Montréal, August 17, 2006 – Once again, Vidéotron will provide its customers with an even faster High-Speed Internet Service. As of September 7, 2006, gradually and across all of Vidéotron's service area, residential and business subscribers will have the opportunity to enjoy increased speed up to 7 Mbps in their High-Speed Internet Service for the same price.
"Vidéotron is constantly seeking to offer the best experience possible to its customers. To honour our pledge, the speed of our High-Speed Internet Service will climb from 5.1 to 7 Mbps. Making Internet still more user-friendly, this increase will allow our customers to take better advantage of the wealth of information and entertainment the Web offers. As a reminder, in light of our results for this fiscal year's second quarter, the number of our Internet customers, for all categories, increased in less than a year from 158,000 to stand at 726,000 as of June 30", said Manon Brouillette, Vice President, Marketing and New Product Development, Consumer Division.
A great back-to-school for university students
Students from HEC, UQAM, McGill and Concordia universities will be entitled to a more than 20% rebate on Vidéotron's High-Speed Internet Service. Provided a 12-month subscription, the students can take advantage of the $29.95 per month service. They must get the modem from the COOP of their institution. Service installation is free et and the offer is valid from now through February 28, 2007.
University students can pair cable telephone service with High-Speed Internet for a monthly total of $49.95. Installation is also free and students will enjoy the same advantages as regular customers, such as free long-distance calls between Vidéotron subscribers and the ability to keep their present phone number.
Vidéotron's reliable and high-performance network ensures peace of mind to its customers and, in addition, frees the phone line and allows for unlimited use time. Furthermore, Vidéotron's one-stop shopping experience strengthens this peace of mind with the one bill, one technician and one call to Customer Service solution.
Responding to Internet users' needs
Users will find a well adapted response to their needs in the High-Speed Internet Service. Increasing their access speed from 5.1 to 7 Mbps, Internet users will be able to download even faster the legally available contents on-line and requiring the use of a broadband, including images, video and music. It's easy to imagine the positive impacts of increased Internet speed on the experience of family members simultaneously sharing a single Internet connection through a router.
From now on, Internet users will be able to download any files faster. For example, subscribers will have the capacity to download 14 images per second, as opposed to 11 (images of about 58 Kbps). A song weighing some 5 Mo will be downloaded in 6 seconds.
More services with High-Speed Internet
Moreover, subscribers have free access to the High-Speed Zone allowing them to browse through and see exclusive contents and events. This summer, with Vidéotron on site at the FrancoFolies de Montréal, customers had the opportunity to see the events live via our FrancoCam. Web users also could videochat with Stéphanie Lapointe, Anik Jean and Thomas Hellman, as well as enjoy Antoine Gratton's and Moquettes Coquettes' performances presented on www.zonehautevitesse.com.
Vidéotron regularly offers videochats with a wide variety of artists on its High-Speed Zone. This year, subscribers had the opportunity to videochat with actors of the popular TV series "Le coeur a ses raisons" and scoop the clips from upcoming shows. Also up on our Internet are excerpts of backstage performances and album launches of well-liked Québec artists such as Corneille and Wilfred Le Bouthillier. Finally, sports amateurs can also enjoy their favourite activity by clicking on www.zonehautevitesse.com. They can view sports events, like preliminary Interbox boxing matches, and videochat with sportsworld personalities, like Stéphane Larouche, Interbox chief trainer, and Benoit Gaudet, Interbox boxer.
Navigate at high speed
To service the different needs of Internet users, you can use our Speed on Demand service. When a subscriber is thinking of network gaming, viewing a video on line, or downloading heavy files and wishes to do so rapidly, our Speed on Demand Service is the most appropriate. For the modest sum of $2.99, High-Speed Internet customers can take advantage of the 10 Mbps of Vidéotron's Extreme Plus High-Speed for 48 hours. Speed on Demand is exclusive to Vidéotron. This service is perfect for customers resorting just from time to time to a more demanding use of their Internet service.
Internet users will be satisfied with Vidéotron's High-Speed Service because, on top of providing a 7-Mbps speed, it offers a variety of related services, including:
Six e-mail boxes with antivirus and antitrash e-mails filters. Subscribers can give the five others to members of their family.
WebMail allowing to read and send e-mails from any computer.
Ten free hours of telephone access per month (some conditions apply).
Possibility to subscribe to our security services, "Vidéotron Security Service", including antivirus, wallfire, antispyware, parental control, etc.
Vidéotron's business Internet service
Vidéotron's Business Solutions customers will see an increase of High-Speed Internet, from 5.1 Mbps to 7 Mbps. Basic Internet Service is being upped from 600 Kbps to 1.5 Kbps. Vidéotron's business Internet service offers a wide range of services, tailored to customers' needs such as unlimited usage and data transfer. Customers can also count on a specialized and dedicated team to businesses.
Internet users subscribing to Vidéotron can rely on uninterrupted technical support 7/24, year round.
Vidéotron Ltd (www.videotron.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of of filiale Quebecor Média Inc., is an integrated communications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access services and residential telephone service. Vidéotron 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 June 30, 2006, Vidéotron was serving 1,521,000 cable television customers in Québec, including 545,000 illico subscribers. Vidéotron is also the Quebec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 726,000 subscribers to its cable modem and residential telephone services. Vidéotron also provides residential and commercial telephone service to more than 283,000 customers in Québec.
