Videotron is expected to be launching the commercial availability its 100 Mbps wideband internet service at a press conference later this morning, following up on last year’s industry-leading technology trial.
I was struck by reading through some of the statistics that I generally tend to gloss over, found in the boilerplate language at the bottom of the invitation to the press conference.
As of December 31, 2007, Videotron was serving 1,638,000 cable television customers in Québec, including 768,000 illico subscribers. Videotron is the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 933,000 subscribers to its cable modem service. As of December 31, 2007, Videotron had activated 45,700 phones on its wireless telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to nearly 636,000 Québec households and organizations.
Videotron is now providing phone service to nearly 40% of its cable subscriber base and about two thirds of its internet base.
MTS Allstream reported last night that it is continuing to experience strong success with its IPTV solutions – now enjoying about a third of the market. It is working with Alcatel Lucent to deliver video across wireline and wireless platforms.
At The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit, Alcatel Lucent will be participating in a panel looking at Consumers in a Multi-screen World. Videotron’s Robert Depatie and Pierre Blouin of MTS Allstream will be delivering keynote addresses.
Update [February 6, 10:30 am]
Videotron has commercially launched two new consumer services based on its new Cisco-powered wideband internet service. Ultimate Speed 30 (30 Mbps for $64.95) and Ultimate Speed 50 (50 Mbps for $79.95) with both delivering 1 Mbps uploads. Both services hold back on the technical ability to deliver better than 100 Mbps. A business version of Ultimate Speed 50 is priced at $120 per month, with double the download cap (50 GB for consumer / 100 GB for business). Videotron already has accessible tools for users to monitor their usage.
Videotron indicated that the trials over the past year demonstrated that consumer demand is not yet ready for the higher speed, so it has chosen to hold back on its release until it can monetize the additional value. Its experience in trials adds material to the discussion raised yesterday about the academic call for national programs to build greater than 100 Mbps infrastructure.
In any case, Videotron is able to lay claim to the title of internet leader in Quebec, if not all of North America.