Does Videotron have plans to upgrade their network to a Fiber network?

h4g0p · ‎06-12-2022

I just switched from Videotron's Helix to Bell 1.5Gbps. The reason why I switched is because Bell made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Paying the same price for more bandwidth (I had 400mbps with Videotron), and 5 more channels for my tv.

Quite frankly, the speed is an overkill. I think anything above 1Gbps is an overkill considering most homes can't really benefit from those speeds. Videotron at some point had gigabit services but they stopped offering it. I'm not sure why, as I've heard it works quite well. Where Videotron will always fail for me is the type of cable they use. I game a lot and Bell's FTTH gives me the best latency possible. Because of this, it's extremely difficult to switch back to cable.

I find it difficult to ever move back to Videotron (provided that Bell's prices don't increase too much) and have a 10ms-30ms disadvantage when gaming, in addition to not having gigabit bandwidth. 10ms-30ms doesn't seem like much time, but when you're playing fast paced games like Call of Duty, it most certainly matters. The extra bandwidth helps downloading large sized games quicker.

Does Videotron have any plans to upgrade their copper cable network to an FTTH fiber optic network sometime in the future?

wild7777777 · ‎24-01-2023

Same here! Ping to google is always around 20-35 ms with Videotron. People will get my walls too easily in Fortnite and I get shot alot quicker by tryhards with 0-5 ms ping. Videotron has not evolve compared to Bell with FTTH. They offer 1990's speeds and latency. It's going to come and **blip** them sooner or later! I pray everyday that Bell passes fiber in my street. It should come soon as I saw techs take measurements of cables in my street and I asked the guy and he confirmed it was to bring FTTH from Bell. When available, bye bye Videotron with their ridicule speeds and latency.

h4g0p · ‎25-01-2023

Not only Bell has the superior Internet technology, they are also offering it at a lower price than what Videotron is offering. As of today, 1.5Gbps with Bell is $60/month, that includes equipment and installation and FTTH! Few of my friends and family members have canceled Videotron to benefit from this offer.

I only see two ways for Videotron to remain competitive:

Significantly lower the prices because they don't have a FTTH network and can't match the same speeds as Bell
Invest in FTTH infrastructure

Otherwise, there is no reason to switch to Videotron.

st0106 · ‎28-04-2023

Late to jump in but I think the ubiquity of Videotron keeps the company floating. I once checked the availability of residential services when looking for a new condo in Montreal that can match Toronto standard and found even some of the fanciest buildings with security guards who wear white gloves merely have 50 Mbps Bell plan available. Some of those with guards can only offers Bell satellite tv + 10 Mbps Internet. However, almost every building except two or three which have signed deals with Bell all have 400 Mbps Vidéotron Internet available.
Additionally, the French and local elements matter too. Vidéotron has lots of local TVA, a few independent French and a French overseas island channels but none of these are on Bell. If you pay a closer look at TVA/LCN Novelles, it doesn’t even upload first part of its evening news to its website like Global. Clips are scant and although LCN is 24h too just like CTV and CBC, it definitely don’t have as many clips online. Few of TVA niche affiliates upload local news programs to YouTube but it closes another YouTube channel which uploaded provincial and national news videos completely, not a single archive left at all. This defunded YouTube accounts once uploaded some episodes and clips in random pic quality, without manual CC and garnered very low views. TVA also publishes news clips much slower than any other TV media in the North America market. I’m with Bell and find unlike Bell channels, Quebecor channels don’t have a single program with 30hr Restart function at all, but Bell channels have full-fledged functions except certain sports events. I assume it’s a completely opposite on Videotron based on old news reports about carriage disputes and discussion about Crave and CTV on-demand. So it appears lots of French Québécois are sticking with the traditional Videotron live TV service.

RafaelBryce · ‎08-05-2023

@h4g0p wrote:
I just switched from Videotron's Helix to Bell 1.5Gbps. The reason why I switched is because Bell made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Paying the same price for more bandwidth (I had 400mbps with Videotron), and 5 more channels for my tv.

Quite frankly, the speed is an overkill. I think anything above 1Gbps is an overkill considering most homes can't really benefit from those speeds. Videotron at some point had gigabit services but they stopped learn how offering it. I'm not sure why, as I've heard it works quite well. Where Videotron will always fail for me is the type of cable they use. I game a lot and Bell's FTTH gives me the best latency possible. Because of this, it's extremely difficult to switch back to cable.

I find it difficult to ever move back to Videotron (provided that Bell's prices don't increase too much) and have a 10ms-30ms disadvantage when gaming, in addition to not having gigabit bandwidth. 10ms-30ms doesn't seem like much time, but when you're playing fast paced games like Call of Duty, it most certainly matters. The extra bandwidth helps downloading large sized games quicker.

Does Videotron have any plans to upgrade their copper cable network to an FTTH fiber optic network sometime in the future?

Many internet service providers are gradually expanding their fiber optic networks to provide faster and more reliable internet connections. Upgrading from copper cable to fiber optic infrastructure, such as FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home), can offer significant benefits in terms of speed and latency. Whether or not Videotron has plans to upgrade their network infrastructure to FTTH in the future would be best addressed by contacting Videotron directly. Its a very late replay but I hope its helpful for future users.
Regards