"Vidéotron is constantly seeking to offer the best experience possible to its customers. To honour our pledge, the speed of our High-Speed Internet Service will climb from 5.1 to 7 Mbps. Making Internet still more user-friendly, this increase will allow our customers to take better advantage of the wealth of information and entertainment the Web offers. As a reminder, in light of our results for this fiscal year's second quarter, the number of our Internet customers, for all categories, increased in less than a year from 158,000 to stand at 726,000 as of June 30", said Manon Brouillette, Vice President, Marketing and New Product Development, Consumer Division.
A great back-to-school for university students
Students from HEC, UQAM, McGill and Concordia universities will be entitled to a more than 20% rebate on Vidéotron's High-Speed Internet Service. Provided a 12-month subscription, the students can take advantage of the $29.95 per month service. They must get the modem from the COOP of their institution. Service installation is free et and the offer is valid from now through February 28, 2007.
University students can pair cable telephone service with High-Speed Internet for a monthly total of $49.95. Installation is also free and students will enjoy the same advantages as regular customers, such as free long-distance calls between Vidéotron subscribers and the ability to keep their present phone number.
Vidéotron's reliable and high-performance network ensures peace of mind to its customers and, in addition, frees the phone line and allows for unlimited use time. Furthermore, Vidéotron's one-stop shopping experience strengthens this peace of mind with the one bill, one technician and one call to Customer Service solution.
Responding to Internet users' needs
Users will find a well adapted response to their needs in the High-Speed Internet Service. Increasing their access speed from 5.1 to 7 Mbps, Internet users will be able to download even faster the legally available contents on-line and requiring the use of a broadband, including images, video and music. It's easy to imagine the positive impacts of increased Internet speed on the experience of family members simultaneously sharing a single Internet connection through a router.
From now on, Internet users will be able to download any files faster. For example, subscribers will have the capacity to download 14 images per second, as opposed to 11 (images of about 58 Kbps). A song weighing some 5 Mo will be downloaded in 6 seconds.
More services with High-Speed Internet
Moreover, subscribers have free access to the High-Speed Zone allowing them to browse through and see exclusive contents and events. This summer, with Vidéotron on site at the FrancoFolies de Montréal, customers had the opportunity to see the events live via our FrancoCam. Web users also could videochat with Stéphanie Lapointe, Anik Jean and Thomas Hellman, as well as enjoy Antoine Gratton's and Moquettes Coquettes' performances presented on www.zonehautevitesse.com.
Vidéotron regularly offers videochats with a wide variety of artists on its High-Speed Zone. This year, subscribers had the opportunity to videochat with actors of the popular TV series "Le coeur a ses raisons" and scoop the clips from upcoming shows. Also up on our Internet are excerpts of backstage performances and album launches of well-liked Québec artists such as Corneille and Wilfred Le Bouthillier. Finally, sports amateurs can also enjoy their favourite activity by clicking on www.zonehautevitesse.com. They can view sports events, like preliminary Interbox boxing matches, and videochat with sportsworld personalities, like Stéphane Larouche, Interbox chief trainer, and Benoit Gaudet, Interbox boxer.
Navigate at high speed
To service the different needs of Internet users, you can use our Speed on Demand service. When a subscriber is thinking of network gaming, viewing a video on line, or downloading heavy files and wishes to do so rapidly, our Speed on Demand Service is the most appropriate. For the modest sum of $2.99, High-Speed Internet customers can take advantage of the 10 Mbps of Vidéotron's Extreme Plus High-Speed for 48 hours. Speed on Demand is exclusive to Vidéotron. This service is perfect for customers resorting just from time to time to a more demanding use of their Internet service.
Internet users will be satisfied with Vidéotron's High-Speed Service because, on top of providing a 7-Mbps speed, it offers a variety of related services, including:
Six e-mail boxes with antivirus and antitrash e-mails filters. Subscribers can give the five others to members of their family.
WebMail allowing to read and send e-mails from any computer.
Ten free hours of telephone access per month (some conditions apply).
Possibility to subscribe to our security services, "Vidéotron Security Service", including antivirus, wallfire, antispyware, parental control, etc.
Vidéotron's business Internet service
Vidéotron's Business Solutions customers will see an increase of High-Speed Internet, from 5.1 Mbps to 7 Mbps. Basic Internet Service is being upped from 600 Kbps to 1.5 Kbps. Vidéotron's business Internet service offers a wide range of services, tailored to customers' needs such as unlimited usage and data transfer. Customers can also count on a specialized and dedicated team to businesses.
Internet users subscribing to Vidéotron can rely on uninterrupted technical support 7/24, year round.
Vidéotron Ltd (www.videotron.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of of filiale Quebecor Média Inc., is an integrated communications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access services and residential telephone service. Vidéotron 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 June 30, 2006, Vidéotron was serving 1,521,000 cable television customers in Québec, including 545,000 illico subscribers. Vidéotron is also the Quebec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 726,000 subscribers to its cable modem and residential telephone services. Vidéotron also provides residential and commercial telephone service to more than 283,000 customers in Québec.
