The company is concerned about security.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cogent isn’t the only major American internet provider dropping out. Lumen is “immediately” ceasing operations in the country, according to the Washington Post. Concerns about a “increased security risk” inside Russia, worries of government action, and a desire to maintain the integrity of the Internet as a whole have prompted the corporation to disengage.
In Russia, the company claims that its services are “very small and very limited,” with only a few enterprise customers. Lumen, on the other hand, is a major source of international data within the country, according to Kentik analysts, and its customers include state-owned telecommunications such as Rostelecom and TransTelekom. In other words, Russia should be affected.
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This could hurt Russians’ access to internet services hosted outside of the country, and might make them reliant on state propaganda. However, it comes as many US tech companies are limiting or pulling products, including Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft. Lumen is joining a united front, then. Support is growing, too, as Amazon Web Services said it would stop accepting new customers from either Russia or Belarus.
This isn’t going as far as Ukraine wanted. It called on ICANN to boot Russia from the internet. It’s still a significant move, though, and it suggests many tech heavyweights aren’t worried about the threat of Russian retaliation.
