AT&T Canada

AT&T Canada was a Canadian long-distance telephone service provider, the Canadian subsidiary of American telecommunications company AT&T Communications between the early 1990s and 2003. It was then renamed Allstream, as a result of AT&T's declining participation in the company. AT&T sold its remaining interests in the Canadian company in 2004. AT&T continues to do business in Canada from the United States operations. AT&T Canada was based in Toronto, Ontario.

History

When the telegraph and telex businesses went into decline, CN Telegraphs and CP Telegraphs, aligned with their respective railways, formed a joint venture, CNCP Telecommunications, to operate the telegraph and telex business more profitably than going it alone. 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 Incorporated, under which name 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. At the time, only these four companies, and Northwestel, 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. By 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, at a different time, was opened to competition.

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