Over its century of service across the country, MTS Allstream and its predecessor companies have achieved an astounding number of telecommunications “firsts”.

Did you know that MTS Allstream was responsible for:

• The first centre to receive all-dial service in Canada – Brandon – in 1917
• The first major city in North America to receive all-dial service – Winnipeg – in 1926
• The first telex message, in 1956
• North America’s first use of the three-digit emergency number 999, in Winnipeg in 1956. (The number was changed to 911 in 1975, to conform with the emergency number used across North America.)
• The first microwave system for television transmission, in 1964
• The first network capable of handling switched voice or high-speed data transmissions, in 1967
• The first Canadian city to have Touch Tone Service – Brandon – in 1968
• The first offering of the 12-button phone, in 1968
• The world’s first rural fibre optics transmission, in Elie and St. Eustache, Manitoba, in 1981
• The world’s first dedicated fax network, in 1987
• Canada’s first virtual private voice network (“VPN”), in 1990
• The first competitive long distance provider in Canada, in 1992
• The first Internet Service Provider in the world to offer 56 Kbps service across an entire national network, in 1997
• Canada’s first Multiprotocol Label Switching (“MPLS”)-based Internet Protocol (“IP”) VPN, in 1999
• The first Canadian Internet and email service for Personal Digital Assistants (“PDAs”), in 2001
• Television service delivered over telephone lines launched in 2003 – became a leading provider in Canada.
• The first Digital Ink Solutions in the Canadian market, in 2004
• Canada’s first hosted Microsoft Live Communications Server solution and collaboration suite using Microsoft’s award-winning Real-Time Collaboration technology, in 2005
• Canada’s first national IP trunking solution, in 2006
• Manitoba’s first Evolution-Data Optimized (“EVDO”) network, providing Internet access wherever cell phones work, in 2006