Mark Evans

Allstream's VOIP wholesale business

It will be interesting to see how Allstream fares with the launch of its residential IP telephony service, which is aimed at small and larger service providers. Basically, Allstream has come out with a la carte residential telephony services, and announced its first customer - Hamilton, Ont.-based Mountain Cablevision. While this contract is interesting, the real excitement could come if Allstream unveils a deal with Rogers Communications Inc. at some point. Earlier this year, an Allstream VP alluded to an agreement between the two companies as Rogers prepares to enter the VOIP market in 2005. After the story appeared, however, both sides denied anything of the sort was happening. They claimed, instead, that a potential deal involved some related wholesale services such as access to long-distance networks. I say, where there is smoke, there is fire. Allstream's product launch today suggests something in perhaps smoldering.