Québec City, September 21, 2010 – Videotron is rolling out a high-speed Internet access service that will give residents of the Québec City area the fastest speeds in Canada. As of tomorrow, Ultimate Speed Internet 120TM will support download speeds of 120 mbps and upload speeds of 20 mbps, a first for Québec City.
Ultimate Speed Internet 120 pushes back the frontier for intensive Internet users, said Robert Dépatie, President & CEO of Videotron. Today, we are launching the high-speed Internet service of the future. With the pace at which users' needs are changing, we are not so far from the day when 120 mbps will be a must-have convenience.
Astonishing capacity
As of tomorrow, Ultimate Speed Internet 120 will be available in nearly 80% of the greater Québec City area, or to nearly 310,000 households and businesses. The service will be accessible throughout the Québec City area by December 31, 2010 and will then be gradually rolled out to other parts of Videotron's service area.
Ultimate Speed Internet 120 will have a download limit of 170 GB and an upload limit of 30 GB, well in excess of the current needs of heavy bandwidth users. The new service complements Videotron's existing line-up of Ultimate Speed offerings: Ultimate Speed Internet 50 (125 GB combined upload / download cap) starting at $81.95; Ultimate Speed Internet 30 (100 GB combined limit) starting at $65.95; and Ultimate Speed Internet 15 (60 GB combined limit) starting at $54.95. Ultimate Speed Internet 120 will be available to households starting at $149.95.
Competitive edge for Videotron Business Solutions customers
Self-employed workers and small businesses will be pleased to learn that they will be able to enjoy the benefits of Ultimate Speed Internet 120, including a 250 GB download and 100 GB upload limit, as of fall 2010. Available at a starting price of $219.95 per month, Ultimate Speed Internet 120 will deliver major productivity gains and a significant competitive advantage to businesses with virtual private networks (VPNs) or extensive bandwidth needs. For business customers, Ultimate Speed Internet 50 (300 GB combined cap) is available starting at $139.95 and Ultimate Speed Internet 30 (250 GB combined cap) at $111.95.
Upload speeds move with the times
It is increasingly common for families, self-employed workers and small businesses to share a single Internet connection among a number of people and among many simultaneous uses and applications: uploads and downloads, video and photo sharing, computers and game consoles. For them, the ability to upload videos, music and images at speeds of up to 20 mbps will be a highly welcome advantage of Ultimate Speed Internet 120.
Videotron's new service supports the trend towards content production and distribution by users via social media such as YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Blogger. According to the NETendances 2010 survey conducted by CEFRIO, 2.9 million Quebecers use Web-based social networks, 1.4 million on a daily basis.
Connected families, who are big users of online videos and multimedia content of all kinds, and self-employed workers and small businesses, whose productivity depends on being plugged into the modern digital universe, will all benefit from this product, which provides phenomenal download speeds and unparalleled uploads on a reliable, robust network, said Myrianne Collin, Vice President, Research, Marketing & Product Development, of Videotron.
Lightning speeds
Ultimate Speed Internet 120 breaks new ground by enabling near-instant information exchange. Users can also download a 700 MB feature film in under a minute and send a 50 MB file in 20 seconds!
State-of-the-art network
Québec City was chosen for the introduction of Ultimate Speed Internet 120 because of the quality of its network, which was upgraded in 2006 at a cost of approximately $30 million to increase bandwidth and support greater choice and a wider range of advanced, cutting-edge services. Residents of the Québec City area therefore have the benefit of one of the most reliable, advanced and high-capacity networks anywhere in the world.
The launch of Ultimate Speed Internet 120 is in line with Videotron's business development philosophy, which revolves around creating solutions that exceed customers' expectations and delivering the most advanced technology and the best possible customer experience by keeping pace with changing consumer needs, said Robert Dépatie.
Two Videotron Internet services will offer more
Videotron announces that as of October 13, upload speeds on its residential and business Ultimate Speed Internet 50 services will be doubled from 1 mbps to 2 mbps with no price increase. In addition, in November, the monthly combined upload/download cap on the residential High-Speed Internet service will be upped from 30 GB to 40 GB, also with no price increase.
Videotron encourages customers to respect intellectual property rights and acquire data legally.
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, and Internet access, cable telephone and wireless telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its interactive Digital TV service and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of June 30, 2010, Videotron was serving 1,781,500 cable television customers, including 1,142,000 subscribers to its digital service. Videotron is also the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,201,700 subscribers to its cable modem service as of June 30, 2010. As of the same date, Videotron had activated 87,000 handsets on its wireless telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to 1,065,300 Québec households and organizations. For the fifth consecutive year, Videotron was named Québec's most respected telecommunications company by Les Affaires magazine, based on a Léger Marketing survey.
– 30 –
Ultimate Speed Internet 120 is a registered trademark of Videotron Ltd.
