Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.’s $1.7-billion acquisition of Allstream Corp. means that it will have the backbone to expand its digital TV service nationally, but executives from both companies won’t definitely confirm that’s part of their plan. Allstream president and COO John MacDonald was more bullish about the prospect of bundling telephony and Internet access with a national TV service, but adds "the combined company is going to have to make a decision in terms of how it wants to go forward."

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