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Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated
telecommunications company A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...
founded in 1964. It's active in
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
,
interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...
development,
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...
,
cable telephony Cable telephony is a form of digital telephony over Hybrid fiber-coaxial, cable TV type networks. A telephone interface installed at the customer's premises converting analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring to a digital signal, which is ...
,
wireless communication Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided med ...
and
Internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...
services. Owned by
Quebecor Quebecor Inc. is a Canadian diversified media and telecommunications company serving Quebec based in Montreal. It was spelled Quebecor in both English and French until May 2012, when shareholders voted to add the acute accent, Québecor, in ...
, it primarily serves
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
and
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
, as well as the Francophone communities of
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
and some parts of Eastern Ontario. Its principal competitors are
Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...
and
Telus Communications Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, v ...
. Vidéotron is the fifth-largest wireless carrier in Canada, with nearly 1,700,000 mobile subscribers as of Q2 2022.


History

Vidéotron was established in 1964, under the name "Télécâble Vidéotron Ltée" as northern Montreal's first cable television network. It started with 66 subscribers. André Chagnon served as the company's founding president. On January 24, 1990, Vidéotron launched terminals in Quebec, the first interactive television (ITV) system in North America. From 1995, the company entered the Internet era and acquired its own Internet portal, InfiniT.com. In 1997, CF Cable TV, which operated primarily on the western end of the Island of Montreal, southern Laval and Northern Ontario, was acquired by Vidéotron, further expanding its base. The Northern Ontario division was later sold to Regional Cablesystems. On March 29, 1999, the company launched digital television in Montreal. By the start of the 21st century, Rogers Communications struck an accord with the Chagnon family to purchase Vidéotron. In the spring of 2010, Vidéotron launched IllicoWeb, an online television and video-on-demand service. In September, it launched a 3G+ wireless service, with plans to offer a quadruple play service with its existing cable services. On December 30, 2017, assets from Vidéotron G.P. were transferred to Vidéotron Ltée, as the company underwent a corporate reorganization. In September 2018, Vidéotron began beta testing for Fizz, a discount flanker brand on its network.


Services

Vidéotron serves 1,830,400 cable television customers, including over 1,517,600 digital cable subscribers. Vidéotron also has more than 1,408,200 high-speed cable Internet subscribers, the most in Quebec. As of September 2013, the company had activated 478,000 mobile phones, and was providing cable telephone service to nearly 1,281,200 customers. Vidéotron offers broadband and
IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...
-based digital cable television under the Helix and Illico brands, which is based on
Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
's X1 platform and hardware. Helix serves as a successor to the company's existing Illico TV digital cable platform. Vidéotron's community channels are branded as MAtv. The company offers a subscription video on-demand service known as Illico+ (formerly Club Illico). It has produced original series such as '' Escouade 99'', '' Portrait-Robot'', '' The Night Logan Woke Up (La nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s'est réveillé)'' and '' Mégantic''. Vidéotron cable services were once available in the United Kingdom, but were acquired and merged into Cable & Wireless plc along with Bell Cablemedia and NYNEX Corporation in 1997.


Cable telephone service

On July 29, 2004, Vidéotron announced plans to launch a telephone service using VoIP technology by the first half of 2005. Vidéotron launched its cable phone service in late 2004 to compete with Bell Canada and Telus. Deployment of this service started on Montreal's South Shore. By press release on January 24, 2005, Vidéotron announced that 300,000 customers on Montreal's South Shore had access to this service and that deployment would continue all over Quebec throughout 2005. Vidéotron also announced that about 2,500 customers had already subscribed to this service, following a trial conducted in the fall of 2004.


Mobile network

In July 2008, Videotron ltée and Quebecor acquired spectrum licences for advanced wireless services from an
Industry Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; ; )''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Industry (). is a department of the G ...
auction at a total cost of $554,559,000. The licences cover Quebec for an average of 40 MHz spectrum, Toronto with 10 MHz and south-east Ontario. The network was launched on September 9, 2010. Vidéotron began beta testing in 2018 for a new mid-range mobile flanker brand, , in Quebec and in Ottawa. In 2023, as an aspect of Rogers Communications' acquisition of
Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...
, parent company Quebecor acquired Shaw-owned
Freedom Mobile Freedom Mobile (formerly Wind Mobile) is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Québecor. As of November 30, 2022 it is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the country with 2,290,497 subscribers and a 6% market share, prim ...
.


Technical support

The major centres are located in Montreal, Longueuil, Quebec City, Gatineau, Joliette, Saguenay and St-Hubert. Vidéotron also has outsourced customer service centres that include Utopia, Gexel Telecom and Atelka. In 2007, Videotron formed a partnership with Xceed Contact Centre to outsource some of the call centres to
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
.


Controversy


High-Speed Extreme Internet

On August 14, 2007, Videotron announced starting October 1 they would impose a 100-gigabyte-per-month
download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...
/
upload Uploading refers to ''transmitting'' data from one computer system to another through means of a network. Common methods of uploading include: uploading via web browsers, FTP clients, and terminals ( SCP/ SFTP). Uploading can be used in th ...
limit with a penalty of $1.50 per extra gigabyte to their previously unrestricted High-Speed Extreme Internet service, even to existing subscribers. This decision created outrage among its Internet users, and led to a class action suit against Videotron by consumer advocacy group Union des Consommateurs. In September 2013, the court authorized the suit to proceed. Ultimately the Quebec Superior Court rendered a $1.2 million judgment in favour of the plaintiffs.


See also

* List of Canadian mobile phone companies * List of internet service providers in Canada


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Videotron Canadian companies established in 1964 Telecommunications companies established in 1964 1964 establishments in Quebec 2007 controversies Cable and DBS companies of Canada Quebecor Internet service providers of Canada Companies based in Montreal Mobile phone companies of Canada