This wasn't the first time Cogent offered something similar. They did the same thing when Level3 depeered them.
And they'll do it to others in future peering spats. It's just a bullying tactic - entertaining if you're on the sideline; irritating if you're Sprint.
It is certainly not "just" a bullying tactic. It may be "A" bullying tactic, I won't even attempt to guess at the intent, but the tactic also has the very real side effect of re-establishing full connectivity to Sprint-connected sites that lose it. Given that other very significant result of the tactic, it is clearly not "just a bullying tactic." ... JG -- Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net "We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN) With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.