in light of the existing market conditions. The amounts involved in any such transaction, individually or in the aggregate, may be material.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We do not have relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. In addition, we do not engage in trading activities involving non-exchange traded contracts. As such, we are not materially exposed to any financing, liquidity, market or credit risks that could arise if we had engaged in these relationships.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Estimates

Management believes that as of September 30,2016, there have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies and significant estimates from those listed in Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Recent Accounting Pronouncements—to be Adopted

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The ASU will replace most existing accounting for lease guidance when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for us beginning on January 1, 2019. Early application is permitted. The standard must be adopted using the modified retrospective approach. The standard will require us to record a right to use asset and a lease liability for most of our leases including our leases currently treated as operating leases. We are evaluating the effect that ASU 2016-02 will have on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which requires an entity to recognize the amount of revenue to which it expects to be entitled for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers. The ASU will replace most existing revenue recognition guidance in U.S. GAAP when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for us on January 1, 2018. Early application is permitted for annual periods beginning after December 31, 2016. The standard permits the use of either the retrospective or cumulative effect transition method. We are evaluating the effect that ASU 2014-09 will have on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. We have not yet selected a transition method nor have we determined the effect of the standard on our ongoing financial reporting.

ITEM 3.QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

Management believes that as of September 30,2016, there have been no material changes to our exposures to market risk from those disclosed in Item 7A “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk,” of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

ITEM 4.CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES.

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.

19

As required by Rule 13a-15(b), under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), an evaluation was performed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this report. Based upon that evaluation, our management, including our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level as of the end of the period covered by this report.

There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting during our most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II OTHER INFORMATION

ITEM 1.LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are involved in legal proceedings in the ordinary course of our business that we do not expect to have a material impact on our operations or results of operations.  Note 4 of our interim condensed consolidated financial statements includes information on these proceedings.

ITEM 2.UNREGISTERED SALES OF EQUITY SECURITIES AND USE OF PROCEEDS

Our Board of Directors has authorized a plan to permit the repurchase of our common stock in negotiated and open market transactions through December 31, 2016. We may purchase shares from time to time depending on market, economic, and other factors.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Period	Total Number of Shares Purchased	Average Price Paid per Share		Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs	Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs
July 1-31, 2016	—	$	—	—	$	47,790,430
August 1-31, 2016	—	$	—	—	$	47,790,430
September 1-30, 2016	46,983	$	35.45	46,983	$	46,124,731

20

ITEM 6.EXHIBITS.

(a) Exhibits

Exhibit Number	Description
31.1	Certification of Chief Executive Officer (filed herewith)
31.2	Certification of Chief Financial Officer (filed herewith)
32.1	Certification of Chief Executive Officer (furnished herewith)
32.2	Certification of Chief Financial Officer (furnished herewith)
101.1	The following materials from the Registrant’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016, formatted in Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), include: (i) the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income, (ii) the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, (iii) the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, and (iv) related notes (filed herewith).

21

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

Date: November 3, 2016	COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC.
	By:	/s/ David Schaeffer
		Name:	David Schaeffer
		Title:	Chief Executive Officer
Date: November 3, 2016	By:	/s/ Thaddeus G. Weed
		Name:	Thaddeus G. Weed
		Title:	Chief Financial Officer (Principal Accounting Officer)

22

Exhibit Index

Exhibit Number	Description
31.1	Certification of Chief Executive Officer (filed herewith)
31.2	Certification of Chief Financial Officer (filed herewith)
32.1	Certification of Chief Executive Officer (furnished herewith)
32.2	Certification of Chief Financial Officer (furnished herewith)
101.1	The following materials from the Registrant’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016, formatted in Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), include: (i) the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income, (ii) the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, (iii) the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, and (iv) related notes (filed herewith).

23

EX-31.1

Exhibit 31.1

CERTIFICATIONS

Certification of Chief Executive Officer

I, David Schaeffer, certify that:

1.                           I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.;

2.                           Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3.                           Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4.                           The registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:

a)                          designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

b)                          designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c)                           evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

d)                          disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5.                           The registrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

a)                          all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

b)                          any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

Date: November 3, 2016

/s/ David Schaeffer

Name: David Schaeffer

Title: Chief Executive Officer

EX-31.2

Exhibit 31.2

Certification of Chief Financial Officer

I, Thaddeus Weed, certify that:

1.              I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.;

2.              Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3.              Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4.              The registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:

a)              designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

b)              designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c)              evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

d)              disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (the registrant’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5.              The registrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

a)              all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

b)              any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

Date: November 3, 2016

/s/ Thaddeus G. Weed

Name: Thaddeus G. Weed

Title: Chief Financial Officer

EX-32.1

Exhibit 32.1

Certification of Chief Executive Officer

Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350, as created by Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the undersigned officer of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) hereby certifies, to such officer’s knowledge, that:

(i)the accompanying Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q of the Company for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2016 (the “Report”) fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d), of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, (15 U.S.C. 78m or 78o(d)); and

(ii)the information contained in the Report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Company.

Dated: November 3, 2016

/s/ David Schaeffer

David Schaeffer

Chief Executive Officer

The foregoing certification is being furnished solely to accompany the Report pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350, and is not being filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and is not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of the Company, whether made before or after the date hereof, regardless of any general incorporation language in such filing.

EX-32.2

Exhibit 32.2

Certification of Chief Financial Officer

Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350, as created by Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the undersigned officer of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) hereby certifies, to such officer’s knowledge, that:

(i)the accompanying Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q of the Company for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2016 (the “Report”) fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a) or Section 15(d), of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, (15 U.S.C. 78m or 78o(d)); and

(ii)the information contained in the Report fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the Company.

Dated: November 3, 2016

/s/ Thaddeus G. Weed

Thaddeus G. Weed

Chief Financial Officer

The foregoing certification is being furnished solely to accompany the Report pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350, and is not being filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and is not to be incorporated by reference into any filing of the Company, whether made before or after the date hereof, regardless of any general incorporation language in such filing.

