Stock Symbol:  TSX: MBT.TO

Allstream’s Business Continuity Solutions portfolio expands to include

Geminare’s award-winning Cloud Recovery offering

TORONTO, ON, Canada, February 3, 2011– Today, Allstream, Canada’s all-business communications provider, announced the expansion of its Business Continuity Solutions portfolio. Partnering with Geminare, Allstream is now offering Cloud Replication Services, which allow organizations to conduct business as usual during unexpected server failures or planned server downtime. This is done through auto-failover and redirection of users to a real-time, replicated server environment in the cloud. Failover is immediate with users and applications up and running in minutes. 

Powered by Geminare and delivered by Allstream as a fully Managed IP Service, Cloud Replication offers end users an affordable and straightforward means of implementing a complete business continuity and disaster recovery plan with no capital investment required. 

“Geminare has been identified by the analyst community as a company that is changing the economics of the disaster recovery market, and we are proud to be working with them to bring an innovative and valuable service to the market,” said Dean Prevost, President, Allstream. “Cloud Replication is an excellent complement to Allstream’s Business Continuity Solutions and Managed IP Services portfolios. It aligns with our corporate mandate to provide solutions that preserve customer confidence and provide a competitive edge for our customers.”

About 20 per cent of small to medium size businesses suffer a major disaster every five years. Allstream’sCloud Replication Service has significant advantages over traditional methods of data replication, failover and recovery. Running over Allstream’s reliable national IP fibre network, it’s a fully-managed solution servicing the small and medium size business markets.  

“Allstream is a trusted, respected company and its brand connotes secure and reliable high-performance Managed IP Services. We’re proud to be associated with this quality all-business, communications provider,” said Geminare’s CEO, Joshua Geist, “With Cloud Replication, Allstream brings enterprise-class disaster recovery capabilities to the mid-market, changing the landscape within the markets it serves.”

This offering from Allstream and Geminare will be available in March 2011. For more information on Allstream’s Business Continuity Solutions please visit www.allstream.com/managedServices/business-continuity.

About Allstream Business Continuity Solutions

Allstream Business Continuity Solutions are more than a product, technology or service. Collectively, they form the basis of a strategic plan, enabling continued IT operations to stay in business during system outages. When it comes to business continuity and disaster recovery solutions, Allstream offers a range of industry-leading expertise. Our national IP network provides the highest levels of data security, enabling us to deliver on stringent network service level agreements (SLAs). We partner with some of the world’s foremost disaster recovery and business continuity vendors to deliver 365x24x7 availability for your mission critical applications. Our top-tier data centres and disaster recovery facilities are ISO, 5970 and PCI compliant. They are also staffed 24x7 by ITIL certified professionals.

About Allstream

Allstream is Canada’s all-business communications provider, focusing and delivering on the business customer’s solutions.  For more information on Allstream services and solutions, please visit www.allstream.com.

Allstream is a division of MTS Allstream Inc. (“MTS Allstream”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. As one of Canada's leading national communication solutions companies, MTS Allstream provides innovative communications for the way Canadians want to live and work today. The Company has more than 100 years of experience, with 6,000 employees across Canada dedicated to a mission of delivering true value as seen through the eyes of our customers. MTS Allstream has nearly two million total customer connections spanning business customers across Canada and residential consumers throughout the province of Manitoba. The Company's extensive national broadband and fibre optic network spans almost 30,000 kilometres. Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.'s common shares are listed on Toronto Stock Exchange (trading symbol: MBT). Customers, stakeholders and investors who want to learn more about MTS Allstream are encouraged to visit: www.mtsallstream.com.

About Geminare

Geminare (www.geminare.com) is a pioneer in delivering Recovery as a Service (RaaS) solutions to the Cloud computing market. Dedicated to building game-changing Cloud technologies, including Cloud Recovery and Cloud Storage solutions, Geminare delivers its products through a network of channel partners worldwide. Currently in the market with Cloud Recovery Server Replication, Geminare counts among its partners industry-leading telcos, MSPs and cloud hosting organizations such as Qwest Communications, Hosting.com, Bell Canada, CA Technologies Inc., Ingram Micro, LexisNexis Canada and Long View Systems. Geminare is located in Toronto, Canada with operations and partners in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Forward-looking Statements Disclaimer

This news release includes forward-looking statements and information (collectively, the “statements”) about our corporate direction, business opportunities, operations, financial objectives, planned activities, future financial results and performance that are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions.  As a consequence, actual results in the future may differ materially from any conclusion, forecast, anticipation or projection in such forward-looking statements.  Examples of statements that constitute forward‑looking information may be identified by words such as “believe”, “expect”, “project”, “should”, “anticipate”, “could”, “target”, “forecast”, “intend”, “plan”, “outlook”, “see”, “set”, “pending”, and other similar terms.

Factors that could cause anticipated opportunities and actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, matters identified in the “Risks and Uncertainties” section and elsewhere in our most recent annual MD&A and any subsequent quarterly MD&As, as well as our most recent Annual Information Form, all of which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Please note that forward‑looking statements reflect our expectations as at the date hereof.  We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward‑looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law. 

All names referred to are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Maria Krinsky

Kickstart for Geminare

(415) 509-0498

mkrinsky [at] kickstartconsulting.com  

Jessica Friedle

MTS Allstream Corporate Communications

(416) 644-6806

(204) 941-7823

media.relations [at] mtsallstream.com