» Quebec Customers Flock to VidÃ©otron Digital Phone ServiceTelecommunications Industry News

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

Quebec Customers Flock to VidÃ©otron Digital Phone Service

6:30 am on January 7, 2006 | Category: Business, VoIP

Less than a year after its launch, Quebec cable giant VidÃ©otron LtÃ©eâ€™s digital phone service already has over 163,000 customers, making it Canadaâ€™s top provider of VoIP technology.

VidÃ©otron was the first Canadian cable company to launch a VoIP service, and their offering was an instant hit when it became available in early 2005. Since then, other major cable providers, including Rogers, Shaw, and Cogeco have begun releasing their own comparable services.

The main reason for VidÃ©otronâ€™s quick ascension in the residential phone market is its extremely competitive pricing strategy, which poses a major threat to traditional telephone companies like Bell. Although VidÃ©otron uses a private IP network for their service, prices are more in line with cheaper internet-based VoIP services like Vonage.

It will be interesting to see how the somewhat more expensive digital phone services being rolled out by cable companies in the rest of Canada perform against the likes of significantly cheaper internet telephony offerings. They might find it difficult to reach the same level of success that VidÃ©otron has in Quebec, and eventually see the need to adjust their prices.

Telecommunications Industry News