XML

Document and Entity Information - shares	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Oct. 31, 2016
Document and Entity Information
Entity Registrant Name	COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC.
Entity Central Index Key	0001158324
Document Type	10-Q
Document Period End Date	Sep. 30, 2016
Amendment Flag	false
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Current Reporting Status	Yes
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		45,486,222
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2016
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3

XML

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$ 148,151	$ 203,591
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $1,804 and $1,757, respectively	33,487	30,718
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	20,642	17,030
Total current assets	202,280	251,339
Property and equipment, net	370,749	360,136
Deferred tax assets - noncurrent	36,716	45,142
Deposits and other assets - $132 and $355 restricted, respectively	7,877	6,199
Total assets	617,622	662,816
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable	13,019	12,401
Accrued and other current liabilities	41,790	38,355
Installment payment agreement, current portion, net of discount of $106 and $678	1,028	11,901
Current maturities, capital lease obligations	6,122	6,247
Total current liabilities	61,959	68,904
Senior secured 2022 notes, net of unamortized debt costs of $1,121 and $1,252, respectively	248,879	248,748
Senior unsecured 2021 notes, net of unamortized debt costs of $2,703 and $3,305, respectively	186,522	196,695
Capital lease obligations, net of current maturities	134,229	129,763
Other long term liabilities	26,519	30,977
Total liabilities	658,108	675,087
Commitments and contingencies:
Stockholders' equity:
Common stock, $0.001 par value; 75,000,000 shares authorized; 45,537,353 and 45,198,718 shares issued and outstanding, respectively	45	45
Additional paid-in capital	442,125	434,161
Accumulated other comprehensive income-foreign currency translation	(11,898)	(14,693)
Accumulated deficit	(470,758)	(431,784)
Total stockholders' (deficit) equity	(40,486)	(12,271)
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity	$ 617,622	$ 662,816

XML

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Parenthetical) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Assets
Accounts receivable, allowance for doubtful accounts (in dollars)	$ 1,804	$ 1,757
Deposits and other assets, restricted (in dollars)	132	355
Liabilities and stockholders' equity
Installment payment agreement, discount	$ 106	$ 678
Common stock, par value (in dollars per share)	$ 0.001	$ 0.001
Common stock, shares authorized	75,000,000	75,000,000
Common stock, shares issued	45,537,353	45,198,718
Common stock, shares outstanding	45,537,353	45,198,718
Senior Secured 2022 Notes
Liabilities and stockholders' equity
Unamortized debt costs	$ 1,121	$ 1,252
Senior Unsecured Notes
Liabilities and stockholders' equity
Unamortized debt costs	$ 2,703	$ 3,305

XML

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Service Revenue
Service revenue	$ 113,057	$ 103,017	$ 331,304	$ 299,057
Operating expenses:
Network operations (including $161 and $126 of equity-based compensation expense, respectively, exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)	48,827	45,182	143,976	128,673
Selling, general, and administrative (including $2,830 and $2,578 of equity-based compensation expense, respectively)	30,050	27,318	89,403	85,922
Depreciation and amortization expense	18,804	17,634	55,161	52,517
Total operating expenses	97,681	90,134	288,540	267,112
Loss on debt purchases and installment loan repayment			(587)
Gain on capital lease terminations		1,484		11,593
Gain on equipment transactions	687	1,152	7,071	3,420
Loss on debt extinguishment and redemption				(10,144)
Operating income	16,063	15,519	49,248	36,814
Interest income and other, net	207	50	677	566
Interest expense	(9,891)	(10,002)	(30,200)	(31,000)
Income before income taxes	6,379	5,567	19,725	6,380
Income tax provision	(2,920)	(2,406)	(8,688)	(3,964)
Net income	3,459	3,161	11,037	2,416
Comprehensive income (loss):
Net income	3,459	3,161	11,037	2,416
Foreign currency translation adjustment	688	228	2,795	(5,485)
Comprehensive income (loss)	$ 4,147	$ 3,389	$ 13,832	$ (3,069)
Net income per common share:
Basic and diluted net income per common share (in dollars per share)	$ 0.08	$ 0.07	$ 0.25	$ 0.05
Dividends declared per common share (in dollars per share)	$ 0.38	$ 0.34	$ 1.11	$ 1.11
Weighted-average common shares - basic (in shares)	44,574,583	44,474,724	44,563,279	44,907,505
Weighted-average common shares - diluted (in shares)	44,776,918	44,702,127	44,758,202	45,190,206

XML

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (Parenthetical) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
Network operations, equity-based compensation expense	$ 161	$ 126
Selling, general, and administrative, equity-based compensation expense	$ 2,830	$ 2,578

XML

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS - USD ($) $ in Thousands	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net income	$ 11,037	$ 2,416
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization	55,161	52,517
Amortization of debt discount and premium	879	(10)
Equity-based compensation expense (net of amounts capitalized)	7,859	8,944
Losses on debt extinguishment and redemption		10,144
Gain on capital lease termination		(11,593)
Loss on debt purchases and installment loan repayment	(587)
Gains - equipment transactions and other, net	(7,124)	(3,018)
Deferred income taxes	8,453	3,830
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable	(2,478)	1,118
Prepaid expenses and other current assets	(3,256)	(3,254)
Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other long-term liabilities	4,499	766
Deposits and other assets	(1,529)	(50)
Net cash provided by operating activities	74,088	61,810
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchases of property and equipment	(38,039)	(30,620)
Proceeds from dispositions of assets		111
Net cash used in investing activities	(38,039)	(30,509)
Cash flows from financing activities:
Dividends paid	(50,011)	(50,269)
Purchases of common stock	(1,666)	(39,394)
Purchases of senior unsecured 2021 notes	(10,775)
Net proceeds from issuance of senior secured 2022 notes		248,603
Redemption of senior secured 2018 notes		(251,280)
Proceeds from exercises of stock options	894	288
Principal payments of installment payment agreement	(21,203)	(95)
Principal payments of capital lease obligations	(9,658)	(16,942)
Net cash used in financing activities	(92,419)	(109,089)
Effect of exchange rates changes on cash	930	(2,712)
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents	(55,440)	(80,500)
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period	203,591	287,790
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period	148,151	207,290
Supplemental disclosure of non-cash financing and investing activities:
Non-cash component of network equipment obtained in exchange transactions	7,071	5,717
PP&E obtained for installment payment agreement	19,875	15,602
Fair value of equipment acquired in leases	1,744	595
Capital lease obligations incurred	$ 13,120	$ 17,820

