[jauer]

Open peering at common points on the part of the T1 providers would help.

If you're a small ISP or datacenter (T2/T3) Cogent/L3/etc won't peer with you even if traffic levels are balanced. They'd rather you have to purchase more transit instead because then there's a chance you'll purchase transit from them. OFC now they gripe about MSO/ILECs not peering with them. As a small T2 (peering + transit) provider, cry me a river. They are getting what they deserve.

Part of the problem is Cogent (and their ilk) primarily ride cheap intercity fiber between NFL/MBA cities and ignore the other places. Fiber to COs is the province of the ILEC, MSO, or boutique transport provider (INDATEL etc).

If it doesn't make sense for Cogent/L3 to pay the ILEC/MSO for ports to offload traffic at a datacenter it certainly doesn't make sense for Cogent to buy fiber to the CO from ILEC.