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Organizations today are moving toward a more integrated approach to enhance their offerings and extend maximum experience to their customers. Partnerships, collaborations and integrations have their own sets of benefits. Southern Telecom -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company and a provider of long-haul and metropolitan dark fiber connecting Atlanta with other smaller cities throughout the Southeast -- is also adopting this strategy.

The company recently announced a strategic partnership with Henry County Broadband (HCB) to provide reciprocal assets and services in the Atlanta, Macon and Henry County, Ga., areas. Through the partnership, Southern Telecom and HCB will expand their respective networks, both now and in the future. Under the terms of the agreement, both Southern Telecom and HCB will provide maintenance and colocation services for their systems.

The network expansion will expand fiber and ring diversity while minimizing monthly operating and maintenance expenses.

The project is expected to be completed later this year.

"Southern Telecom's fiber network, maintenance and colocation services will provide enhanced broadband capability to support Henry County Broadband's network," said Leif R. Ericson, business development manager at Southern Telecom, in a statement.

"We are pleased to partner with HCB to enhance connectivity to the Henry County community," Ericson added.

As part of the project, Southern Telecom will provide HCB access to a 95-mile, long-haul fiber network between Atlanta and Macon, and a metro network in Atlanta and Macon. HCB also said it will provide Southern Telecom access to a 54-mile fiber network within Henry County.

"Henry County Broadband's strategic partnership with Southern Telecom significantly enhances our ability to provide our customers with the highest capacity broadband services available in the industry," said Allen Davis, president at Henry County Broadband.