XML

Description of the business and recent developments:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Description of the business and recent developments:

Description of the business and recent developments:

1. Description of the business and recent developments:

Reorganization and merger

On May 15, 2014, pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (the “Merger Agreement”) by and among Cogent Communications Group, Inc. (“Group”), a Delaware corporation, Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Holdings”) and Cogent Communications Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Merger Sub”), Group adopted a new holding company organizational structure whereby Group is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Holdings.  Holdings is a “successor issuer” to Group pursuant to Rule 12g-3(a) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).  References to the “Company” for events that occurred prior to May 15, 2014 refer to Cogent Communications Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries and on and after May 15, 2014 the “Company” refers to Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Description of business

The Company is a Delaware corporation and is headquartered in Washington, DC. The Company is a facilities-based provider of low-cost, high-speed Internet access and Internet Protocol (“IP”) communications services. The Company’s network is specifically designed and optimized to transmit data using IP. The Company delivers its services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, communications service providers and other bandwidth-intensive organizations in North America, Europe and Asia.

The Company offers on-net Internet access services exclusively through its own facilities, which run from its network to its customers’ premises. The Company is not dependent on local telephone companies to serve its customers for its on-net Internet access services because of its integrated network architecture. The Company offers its on-net services to customers located in buildings that are physically connected to its network. The Company’s on-net service consists of high-speed Internet access and IP connectivity ranging from 100 Megabits per second to 100 Gigabits per second of bandwidth. The Company provides its on-net Internet access services to its corporate and net-centric customers. The Company’s corporate customers are located in multi-tenant office buildings and typically include law firms, financial services firms, advertising and marketing firms and other professional services businesses. The Company’s net-centric customers include bandwidth-intensive users such as universities, other Internet service providers, telephone companies, cable television companies, web hosting companies, content delivery network companies and commercial content and application service providers. These net-centric customers obtain the Company’s services in carrier neutral data centers and in the Company’s data centers. The Company operates data centers throughout North America and Europe that allow its customers to collocate their equipment and access the Company’s network.

In addition to providing its on-net services, the Company provides Internet connectivity to customers that are not located in buildings directly connected to its network. The Company provides this off-net service primarily to corporate customers using other carriers’ facilities to provide the “last mile” portion of the link from the customers’ premises to the Company’s network. The Company also provides certain non-core services that resulted from acquisitions. The Company continues to support but does not actively sell these non-core services.

Basis of presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared by the Company pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the opinion of management, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all normal recurring adjustments that the Company considers necessary for the fair presentation of its results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods covered, and of the financial position of the Company at the date of the interim condensed consolidated balance sheet. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in the annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations. The operating results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the operating results for the entire year. While the Company believes that the disclosures are adequate to not make the information misleading, these interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include all wholly-owned subsidiaries. All inter-company accounts and activity have been eliminated.

Use of estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with United States generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

Financial instruments

At September 30, 2016, the carrying amount of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, prepaid and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses approximated fair value because of the short-term nature of these instruments. The Company measures its cash equivalents at amortized cost, which approximates fair value based upon quoted market prices (Level 1). Based upon recent trading prices (Level 2 — market approach) at September 30, 2016 the fair value of the Company’s $189.2 million senior unsecured notes was $193.0 million and the fair value of the Company’s $250.0 million senior secured notes was $256.6 million.

The Company was party to letters of credit totaling $0.1 million as of September 30, 2016 and $0.3 million as of December 31, 2015. These letters of credit are secured by investments that are restricted and included in other assets.

Gross receipts taxes, universal service fund and other surcharges

Revenue recognition standards include guidance relating to taxes or surcharges assessed by a governmental authority that are directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between a seller and a customer and may include, but are not limited to, gross receipts taxes, excise taxes, Universal Service Fund fees and certain state regulatory fees. Such charges may be presented gross or net based upon the Company’s accounting policy election. The Company records certain excise taxes and surcharges on a gross basis and includes them in its revenues and costs of network operations. Excise taxes and surcharges billed to customers and recorded on a gross basis (as service revenue and network operations expense) were $2.4 million, $6.5 million, $1.8 million and $1.9 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively.

Basic and diluted net income (loss) per common share

Basic earnings per share (“EPS”) excludes dilution for common stock equivalents and is computed by dividing net income or (loss) available to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted EPS is based on the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during each period, adjusted for the effect of dilutive common stock equivalents.  Shares of restricted stock are included in the computation of basic EPS as they vest and are included in diluted EPS, to the extent they are dilutive, determined using the treasury stock method. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, the Company’s employees exercised options for 10,995, 39,473, 6,883 and 19,507 common shares, respectively.

The following details the determination of diluted weighted average shares:

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Weighted average common shares - basic	44,574,583	44,474,724	44,563,279	44,907,505
Dilutive effect of stock options	29,400	33,370	33,792	42,182
Dilutive effect of restricted stock	172,935	194,033	161,131	240,519
Weighted average common shares - diluted	44,776,918	44,702,127	44,758,202	45,190,206

The following details unvested shares of restricted common stock as well as the anti-dilutive effects of stock options and restricted stock awards outstanding:

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Unvested shares of restricted common stock	999,464	1,028,197	999,464	1,028,197
Anti-dilutive options for common stock	75,687	136,220	87,611	118,517
Anti-dilutive shares of restricted common stock	—	617,243	126,993	360,101

Recent accounting pronouncements—to be adopted

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The ASU will replace most existing accounting for lease guidance when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2019. Early application is permitted. The standard must be adopted using the modified retrospective approach. The standard will require the Company to record a right to use asset and a lease liability for most of the Company’s leases including the Company’s leases currently treated as operating leases. The Company is evaluating the effect that ASU 2016-02 will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures and has not yet determined the effect of the standard on its ongoing financial reporting.

