Allstream Awarded 2012 Canadian Channel Partner of the Year by Mitel

Stock Symbol:  MBT

Recognized for business excellence in Canada

TORONTO, July 19, 2012 /CNW/ - Allstream, Canada's all-business communications provider, is proud to announce that it has been awarded 2012 Canadian Channel Partner of the Year by Mitel, global provider of business communications and collaboration software and services. Mitel authorized partners were recognized at the company's awards gala at its annual Americas Business Partner Conference, held in San Diego, California recently.

"This year's winners exemplify the expertise, behaviours and customer care qualities that reinforce their status as trusted advisors to our growing list of customers," said Rich McBee, CEO and president of Mitel. "Allstream earned top honours by achieving outstanding results in revenue and growth, application sales, customer service and quality, marketing efforts and technical expertise."

Allstream has been Mitel's most successful Canadian partner in the small and mid-market sectors, offering highly flexible and cost effective communications solutions to businesses from coast to coast. Allstream's technical expertise in selling, installing and supporting Mitel's advanced fixed and mobile Unified Communications solutions, in virtual environments or on industry standard servers, provides businesses with the flexibility to integrate into their communications infrastructures with unparalleled ease.

"We are very proud of having been awarded Canadian Channel Partner of the year by Mitel for the second year in a row. Allstream has developed a reputation in the Canadian mid-market as the 'go to' partner by offering unparalleled excellence in Mitel virtualization, device agnostic mobility solutions and Unified Messaging," said Dean Prevost, President of Allstream. "Mitel's Unified Communication solutions are unbeatable when leveraging Allstream's exceptional SIP Trunking capabilities"

About Allstream

Allstream is a Canadian leader in IP communications and the only national communications provider that works exclusively with business customers of all sizes. With nearly 600,000 customer connections, Allstream's momentum is fuelled by the knowledge, skills and entrepreneurial spirit of its 2,500 employees across the country who collaborate with customers to determine their unique communications solutions needs. Supported by its more than 30,000-kilometre nationwide high-performance fibre-optic network, Allstream's broad portfolio of business solutions are built from an array of advanced communications technologies and services including a wide range of innovative, highly-scalable IP-based solutions to help organizations communicate more efficiently and profitably. Allstream takes pride in its commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience, and has long been recognized by its technology partners for the contributions made to their businesses. Allstream is wholly-owned by Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., which is listed on the TSX (trading symbol: MBT). For information on Allstream's products and solutions, please visit www.allstream.com.

Forward-looking Statements Disclaimer

This news release includes forward-looking statements and information (collectively, the "statements") about the Company's corporate direction, business opportunities, operations, financial objectives and future financial results and performance that are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. As a consequence, actual results in the future may differ materially from any conclusion, forecast or projection in such forward-looking statements. Therefore, forward-looking statements should be considered carefully and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Examples of statements that constitute forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "project", "should", "anticipate", "could", "target", "forecast", "intend", "plan", "outlook", "see", "set", "pending" and other similar terms.

Factors that could cause anticipated opportunities and actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, matters identified in the "Material assumptions" section below, the "Risks and uncertainties" section, elsewhere in the Company's 2011 Annual MD&A and 2011 Annual Information Form, all of which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Please note that forward-looking statements reflect Management's expectations as at the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Media:
Nathan Gibson
Corporate Communications
416-345-3364
[email protected]