ATLANTA, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southern Telecom®, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), today announced it has entered into an agreement with 421 West Church Street, located in Jacksonville, Fla., and home to Northeast Florida's largest concentration of internet and telecommunication companies, to expand its presence in the Southeast region and better serve existing customers.

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Through this agreement, Southern Telecom will be able to connect its Atlanta, Macon, Ga., and Jacksonville metro dark fiber networks via its Atlanta to Miami long haul network to 421 West Church Street's carrier neutral telecommunication facility. Additionally, Southern Telecom will be able to provide fully redundant paths and rights to the 421 West Church Street building infrastructure.

"This agreement with 421 West Church Street is an important strategic addition for Southern Telecom," said Leif Ericson, business development manager, Southern Telecom. "Southern Telecom now has the ability to better connect our dark fiber assets to a large number of existing telecommunication providers currently colocating at 421 West Church Street."

"Our arrangement with Southern Telecom will allow us to continue our vision to directly connect Jacksonville with two other tier one telecom cities, Atlanta and Miami, thus providing more robust tier one service to Jacksonville in the near future," said Hal Horton, owner of 421 West Church Street.

421 West Church Street is a 65,000 square foot dedicated telecommunication/interconnect facility located in the heart of Jacksonville's central business district and adjacent to the AT&T Central Switch. 421 West Church Street's tenants are in the telecommunications or internet industry and are companies that require a high level of security and redundancy for their mission critical continuity requirements. 421 West Church Street is the premier telecom hotel and data center in NE Florida with more than 50 telecom-related companies. For more information, please call at (904) 355 6474 or visit our website at www.421westchurch.com.

Southern Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company, provides long-haul and metropolitan dark fiber connecting Atlanta with other smaller cities throughout the Southeast. The company also provides network elements such as rights of way, dark fiber, conduit, co-location and other related maintenance services. Southern Telecom is certified in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia and also at the federal level. For more information about Southern Telecom, please call (404) 506-5120 or visit www.southern-telecom.com.

With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Visit our Web site at www.southerncompany.com.

SOURCE Southern Company

SOURCE: Southern Company

Web site: http://www.southerncompany.com/