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which requires an entity to recognize the amount of revenue to which it expects to be entitled for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers. The ASU will replace most existing revenue recognition guidance in U.S. GAAP when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2018. Early application is permitted for annual periods beginning after December 31, 2016. The standard permits the use of either the retrospective or cumulative effect transition method. The Company is evaluating the effect that ASU 2014-09 will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. The Company has not yet selected a transition method nor has it determined the effect of the standard on its ongoing financial reporting.

XML

Property and equipment:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Property and equipment:

Property and equipment:

2. Property and equipment:

Depreciation and amortization expense related to property and equipment and capital leases was $18.8 million, $55.2 million, $17.6 million and $52.5 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The Company capitalized salaries and related benefits of employees working directly on the construction and build-out of its network of $2.2 million, $6.6 million, $2.1 million and $6.3 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Exchange agreement

In the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, the Company exchanged certain used network equipment and cash consideration for new network equipment. The fair value of the equipment received was estimated to be $1.6 million, $14.1 million, $2.7 million and $11.0 million, respectively.  After considering the fair value of the new network equipment less the carrying amount of the returned used network equipment and the cash paid, the transactions resulted in gains of $0.7 million, $7.1 million, $1.1 million and $3.3 million respectively. The estimated fair value of the equipment received was based upon the cash consideration price the Company pays for the new network equipment on a standalone basis (Level 3).

Installment payment agreement

In March 2015, the Company entered into an installment payment agreement (“IPA”) with a vendor.  Under the IPA the Company is able to purchase up to $25.0 million of network equipment in exchange for interest free note obligations each with a twenty-four month term.  There are no payments under each note obligation for the first six months followed by eighteen equal installment payments for the remaining eighteen month term. In June 2016, the Company elected to repay the outstanding $17.1 million principal balance of the IPA prior to its maturity resulting in a loss of $0.4 million from the remaining unamortized discount. During the three months ended September 30, 2016 the Company entered into additional note obligations totaling $2.7 million. As of September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015 there was $2.7 million and $21.2 million, respectively, of note obligations outstanding under the IPA, secured by the related equipment.  The Company records the net present value of each note obligation utilizing an imputed interest rate.  The resulting discount of $0.1 million and $0.8 million as of September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively, is amortized over the note term using the effective interest rate method.

Gains on capital lease terminations

In March 2015 the Company elected to terminate certain IRU capital lease obligations in Spain with a vendor.  The Company has obtained alternative fiber to serve its customers in Spain. Under its estimate of the termination provisions of the related contracts the Company has recorded an estimated termination liability of $8.1 million included in accrued and other current liabilities.  The difference between the remaining carrying amount of the related IRU capital lease liabilities ($29.9 million), the remaining net book value of the IRU assets ($10.0 million) and the termination liability and amounts due through the termination date was recorded as a gain on capital lease termination of $10.1 million.

In July 2015, the Company settled a dispute for the payment of the remaining balances for certain IRU capital lease obligations in Europe with a vendor.  The IRU assets were fully depreciated in 2012 when the related fiber was replaced and was no longer used by the Company. The difference between the remaining net present value of the related IRU capital lease obligations ($1.8 million) and the settlement liability ($0.4 million) was recorded as a $1.5 million gain on termination of capital lease obligations.

XML

Long-term debt:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Long-term debt:

Long-term debt:

3. Long-term debt:

Senior unsecured notes- $189.2 million

Group is obligor on $189.2 million (originally $200.0 million) of 5.625% Senior Notes due 2021 (the “2021 Notes”).  The 2021 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A.  Holdings provided a guarantee of the 2021 Notes but Holdings is not subject to the covenants under the indenture.

In the second quarter of 2016, the Company paid $10.9 million for the purchase of $10.8 million of par value and accrued interest on its 2021 Notes reducing the principal amount to $189.2 million and resulting in a loss of $0.2 million.  The loss resulted from the write off of the remaining unamortized debt issuance costs related to the purchased notes.

Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million senior secured notes

In March 2015, Group redeemed its $240.0 million 8.375% senior notes due in 2018 (the “2018 Notes”) with the proceeds from its February 2015 issuance of $250.0 million of 5.375% senior secured notes (the “2022 Notes”) and existing cash on hand. In February 2015 the Company deposited $251.6 million with the trustee for the benefit of the holders of the 2018 Notes in order to redeem on March 12, 2015 the entire outstanding amount of 2018 Notes at a redemption price of 104.188% of the $240.0 million principal amount thereof plus accrued and unpaid interest. As a result of this transaction the Company incurred a loss on debt extinguishment and redemption of $10.1 million.

The 2022 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A and mature on March 1, 2022. Interest accrues at 5.375% beginning on February 20, 2015 and is paid semi-annually in arrears on March 1 and September 1 of each year, commencing on September 1, 2015. The net proceeds from the offering were $248.7 million after deducting discounts and commissions and offering expenses.

Senior secured notes- $240.0 million

On January 26, 2011 and on August 19, 2013, the Company issued its 8.375% 2018 Notes for aggregate principal amounts of $175.0 million and $65.0 million, respectively, in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A. The 2018 Notes were secured and bore interest at 8.375% per annum. Interest was payable in cash semiannually in arrears on February 15 and August 15, of each year. On January 26, 2011, the Company received net proceeds of $170.5 million after deducting $4.5 million of issuance costs from issuing $175.0 million of its 2018 Notes. On August 19, 2013, the Company received net proceeds of approximately $69.9 million after deducting $1.0 million of issuance costs from issuing $65.0 million of 2018 Notes. The 2018 Notes sold in August 2013 were sold at 109.00% of par value. The resulting $5.9 million premium was being amortized as a reduction to interest expense to the maturity date using the effective interest rate method.  In March 2015, the 2018 Notes were extinguished and redeemed with the proceeds of the Company’s issuance of its $250.0 million of 2022 Notes and cash on hand.

