Southern Telecom enhances dark fiber, on-net building reach in Georgia, Alabama

Southern Telecom, the telecom subsidiary of electric utility Southern Company, has added more dark fiber to its service diet with an expansion of its existing network and additions to the number of on-net buildings in Atlanta and Birmingham, Ala.

In Atlanta, the service provider added 43 miles of dark fiber to its existing network, increasing the total metro network to 128 miles. The service provider also doubled the number of on-net buildings connected to its network, bringing it to a total of 40.

Over in Birmingham, the expansion added 127 miles of dark fiber and 42 on-net buildings to its metro network, while connecting to the existing carrier neutral and enterprise colocation facility.

These new builds will help the service provider target its growing carrier and enterprise customer base, both of which are in need of more alternative fiber-based network sources.

On the carrier side, Southern Telecom has been actively partnering with local service providers such as Henry County Broadband (HCB) and Tower Cloud to extend its network.

Through its partnership with HCB, Southern Telecom is providing HCB access to a 95-mile long-haul fiber network between Atlanta and Macon, and a metro network in Atlanta and Macon, while HCB is providing Southern Telecom access to a 54-mile fiber network in Henry County. Tower Cloud, a wireless backhaul specialist, is using Southern Telecom's fiber to provide DWDM-based inter-city connections between Atlanta, Macon and Jacksonville, Fla.

Southern Telecom's aggressive fiber builds have also caught the attention of the city of Atlanta, which is leveraging the service provider's network in partnership with ARCADIS to support Atlanta's Operation Shield initiative, which is designed to address crime prevention and emergency preparedness.

For more:
- see the release

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