Allstream reaches milestone connecting 3,000th building to its national IP fibre network

Stock Symbol:  MBT

TORONTO, Jan. 22, 2014 /CNW/ - Allstream, Canada's largest competitive all-business communications provider, today announced it has connected more than 3,000 buildings to its 30,000+ kilometre, nationwide, fibre-optic IP network. This is a 50 per cent increase in the number of buildings on the Allstream network delivering a steadily increasing number of high margin revenue opportunities compared to three years ago. This important milestone reinforces that Allstream remains the single most relevant competitor in Canada to Bell and TELUS serving the business market, and confirms its commitment to serve Canadian businesses.

In 2010 Allstream initiated a targeted multi-year investment program to increase its profitability by expanding Allstream's IP fibre network to nearby multi-tenant buildings that could be connected at a low cost. Allstream exceeded its plan and fibre fed buildings now total over 3,000, up from 2,000 buildings in 2010. Allstream's expansion program is based on a disciplined approach to capital spending, where expansion into new buildings is undertaken on a "success" basis to service a contracted customer.

"Our national IP fibre network is one of Allstream's many strengths and a competitive differentiator," said Allstream President Mike Strople. "The more multi-tenant buildings we are able to connect to our network, the more high-margin, on-net revenue we can generate. Since we decided to pursue this strategy four years ago, our employees have worked hard to enable new opportunities for our sales team."

Products and solutions are more profitable when they are delivered on Allstream's own IP network, known as 'on-net'. Extending Allstream's on-net reach reduces reliance on incumbent networks, allows greater end-to-end customer service, and lowers operating costs while providing incremental higher-margin revenue opportunities.

"Allstream has achieved significant improvements in gross margin and our plan to drive growth in on-net revenues by expanding our network reach has been a big part of that," added Strople. "In 2014, we will continue to make strategic investments to expand Allstream's network reach while we sign up more customers in our existing buildings. Our expanded footprint makes Allstream a stronger and more resilient service provider, now and well into the future.  We have also taken important steps in the past year to improve our cost structure and work more efficiently."

Allstream's 30,000+ kilometre fibre-optic network combines advanced IP connectivity, digital switching, Ethernet-based services and the latest Internet security technologies and services, including right-of-way access in major Canadian city centres and nine cross-border connections to the United States.

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 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 Allstream's future financial results, performance and sales opportunities 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 and the "Risks and uncertainties" section of the Company's 2012 Annual and Q3 MD&A, 2012 Annual Information Form and short form prospectus dated November 29, 2013, 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.

SOURCE: MTS Allstream

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