Limitations under the indentures

The indentures governing the 2022 and 2021 Notes, among other things, limit the Company’s ability to incur indebtedness; to pay dividends or make other distributions; to make certain investments and other restricted payments; to create liens; consolidate, merge, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of its assets; to incur restrictions on the ability of a subsidiary to pay dividends or make other payments; and to enter into certain transactions with its affiliates. Limitations on the ability to incur additional indebtedness (excluding IRU agreements incurred in the normal course of business) include a restriction on incurring additional indebtedness if the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio, as defined in the indentures, is greater than 5.0. The indentures prohibit certain payments, such as dividends and stock purchases, when the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio, as defined by the indentures, is greater than 4.25. A certain amount of such unrestricted payments is permitted notwithstanding this prohibition. The unrestricted payment amount may be increased by the Company’s consolidated cash flow, as defined in the indentures, as long as the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio is less than 4.25. The Company’s consolidated leverage ratio is currently below 4.25 as of September 30, 2016, and as a result a total of $169.4 million is permitted for investment payments including dividends and stock purchases.

XML

Commitments and contingencies:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Commitments and contingencies:

Commitments and contingencies:

4. Commitments and contingencies:

Current and potential litigation

In accordance with the accounting guidance for contingencies, the Company accrues its estimate of a contingent liability when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. Where it is probable that a liability has been incurred and there is a range of expected loss for which no amount in the range is more likely than any other amount, the Company accrues at the low end of the range. The Company reviews its accruals at least quarterly and adjusts them to reflect the impact of negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other information and events pertaining to a particular matter. The Company has taken certain positions related to its obligations for leased circuits for which it is reasonably possible could result in a loss of up to $2.3 million in excess of the amount accrued at September 30, 2016.

In December 2011, certain former sales employees of the Company filed a collective action against the Company in the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division alleging misclassification of the Company’s sales employees throughout the United States in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit sought to recover pay for allegedly unpaid overtime and other damages, including attorney’s fees. In March 2014, the judge de-certified the collective action. Each of the former employees that opted-in to the collective action retained the right to file an individual action. Approximately 70 former employees did so. The Company has settled a number of the cases that were filed and made the required settlement payments. Currently, only one case in California remains (Ambrosia v. Cogent Communications, Inc. in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California). On January 4, 2016, the judge provisionally certified a class and collective action related to the employees in California. The Company denies the claims and believes that the claims for unpaid overtime are without merit. The Company believes its classification of sales employees is in compliance with applicable law.

In the ordinary course of business the Company is involved in other legal activities and claims. Because such matters are subject to many uncertainties and the outcomes are not predictable with assurance, the liability related to these legal actions and claims cannot be determined with certainty. Management does not believe that such claims and actions will have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations. Judgment is required in estimating the ultimate outcome of any dispute resolution process, as well as any other amounts that may be incurred to conclude the negotiations or settle any litigation. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions and such differences could be material.

XML

Income taxes:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Income taxes:

Income taxes:

5. Income taxes:

The components of income (loss) before income taxes consist of the following (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016			Three Months Ended September 30, 2015			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Domestic	$	11,971		$	9,343		$	36,589		$	10,245
Foreign	(5,592		)	(3,776		)	(16,864		)	(3,865		)
Total	$	6,379		$	5,567		$	19,725		$	6,380

XML

Common stock buyback program:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Common stock buyback program:

Common stock buyback program:

6. Common stock buyback program:

The Company’s Board of Directors has approved purchases of the Company’s common stock under a buyback program (the “Buyback Program”) through December 31, 2016.  At September 30, 2016, there was approximately $46.1 million remaining for purchases under the Buyback Program.  During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 the Company purchased 46,983, 46,983, 0.4 million and 1.2 million shares of its common stock for $1.7 million, $1.7 million, $12.2 million and $39.4 million, respectively.

XML

Dividends on common stock:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Dividends on common stock:

Dividends on common stock:

7. Dividends on common stock:

Dividends are recorded as a reduction to retained earnings. Dividends on unvested restricted shares of common stock are paid as the awards vest. The Company’s initial quarterly dividend payment was made in the third quarter of 2012.

On October 31, 2016, the Company’s Board of Directors approved the payment of our quarterly dividend of $0.40 per common share. The dividend for the fourth quarter of 2016 will be paid to holders of record on November 22, 2016. This estimated $16.9 million dividend payment is expected to be made on December 9, 2016.

The payment of any future dividends and any other returns of capital, including stock buybacks, will be at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors and may be reduced, eliminated or increased and will be dependent upon the Company’s financial position, results of operations, available cash, cash flow, capital requirements, limitations under the Company’s debt indentures and other factors deemed relevant by the Company’s Board of Directors. The Company is a Delaware Corporation and under the General Corporate Law of the State of Delaware distributions may be restricted including a restriction that distributions, including stock purchases and dividends, do not result in an impairment of a corporation’s capital, as defined under Delaware Law. The indentures governing the Company’s notes limit the Company’s ability to return cash to its stockholders.

XML

Incentive award plan:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Incentive award plan:

Incentive award plan

8. Incentive award plan:

The Company has an award plan, the 2004 Incentive Award Plan, as amended (the “Award Plan”), under which grants of stock and options are made.  In May 2016 the Company granted 73,450 restricted shares under the Award Plan with a grant date fair value of $2.9 million that are subject to certain performance conditions based upon the Company’s operating metrics and will be recognized as equity-based compensation expense on a straight line basis over the service period. In the second quarter of 2016, the Company also granted 247,180 restricted shares to certain of its employees that will vest on a quarterly basis in 2019 and over a four year period.  These restricted shares had a grant date fair value of $9.6 million and will be recognized as equity-based compensation expense on a straight line basis over the service period.

