Montréal, July 22, 2009 – Videotron has established a roaming agreement with Rogers wireless service provider, under which Videotron will roam exclusively on the Rogers network - within Rogers' wireless service area across Canada - to serve future wireless customers outside the Videotron coverage area, to guarantee a nationwide service.
This is great news for our customers and for us. At the same time, we appreciate the openness and collaborative spirit of Rogers with whom we hope to continue to develop a lasting business relationship, said Robert Dépatie, President and CEO of Videotron.
Separately, Videotron has also agreed with Rogers to terms for transmission tower sharing arrangements for certain cellular sites within Quebec and the Ottawa region.
As part of the rollout of our wireless network - one of the world's most sophisticated - we consider every collaboration as essential to providing customers with quality services and benefits. This agreement is also a benefit for the population because it limits the need to build additional towers, added Mr. Dépatie.
Last October, Videotron and Quebecor Media confirmed plans to invest $800 million to $1 billion over the next four years to develop their own highly evolved wireless network. This major project will create hundreds of jobs during the next two years.
Videotron Ltd. (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access services, cable telephony and wireless telephone service. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its illico interactive television system and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of March 31, 2009, Videotron was serving 1,729,168 cable television customers in Québec, including 963,153 illico Digital TV subscribers. Videotron is the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,089,251 subscribers to its cable modem service as of March 31, 2009. As of the same date, Videotron had activated 68,015 lines on its wireless telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to approximately 890,918 Québec households and organizations. For the fourth consecutive year, Videotron has been named Québec's most respected telecommunications company by Commerce magazine, based on a Léger Marketing poll.
