ATLANTA & SYLVA, N.C. --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- USCarrier Telecom today announced its strategic interconnect partnership with Sylva, N.C. based BalsamWest FiberNET. Interconnected in Blue Ridge, Ga., this affiliation ties together USCarrier’s 3,400 route-mile high-capacity fiber optic network with BalsamWest’s 300-mile Tri-State fiber optic backbone.

Completed in January, this partnership provides long-haul transport between second and third-tier cities throughout the Southeast with previously hard to reach areas of the Tri-State area between eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and western North Carolina that are seeking new and competitive services. Both companies are currently providing services such as Ethernet, optical and IP services to their customers, and this partnership will allow each company to expand these services across both deep-reach networks.

“Not only will this partnership expand the reach of the USCarrier network, it will also expand the footprint of the DDR Broadband partners, which include USCarrier, PalmettoNet, Access On and Valley Net,” said Jack Roberts, Vice President of Sales for USCarrier. “This partnership with BalsamWest is a critical component in achieving our goal to offer route-diverse, SONET protected, carrier-grade service to under-served areas.”

“Our partnership with USCarrier, and especially DDR Broadband partners, allows BalsamWest FiberNET to provide direct, deep-reach access to our customers for many of the metropolitan areas near our region,” said John Short, BalsamWest FiberNET General Manager and Chief Operations Officer. “As BalsamWest expands to other metropolitan areas we will look to this partnership to provide diverse, protected and through routes for our customers.”

About USCarrier Telecom, LLC

USCarrier Telecom, LLC is a one-source provider of high-capacity, high-speed telecommunications bandwidth. Wholesale services include long-haul transport, metro Atlanta access, long-distance and Internet access connecting more than 40 cities in Georgia, Alabama, Florida and the Southeast. Headquartered in Atlanta, USCarrier has an operations center in Macon, GA with technicians deployed throughout Georgia and Alabama. USCarrier has more than 3,000 route-miles of state-of-the-art fiber optic network in four states, monitored twenty-four hours, seven days a week. For more information on USCarrier and its products and services, visit the company Web site at www.uscarrier.com.

About BalsamWest FiberNET

BalsamWest FiberNET, LLC provides open and direct access to fiber optic facilities in a Tri-State area strategically located between Atlanta, Knoxville, Tenn., Chattanooga, Tenn., Asheville, N.C., and Greenville, S.C. BalsamWest’s wholesale service offering includes metro and regional transport, collocation and dark fiber access. Headquartered in Sylva, N.C., BalsamWest operates a next generation Cisco SONET network operating at OC-192 and offering both SONET- and Ethernet-based transport. For more information on BalsamWest and its products and services please contact Ron Massingale, director of sales and marketing, BalsamWest FiberNET, LLC.