XML

Related party transactions:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Related party transactions:

Related party transactions:

9. Related party transactions:

Office leases

The Company’s headquarters was located in an office building owned by Niobium LLC (a successor to 6715 Kenilworth Avenue Partnership). The two owners of Niobium LLC are the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, David Schaeffer, who has a 51% interest in Niobium LLC and his wife who has a 49% interest. The lease was scheduled to end on August 31, 2016 and was cancellable by the Company upon 60 days’ notice. The Company terminated the lease effective as of May 10, 2015. In April 2015, the Company entered into a new lease agreement for its headquarters building with Sodium LLC whose two owners are the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, who has a 51% interest in Sodium LLC and his wife who has a 49% interest. The Company moved into the new headquarters building in May 2015. The fixed annual rent for the new headquarters building is $1.0 million per year plus an allocation of taxes and utilities. The lease term is for five years and is cancellable by the Company upon 60 days’ notice. The Company’s audit committee reviews and approves all transactions with related parties. The Company paid $0.5 million, $1.3 million, $0.3 million and $0.7 million in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, for rent and related costs (including taxes and utilities) to these lessors for these leases.

XML

Segment information:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Segment information:

Segment information:

10. Segment information:

The Company operates as one operating segment. The Company’s service revenue and long lived assets by geographic region are as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016		Three Months Ended September 30, 2015		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Revenues
North America	$	94,597	$	85,084	$	276,080	$	245,914
Europe	18,460		17,933		55,224		53,143
Total	$	113,057	$	103,017	$	331,304	$	299,057

	September 30, 2016		December 31, 2015
Long lived assets, net
North America	$	289,275	$	285,187
Europe	81,500		74,976
Total	$	370,775	$	360,163

The majority of North American revenue consists of services delivered within the United States.

XML

Description of the business and recent developments: (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Description of the business and recent developments:

Basis of presentation

Basis of presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared by the Company pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the opinion of management, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements reflect all normal recurring adjustments that the Company considers necessary for the fair presentation of its results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods covered, and of the financial position of the Company at the date of the interim condensed consolidated balance sheet. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in the annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations. The operating results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the operating results for the entire year. While the Company believes that the disclosures are adequate to not make the information misleading, these interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements include all wholly-owned subsidiaries. All inter-company accounts and activity have been eliminated.

Use of estimates

Use of estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with United States generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

Financial instruments

Financial instruments

At September 30, 2016, the carrying amount of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, prepaid and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses approximated fair value because of the short-term nature of these instruments. The Company measures its cash equivalents at amortized cost, which approximates fair value based upon quoted market prices (Level 1). Based upon recent trading prices (Level 2 — market approach) at September 30, 2016 the fair value of the Company’s $189.2 million senior unsecured notes was $193.0 million and the fair value of the Company’s $250.0 million senior secured notes was $256.6 million.

The Company was party to letters of credit totaling $0.1 million as of September 30, 2016 and $0.3 million as of December 31, 2015. These letters of credit are secured by investments that are restricted and included in other assets.

Gross receipts taxes, universal service fund and other surcharges

Gross receipts taxes, universal service fund and other surcharges

Revenue recognition standards include guidance relating to taxes or surcharges assessed by a governmental authority that are directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between a seller and a customer and may include, but are not limited to, gross receipts taxes, excise taxes, Universal Service Fund fees and certain state regulatory fees. Such charges may be presented gross or net based upon the Company’s accounting policy election. The Company records certain excise taxes and surcharges on a gross basis and includes them in its revenues and costs of network operations. Excise taxes and surcharges billed to customers and recorded on a gross basis (as service revenue and network operations expense) were $2.4 million, $6.5 million, $1.8 million and $1.9 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively.

Basic and diluted net income (loss) per common share

Basic and diluted net income (loss) per common share

Basic earnings per share (“EPS”) excludes dilution for common stock equivalents and is computed by dividing net income or (loss) available to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted EPS is based on the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during each period, adjusted for the effect of dilutive common stock equivalents.  Shares of restricted stock are included in the computation of basic EPS as they vest and are included in diluted EPS, to the extent they are dilutive, determined using the treasury stock method. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, the Company’s employees exercised options for 10,995, 39,473, 6,883 and 19,507 common shares, respectively.

The following details the determination of diluted weighted average shares:

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Weighted average common shares - basic	44,574,583	44,474,724	44,563,279	44,907,505
Dilutive effect of stock options	29,400	33,370	33,792	42,182
Dilutive effect of restricted stock	172,935	194,033	161,131	240,519
Weighted average common shares - diluted	44,776,918	44,702,127	44,758,202	45,190,206

The following details unvested shares of restricted common stock as well as the anti-dilutive effects of stock options and restricted stock awards outstanding:

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Unvested shares of restricted common stock	999,464	1,028,197	999,464	1,028,197
Anti-dilutive options for common stock	75,687	136,220	87,611	118,517
Anti-dilutive shares of restricted common stock	—	617,243	126,993	360,101

Recent accounting pronouncements-to be adopted

Recent accounting pronouncements—to be adopted

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases. The ASU will replace most existing accounting for lease guidance when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2019. Early application is permitted. The standard must be adopted using the modified retrospective approach. The standard will require the Company to record a right to use asset and a lease liability for most of the Company’s leases including the Company’s leases currently treated as operating leases. The Company is evaluating the effect that ASU 2016-02 will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures and has not yet determined the effect of the standard on its ongoing financial reporting.

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which requires an entity to recognize the amount of revenue to which it expects to be entitled for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers. The ASU will replace most existing revenue recognition guidance in U.S. GAAP when it becomes effective. The new standard is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2018. Early application is permitted for annual periods beginning after December 31, 2016. The standard permits the use of either the retrospective or cumulative effect transition method. The Company is evaluating the effect that ASU 2014-09 will have on its consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. The Company has not yet selected a transition method nor has it determined the effect of the standard on its ongoing financial reporting.

