AT&T Canada

Allstream Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1967
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Michael Strople (President) (as of Jan 17th 2014.)
Number of employees	2,500+
Parent	Zayo Group
Website	www.allstream.com

Allstream is a business communications provider based in Toronto, Ontario that provides IP connectivity, managed IP services, unified communications and voice services through its 30,000 km national fiber network. The company's headquarters are currently located at 200 Wellington Street West.

When the telegraph and telex businesses went into decline, CN Telegraphs and CP Telegraphs, aligned with their respective railways, formed a joint venture in 1967, CNCP Telecommunications, to operate the telegraph and telex business more profitably. CNCP applied in 1983 to operate a long distance network in competition with the incumbent local telephone companies' long distance services. The application was rejected by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

CNCP later changed its name to Unitel Communications Inc., and in 1990 it made a second bid to compete in the long distance markets of Bell Canada, BC Tel and the four Atlantic telephone companies under that name. At the time, only these four companies and Northwestel, another telecommunications company, were under federal regulation. The bid was successful, and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) opened the Canadian telephone market to long distance competition. At the time of the decision, Alberta's AGT (later known as Telus) also had come under federal regulation, and all other Canadian carriers followed before the end of the 1990s. Each was opened to competition at different time.

Unitel, unable to compete successfully in the environment it had created, was then sold to Rogers Communications, where the company attempted to enter the competition for long-distance communication. Later, the company was sold to a consortium of Canadian banks, with AT&T Communications owning 33% share, but more than any one of the banks, giving them operational control.