Colorado traffic is routing through Chicago, again
Metronet came to Colorado a few years ago, and the network peering was [infamously bad](https://www.reddit.com/r/Metronet/comments/1cemytc/my_experience_with_metronet_in_the_colorado/). Then a few months ago, T-Mobile fixed peering in Denver, so at the end of May, I switched from T-Fiber.
Switching from DSL was a win-win-win-win: better download and upload bandwidth, better latency (but not as much of a difference as you would guess with [7ms on DSL](https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/c77a8010-d56e-4c13-b5ec-85349556f1b9)), and better price.
I set up a regular ping monitor to multiple hosts ([dashboard](https://home-network-monitor.voidstream.workers.dev/dashboard/ping)), and for two months, traffic from Colorado Springs to Denver was 4-5 ms consistently with no outages---until two days ago. On July 17 at 9:30pm, the same non-Metronet hosts in Denver shifted to > 20ms ms while the Metronet speed server stayed at \~5ms.
This is an mtr report from when I first signed up in May
# mtr -rw google.com Start: 2026-05-22T19:02:13-0600 HOST: router Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.|-- 46.110.240.134 0.0% 10 6.0 4.1 2.7 6.0 1.3 4.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.|-- 74.125.242.75 0.0% 10 4.4 4.0 2.7 5.8 1.0 6.|-- 142.251.48.5 0.0% 10 5.1 4.3 2.5 5.6 1.0 7.|-- ncdena-ab-in-f14.1e100.net 0.0% 10 2.8 4.2 2.8 5.4 1.0
This is the same mtr report today
# mtr -rw google.com Start: 2026-07-19T16:56:45-0600 HOST: router Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.|-- 10.192.208.213 0.0% 10 22.8 24.2 22.1 25.8 1.2 4.|-- 142.250.171.220 0.0% 10 23.8 23.6 22.2 24.9 0.9 5.|-- 142.251.249.45 0.0% 10 22.5 23.1 21.9 24.3 0.9 6.|-- 216.239.48.176 0.0% 10 27.1 25.0 22.2 27.3 1.6 7.|-- 209.85.251.241 0.0% 10 24.5 24.5 22.9 25.9 1.2 8.|-- 192.178.72.196 0.0% 10 26.6 26.8 24.1 29.0 1.5 9.|-- 209.85.251.65 0.0% 10 25.8 25.0 23.3 26.8 1.2 10.|-- 108.170.252.155 0.0% 10 24.4 24.2 22.7 27.1 1.3 11.|-- 172.253.51.119 0.0% 10 23.1 24.3 22.9 26.4 1.2 12.|-- 192.178.96.185 0.0% 10 24.5 23.6 22.0 24.8 1.0 13.|-- 142.251.48.5 0.0% 10 24.1 23.2 21.8 25.3 1.1 14.|-- ncdena-ab-in-f14.1e100.net 0.0% 10 22.1 22.8 21.8 24.2 1.0
# mtr -rw denver.speedtest.centurylink.net Start: 2026-07-19T17:10:52-0600 HOST: router Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.|-- 10.192.208.213 0.0% 10 24.7 23.5 22.2 25.0 0.9 4.|-- ae-25.a05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net 0.0% 10 22.1 22.6 21.6 23.7 0.8 5.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.|-- ae2.2.edge2.chicago10.net.lumen.tech 0.0% 10 24.0 27.4 24.0 36.4 3.8 7.|-- ae16.540.cer-edge-20.sp.lumen.tech 0.0% 10 24.5 24.4 23.1 25.7 0.9 8.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.|-- denver.speedtest.centurylink.net 0.0% 10 25.3 24.2 23.2 25.5 0.9
The graph pinpoints the timing
Ookla speed test report today from my router
* to Metronet in Colorado Springs ([report](https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/5c10e5a1-64b9-4575-bf2b-12915d3eb528)): 3ms latency * to CenturyLink in Denver ([report](https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/bedfc874-0e73-4f06-99c6-546068f9b306)): 25ms
(Bandwidth shown is slow because of aggressive SQM.)
In the traceroute above to Centurylink, traffic goes through a few hosts named Chicago.