XML

Description of the business and recent developments: (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Description of the business and recent developments:

Schedule of diluted weighted average shares

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Weighted average common shares - basic	44,574,583	44,474,724	44,563,279	44,907,505
Dilutive effect of stock options	29,400	33,370	33,792	42,182
Dilutive effect of restricted stock	172,935	194,033	161,131	240,519
Weighted average common shares - diluted	44,776,918	44,702,127	44,758,202	45,190,206

Schedule of unvested and anti-dilutive shares

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016	Three Months Ended September 30, 2015	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016	Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Unvested shares of restricted common stock	999,464	1,028,197	999,464	1,028,197
Anti-dilutive options for common stock	75,687	136,220	87,611	118,517
Anti-dilutive shares of restricted common stock	—	617,243	126,993	360,101

XML

Income taxes: (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Income taxes:

Schedule of components of income (loss) before income taxes

The components of income (loss) before income taxes consist of the following (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016			Three Months Ended September 30, 2015			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016			Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Domestic	$	11,971		$	9,343		$	36,589		$	10,245
Foreign	(5,592		)	(3,776		)	(16,864		)	(3,865		)
Total	$	6,379		$	5,567		$	19,725		$	6,380

XML

Segment information: (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Segment information:

Schedule of service revenues and long lived assets by geographic region

The Company’s service revenue and long lived assets by geographic region are as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30, 2016		Three Months Ended September 30, 2015		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016		Nine Months Ended September 30, 2015
Revenues
North America	$	94,597	$	85,084	$	276,080	$	245,914
Europe	18,460		17,933		55,224		53,143
Total	$	113,057	$	103,017	$	331,304	$	299,057

	September 30, 2016		December 31, 2015
Long lived assets, net
North America	$	289,275	$	285,187
Europe	81,500		74,976
Total	$	370,775	$	360,163

XML

Description of the business and recent developments: (Details)	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016 MB
Minimum
On-net service - high-speed Internet access and IP connectivity
Speed per second of bandwidth (in megabits)	100
Maximum
On-net service - high-speed Internet access and IP connectivity
Speed per second of bandwidth (in megabits)	100

XML

Description of the business and recent developments: Financial Instruments (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Financial instruments
Senior unsecured notes	$ 186,522	$ 196,695
Letters of credit, outstanding amount	100	$ 300
Senior Unsecured Notes | Level 2
Financial instruments
Senior unsecured notes	189,200
Debt instrument, fair value amount	193,000
Senior Secured Notes | Level 2
Financial instruments
Debt instrument, fair value amount	256,600
Senior secured notes	$ 250,000

XML

Description of the business and recent developments: Gross receipts taxes, universal service fund and other surcharges (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Gross receipts taxes, universal service fund and other surcharges
Excise and Sales Taxes	$ 2.4	$ 1.8	$ 6.5	$ 1.9

XML

Description of the business and recent developments: Basic and diluted net (loss) income per common share (Details) - shares	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Basic and diluted net (loss) income per common share
Weighted-average common shares - basic (in shares)	44,574,583	44,474,724	44,563,279	44,907,505
Weighted average common shares-diluted	44,776,918	44,702,127	44,758,202	45,190,206
Stock options
Basic and diluted net (loss) income per common share
Share-based Compensation Arrangement by Share-based Payment Award, Options, Exercises in Period	10,995	6,883	39,473	19,507
Dilutive effect of awards (in shares)	29,400	33,370	33,792	42,182
Diluted weighted average shares
Anti-dilutive shares	75,687	136,220	87,611	118,517
Restricted stock
Basic and diluted net (loss) income per common share
Dilutive effect of awards (in shares)	172,935	194,033	161,131	240,519
Diluted weighted average shares
Unvested shares of restricted common stock	999,464	1,028,197	999,464	1,028,197
Anti-dilutive shares		617,243	126,993	360,101

XML

Property and equipment: Property and equipment additional information (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Property and equipment
Depreciation and amortization expense	$ 18,804	$ 17,634	$ 55,161	$ 52,517
Capitalized salaries and related benefits of employees	2,200	2,100	6,600	6,300
Gain (Loss) on Asset Exchange Transactions			7,071	5,717
Property, equipment and capital leases
Property and equipment
Depreciation and amortization expense	18,800	17,600	55,200	52,500
Network equipment
Property and equipment
Gain (Loss) on Asset Exchange Transactions	700	1,100	7,100	3,300
Network equipment | Level 3
Property and equipment
Fair market value of equipment received in exchange	$ 1,600	$ 2,700	$ 14,100	$ 11,000

XML

Property and equipment: Purchase and installment payment agreements (Details) $ in Thousands	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2015 USD ($) payment	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($)
Installment payment agreement
Gains on equipment transactions		$ (687)	$ (1,152)	$ (7,071)	$ (3,420)
Network equipment | Note obligations
Installment payment agreement
Amount of installment payment agreement	$ 25,000
Term of debt	24 months
Number of payments during the first six months | payment	0
Number of equal payments | payment	18
Remaining term	18 months
Outstanding obligation		2,700		2,700		$ 17,100	$ 21,200
Gains on equipment transactions				400
Unamortized discount		$ 100		$ 100			$ 800

XML

Property and equipment: Gain on capital lease termination (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	1 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Jul. 31, 2015	Mar. 31, 2015	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Gain on capital lease termination
Net book value				$ 370,749	$ 360,136
Gain on capital lease termination			$ 11,593
Vendor in Spain
Gain on capital lease termination
Estimated termination liability of IRU capital leases		$ 8,100
Indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) | Vendor in Spain
Gain on capital lease termination
Carrying value of lease liabilities		29,900
Net book value		10,000
Gain on capital lease termination		$ 10,100
Indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) | Vendor In Europe Member
Gain on capital lease termination
Carrying value of lease liabilities	$ 1,800
Gain on capital lease termination	1,500
Settlement liability	$ 400

XML

Long-term debt: Senior unsecured notes- $200.0 million (Details) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)
Senior unsecured notes- $200.0 million 2021 Notes
Loss on debt purchases		$ (587)
Senior Unsecured Notes | Cogent Finance
Senior unsecured notes- $200.0 million 2021 Notes
Repurchased amount	$ 189,200	189,200
Original amount of debt	$ 200,000	$ 200,000
Interest rate (as a percent)	5.625%	5.625%
Interest expense on original debt	$ 10,900
Interest expense on repurchased debt	10,800
Loss on debt purchases	$ 200

