In August of 2002, AT&T Canada entered talks with an "ad hoc committee" of bondholders. It had lost C$1.3 billion (US$1.2 billion) during the second quarter, when it paid $106 million in interest alone. At the time, the company was planning to appeal a decision by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission that limited the amount an incumbent could mark up its services sold to CLECs on a wholesale basis by 15 per cent.

But with $4.5 billion in debt, AT&T Canada was forced to seek protection from its creditors and restructure its debt. It emerged as Allstream in 2003, to reflect that fact that it was no longer controlled by AT&T Corp. and was completely separate from AT&T global services in Canada.

In 2004, MTS bought Allstream for $1.7 billion in cash and shares.

"When they took that company over was really in financial straits and it looked like it was on its last legs at the time," Hoey told Network World earlier this month. "I think with the help of MTS and its financial capabilities they rescued that company from the clutches of defeat."

MacDonald, who got engineering degrees from both Dalhousie University and the Technical University of Nova Scotia, started his career at NBTel. After leaving Bell in 1999, he headed Leitch Technology.