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Canadian cable company Videotron announced today that more than 636,000 business and residential customers are now using its cable VoIP service – this milestone coming just three years after the launch of the IP Telephony service. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., also offers high speed Internet and digital television services over its regional network serving much of Montreal.

According to a company press release, Videotron gained roughly 235,000 VoIP customers in 2006, and roughly 238,500 VoIP customers in 2007. The company is seeing accelerated adoption of its IP Telephony service, which was initially launched on Montreal's South Shore and then gradually rolled out to its entire service area. Between October 1 and December 31, 2007, 62,500 Quebec households signed up for the service, compared with 53,700 in the same period of 2006.

"We are very proud of the resounding success of our cable telephone service over the last three years," said Robert Depatie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Videotron, in the press release. "When we introduced this alternative at the beginning of 2005, we became the first company to create real competition in the both the local and long-distance markets. The result was a decrease in prices that significantly benefited consumers."

Videotron Business Solutions introduced its cable telephone service for small businesses with 1 or 2 lines in 2006. Last December, it enhanced the product by introducing a 4-line service. In addition, the company launched a softphone version of the service this past fall.

"Even after the deregulation of the local telephony market ordered by regulatory authorities, the popularity of Videotron's cable telephone service did not wane - on the contrary," Depatie added. "It is an indication that we have a functional product and a highly reliable, robust network that delivers the goods."

Despite the fact that telecommunications deregulation in Canada has somewhat stifled the overall quality of service for VoIP, Videotron nevertheless reports high customer satisfaction with its VoIP service. A Leger Marketing survey conducted in September 2007 puts customer satisfaction with the service at 95 percent.

Videotron reports that its digital television, Internet access and wireless telephone services also saw strong growth in 2007. As of December 31, 2007, the company’s cable television service had 1,638,000 customers, marking a year-over-year increase of 65,700 (including an increase of 21,800 in the fourth quarter). Similarly, its illico Digital TV service grew by 47,900 customers in the fourth quarter of 2007, bringing the total to 768,000, for an annual increase of 144,500 or 23 percent. In addition, its Internet access services had 933,000 customers, a net increase of 34,000 in the fourth quarter alone, compared with 37,500 in the same quarter of 2006, and its wireless telephone service had 45,700 phones activated as of the end of the fourth quarter, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 7,000 and a year-over-year increase of 33,900.

Videotron last made news on TMCnet in October when it announced that it was using Nortel’s (News - Alert) technology to deliver a new video calling service over its cable network. Specifically, the company’s video calling service, facilitated through its softphone, is powered by Nortel’s Communications Server 2000, a carrier-class IP Multimedia softswitch which enables fixed mobile convergence, advanced Web services and unified communications.

For more information, visit www.videotron.com.

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