XML

Long-term debt: Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands		1 Months Ended		3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Mar. 12, 2015	Mar. 31, 2015	Feb. 28, 2015	Mar. 31, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Aug. 19, 2013	Jan. 26, 2011
Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million
Amount of debt redeemed						$ 251,280
Loss on debt extinguishment and redemption				$ (10,100)		$ (10,144)
Senior Secured 2018 Notes
Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million
Amount of debt redeemed		$ 240,000
Interest rate (as a percent)		8.375%		8.375%			8.375%	8.375%
Aggregate principal amount of debt issued							$ 65,000	$ 175,000
Amount deposited with the trustee for the benefit of the holders			$ 251,600
Percentage of principal amount that the holders of the Convertible Notes may require the Company to repurchase	104.188%
Aggregate face value of debt repurchased	$ 240,000
Senior Secured 2022 Notes
Debt extinguishment, redemption and new debt issuance- $250.0 million
Interest rate (as a percent)		5.375%	5.375%	5.375%
Aggregate principal amount of debt issued		$ 250,000	$ 250,000	$ 250,000
Net proceeds from issuance of senior secured 2022 notes					$ 248,700

XML

Long-term debt: Limitations under the Indentures (Details) $ in Millions	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)
Limitations under the Indentures
Permitted investments and payments including dividends and stock purchases	$ 169.4
Maximum
Limitations under the Indentures
Consolidated leverage ratio to be maintained to increase amount of permitted investments and payments by consolidated cash flow	4.25
Senior Unsecured Notes | Minimum
Limitations under the Indentures
Consolidated leverage ratio to restrict on incurring additional indebtedness	5.0

XML

Long-term debt: Senior secured notes - $240.0 millions (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	Aug. 19, 2013	Jan. 26, 2011	Mar. 31, 2015	Feb. 28, 2015
Senior Secured 2022 Notes
Senior secured notes-2018 Notes
Interest rate (as a percent)			5.375%	5.375%
Aggregate principal amount of debt issued			$ 250.0	$ 250.0
Senior Secured 2018 Notes
Senior secured notes-2018 Notes
Interest rate (as a percent)	8.375%	8.375%	8.375%
Aggregate principal amount of debt issued	$ 65.0	$ 175.0
Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt, net of issuance costs	69.9	170.5
Debt issuance costs	1.0	$ 4.5
Senior secured notes, premium (in dollars)	$ 5.9
Premium price of debt instrument (as a percent)	109.00%

XML

Commitments and contingencies: (Details) $ in Millions	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($) employee
Former Sales Employees Fair Labor Standards Act
Commitments and contingencies
Number of employees who opted to file an action | employee	70
Maximum | Leased circuit and dark fiber costs
Commitments and contingencies
Estimate of possible loss in excess of the amount accrued | $	$ 2.3

XML

Income taxes: (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Components of (loss) income before income taxes
Domestic	$ 11,971	$ 9,343	$ 36,589	$ 10,245
Foreign	(5,592)	(3,776)	(16,864)	(3,865)
Income before income taxes	$ 6,379	$ 5,567	$ 19,725	$ 6,380

XML

Common stock buyback programs: (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Common stock buyback program:
Remaining authorized amount of common stock repurchases under the Buyback Program	$ 46.1		$ 46.1
Repurchase of common stock (in shares)	46,983	400,000	46,983	1,200,000
Cost of shares of common stock repurchase under buyback program	$ 1.7	$ 12.2	$ 1.7	$ 39.4

XML

Dividends on common stock: (Details) - USD ($) $ / shares in Units, $ in Thousands			3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Dec. 09, 2016	Oct. 31, 2016	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2016	Sep. 30, 2015
Dividends on common stock and return of capital program
Dividends declared per common share (in dollars per share)		$ 0.40	$ 0.38	$ 0.34	$ 1.11	$ 1.11
Dividends paid					$ 50,011	$ 50,269
Expected
Dividends on common stock and return of capital program
Dividends paid	$ 16,900

XML

Incentive award plan (Details) - 2004 Incentive Award Plan - Restricted stock - USD ($) $ in Millions	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	May 31, 2016	Sep. 30, 2016
Incentive award plan
Number of shares granted to employees	73,450	247,180
Vesting period		4 years
Fair value of shares	$ 2.9	$ 9.6

XML

Related party transactions: (Details) $ in Millions	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		4 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Apr. 30, 2015 USD ($) item	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	May 10, 2015 item	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)
Office lease
Payment for rent and related costs (in dollars) | $		$ 0.5	$ 0.3		$ 1.3	$ 0.7
Niobium LLC
Office lease
Number of owners of the LLC | item				2
Niobium LLC | Lease
Office lease
Notice period for cancellation of lease				60 days
Sodium LLC
Office lease
Number of owners of the LLC | item	2
Sodium LLC | Lease
Office lease
Notice period for cancellation of lease	60 days
Fixed annual rent | $	$ 1.0
Lease term (in years)	5 years
Chief Executive Officer | Niobium LLC
Office lease
Ownership interest of related parties held in the partnership (as a percent)				51.00%
Chief Executive Officer | Sodium LLC
Office lease
Ownership interest of related parties held in the partnership (as a percent)	51.00%
Chief Executive Officer's wife | Niobium LLC
Office lease
Ownership interest of related parties held in the partnership (as a percent)				49.00%
Chief Executive Officer's wife | Sodium LLC
Office lease
Ownership interest of related parties held in the partnership (as a percent)	49.00%

XML

Segment information: (Details) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($) segment	Sep. 30, 2015 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($)
Segment information
Number of operating segments | segment			1
Revenues	$ 113,057	$ 103,017	$ 331,304	$ 299,057
Long lived assets, net	370,775		370,775		$ 360,163
North America
Segment information
Revenues	94,597	85,084	276,080	245,914
Long lived assets, net	289,275		289,275		285,187
Europe
Segment information
Revenues	18,460	$ 17,933	55,224	$ 53,143
Long lived assets, net	$ 81,500		$ 81,500		$ 74,976