Montréal, May 21, 2020 – The Québec Ministry of Economy and Innovation has announced the projects that will be funded under the Régions branchées component of the Québec haut débit program, and Videotron will be building new infrastructure to provide residents of Charlevoix, the Lower St. Lawrence, Memphrémagog and Montérégie with high-speed Internet service.
“Videotron is pleased to connect families and businesses that do not currently have access to high-speed Internet,” says Jean-François Pruneau, President and CEO of Videotron. “We plan to offer them the best service on the market, using the same technology and at the same price as elsewhere in Québec. And we will go further by offering them Helix, our brand new home entertainment and connected lifestyle platform. With 240,000 subscribers to its Internet access and television services, Helix is a resounding success. It is the most technologically advanced solution on the market.
“Our goal has always been to connect as many Quebecers as possible and we had submitted a large number of projects to that end. We wanted to do much more and make a real difference for underserved regions. You can count on us to continue putting forward new connectivity projects,” Mr. Pruneau added.
Videotron welcomes the government's intention to speed up the processing of requests for access to telecommunications support structures and will be pleased to contribute to the discussions on this matter.
Highlights
- Videotron will connect thousands of homes and businesses in 4 regions of Québec.
- The Basques, Charlevoix, Memphrémagog, Roussillon and Rouville RCMs will be connected.
- A fully fibre optic-based new-generation network that supports speeds well above the 50/10 mbps required by the government will be built out.
- Residents will even have access to Helix, Videotron’s new home entertainment and connected lifestyle experience, at the same price as elsewhere in Québec.
- The Régions branchées program currently calls for build-out to be completed by the summer of 2022.
The cooperation of the Regional County Municipalities (RCMs) was key to completion of this phase of the project.
High-speed Internet is vital to Québec’s economic recovery and to job creation outside the major urban centres. Bringing all Quebecers into the new digital age is crucially important to our families and to businesses of all sizes. The current pandemic is another example that it is vital to bring all Quebecers into the new digital era. Videotron is building the infrastructure to help make it happen.
If you are a resident of one of the regions and you have questions, please call our dedicated project line at 1-833-905-2004
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About Videotron
Videotron (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, entertainment, Internet access, cable telephone and mobile telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its Helix home entertainment and management platform. As of March 31, 2020, Videotron was serving 1,512,100 cable television customers, and 471,700 subscribers to its Club illico over-the-top video service. Videotron is also the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,735,900 subscribers to its cable service as of March 31, 2020. As of the same date, Videotron had 1,369,800 subscriber connections to its mobile telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to 1,000,900 Québec households and organizations. Videotron has been recognized as one of Montréal’s top employers.
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