With 100 years of innovation under its belt, Manitoba-based MTS Allstream has emerged as a competitive force among Canada’s leading telecom service providers. What does it mean to your business? For starters, count on better service and smart products to improve your performance.
GROWING STRONG
Competition in Canada’s burgeoning telecommunications market is about to get a whole lot hotter.
Armed with a uniquely different approach, Winnipeg-based MTS Allstream is getting set to increase its challenge to competitors in the battle for customers’ hearts and minds.
One of Canada’s leading national communication solutions providers, MTS Allstream provides innovative products and services through its Enterprise Solutions and Consumer Markets divisions.
MTS Allstream CEO Pierre Blouin says delivering true value as seen through the eyes of its customers will continue to be the company’s key differentiator as it expands technology choices to Canadians.
“Today, we are stronger than ever before in the national marketplace, and we are determined to bring our unique brand of service and innovation to more Canadian businesses and consumers,” says Mr. Blouin.
Offering customers even more choices through an expanded wireless offering is one option the company is exploring: MTS Allstream is currently considering whether or not it will bid for the Advanced Wireless Services spectrum being auctioned off by the federal government in May, says Mr. Blouin.
Telecommunications industry analyst Iain Grant of the Seaboard Group in Montreal says the spectrum auction is an obvious business opportunity for MTS Allstream.
“Other companies will also be interested, but only MTS Allstream has the national glue to connect all the dots and enter the national consumer market for wireless,” Mr. Grant says.
Mr. Blouin says service innovation has always been among the company’s key strengths. MTS Allstream introduced Canada’s first telex service and, more recently, the first countrywide IP Multi Protocol Label Switching network, and offers the best broadband digital television services in North America.
“At the end of the day, it all comes down to our overall approach to business and how well we listen to our customers and meet their needs, nationally and regionally,” says Mr. Blouin.
For example, as WestJet added flight routes and aircraft to its fleet, it turned to MTS Allstream to help meet its intensified communication requirements with customized, innovative solutions to address current and future needs, but within a low-cost business model so that it could continue to pass savings on to customers.
At the conclusion of the project, Hugh Dunleavy, West-Jet’s executive vice-president, commercial distribution, commented WestJet chose to partner with MTS Allstream because the team focused on asking the right questions and understanding the nuances of WestJet’s business.
“Once we engaged with MTS Allstream, the team did infinite amounts of work to design a network that could grow with us, but only charged us for the parts we were using.
That proved how much MTS Allstream understood our business – we were able to keep costs low, be effective and support our growth,” commented Mr. Dunleavy.
In Quebec, MTS Allstream is working with the provincial government on a five-year, $17-million contract for the provision of communications services that will be used by ministries, organizations and potentially other clients such as health, education and municipal networks.
The migration of services from the incumbent provider to MTS Allstream’s network began last year and involves approximately 31,000 phone numbers, 800 analog lines and 500 network accesses for the ministries, organizations and health facilities across the province of Quebec.
The scope of the initiative underscores how MTS Allstream is connecting Canadians.
In Manitoba, MTS Allstream worked with the Manitoba Education Research and Learning Information Network (MERLIN) and the Manitoba Department of Education to design and implement IT skills development tools to ensure success in school, the workforce and the community. Working with MTS Allstream, MERLIN and the Manitoba school divisions are improving access to hard to reach school communities across the province.
MTS Allstream’s commitment going forward, says Mr. Blouin, is to continue to provide both consumers in Manitoba and businesses across Canada with innovative, customized telecommunications solutions that will keep them at the forefront of technology.
“The fundamental strength of our business is our ability to deliver true value as seen through the eyes of our customers – this is what differentiates and defines us.
“Our network, our people, our record of innovation, our connections with customers, and our ability to react quickly to deliver on their needs – these are what set us apart,” Mr. Blouin explains. “We have built our strategy on these advantages – advantages that we will continue to provide our customers into our second century.”
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Also appearing in this report:
The MTS Allstream we know today was born in March 2004, when Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., the market leader in all telecommunications services in Manitoba, acquired Allstream, the country’s leading and only profitable competitive telecom provider.
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