Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television , interactive multimedia development, video on demand , cable telephony , wireless communication and Internet access services. Owned by Quebecor , it primarily serves Quebec and Ottawa , as well as the Francophone communities of New Brunswick and some parts of Eastern Ontario . Its principal competitors are Bell Canada and Telus Communications .
31-772: Rivière-du-Loup ( French pronunciation: [ʁivjɛʁ dy lu] ; 2021 population 20,118) is a small city on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec . The city is the seat for the Rivière-du-Loup Regional County Municipality and the judicial district of Kamouraska. Its one of the largest cities in Bas-Saint-Laurent . The city was named after the nearby river , whose name means Wolf's River in French . This name may have come from
62-488: A discount flanker brand on its network. Vidéotron serves 1,830,400 cable television customers, including over 1,517,600 digital cable subscribers. Vidéotron also has more than 1,408,200 high-speed cable Internet subscribers, the most in Quebec. As of September 2013, the company had activated 478,000 mobile phones, and was providing cable telephone service to nearly 1,281,200 customers. Vidéotron's cable services are available in
93-428: A few minor differences from that of ville . However it is moot since there are no longer any cities in existence. Dorval and Côte Saint-Luc had the status of city when they were amalgamated into Montreal on January 1, 2002 as part of the municipal reorganization in Quebec ; however, when re-constituted as independent municipalities on January 1, 2006, it was with the status of town ( French : ville ) (although
124-551: A native tribe known as "Les Loups" ("The Wolves") or from the many seals , known in French as loup-marin (sea wolves), once found at the river's mouth. Rivière-du-Loup was established in 1673 as the seigneurie of Sieur Charles-Aubert de la Chesnaye. The community was incorporated as the village of Fraserville , in honour of early Scottish settler Alexander Fraser, in 1850, and became a city in 1910. The city reverted to its original name, Rivière-du-Loup, in 1919. Between 1850 and 1919,
155-422: A non-nuclear detonation before it hit the ground. The explosion scattered nearly 100 pounds (45 kg) of uranium (U-238). In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Rivière-du-Loup had a population of 20,118 living in 9,482 of its 10,045 total private dwellings, a change of 3.1% from its 2016 population of 19,507 . With a land area of 83.74 km (32.33 sq mi), it had
186-431: A partnership with Xceed Contact Centre to outsource some of the call centres to Egypt . On August 14, 2007, Videotron announced starting October 1 they would impose a 100-gigabyte-per-month download / upload limit with a penalty of $ 1.50 per extra gigabyte to their previously unrestricted High-Speed Extreme Internet service, even to existing subscribers. This decision created outrage among its Internet users, and led to
217-547: A population density of 240.2/km (622.2/sq mi) in 2021. Notable events in the city include the annual Festival Vues dans la tête de... film festival. Rivière-du-Loup is a traditional stopping point between Quebec City , the Maritimes and the Gaspé Peninsula . The Trans-Canada Highway turns south here, transferring from Autoroute 20 to Autoroute 85 and continuing southwards to Edmundston , New Brunswick . There
248-453: A successor to the company's existing Illico TV digital cable platform. Vidéotron's community channels are branded as MAtv . The company offers a subscription video on-demand service known as Illico+ (formerly Club Illico). It has produced original series such as Escouade 99 , Portrait-Robot , The Night Logan Woke Up (La nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s'est réveillé) and Mégantic . Vidéotron cable services were once available in
279-473: A trial conducted in the fall of 2004. Vidéotron was also the first cable provider in Canada to launch a cable phone service. In July 2008, Videotron ltée and Quebecor acquired spectrum licences for advanced wireless services from an Industry Canada auction at a total cost of $ 554,559,000. The licences cover Quebec for an average of 40 MHz spectrum, Toronto with 10 MHz and south-east Ontario. The network
310-505: Is a ferry that crosses the river (fleuve St Laurent) to Saint-Siméon on the north shore. The city is also served by the Rivière-du-Loup Airport ( IATA airport code YRI). The town can also be reached by Via Rail on the train named The Ocean, between Montreal and Halifax . Rivière-du-Loup is an unusual television market, as each of its stations has two transmitters in the city. The city's hilly terrain causes residents of
341-841: Is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec , Canada, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy and compiled by the Institut de la statistique du Québec Not included are the urban agglomerations in Quebec , which, although they group together multiple municipalities, exercise only what are ordinarily local municipal powers. A list of local municipal units in Quebec by regional county municipality can be found at List of municipalities in Quebec . All municipalities (except cities), whether township, village, parish, or unspecified ones, are functionally and legally identical. The only difference
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#1732851564314372-572: Is also a different kind of submunicipal unit, unconstituted localities , which is defined and tracked not by the Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs but by Statistics Canada . Vid%C3%A9otron Vidéotron is the fifth-largest wireless carrier in Canada , with nearly 1,700,000 mobile subscribers as of Q2 2022. Vidéotron was established in 1964, under the name "Télécâble Vidéotron Ltée" as northern Montreal's first cable television network. It started with 66 subscribers. André Chagnon served as
403-449: Is that the designation might serve to disambiguate between otherwise identically named municipalities, often neighbouring ones. Many such cases have had their names changed, or merged with the identically named nearby municipality since the 1950s, such as the former Township of Granby and City of Granby merging and becoming the Town of Granby in 2007. Municipalities are governed primarily by
434-565: The Code municipal du Québec (Municipal Code of Québec, R.S.Q. c. C-27.1), whereas cities and towns are governed by the Loi sur les cités et villes (Cities and Towns Act, R.S.Q. c. C-19) as well as (in the case of the older ones) various individual charters. The very largest communities in Quebec are colloquially called cities; however there are currently no municipalities under the province's current legal system classified as cities. Quebec's government uses
465-499: The English term town as the translation for the French term ville , and township for canton . The least-populated towns in Quebec ( Barkmere , with a population of about 60, or L'Île-Dorval , with less than 10) are much smaller than the most populous municipalities of other types ( Saint-Charles-Borromée and Sainte-Sophie , each with populations of over 13,300). The title city ( French : cité code=C) still legally exists, with
496-1079: The Rogers Wireless network as a Vidéotron partner network in order to allow texts to be sent or received, calls to be made and for data to be used across Canada. In 2016, Vidéotron revamped its plans, allowing customers to make unlimited calls, send and receive texts and use data in the United States as well, due to partnerships with US carriers. Vidéotron began beta testing in 2018 for a new mid-range mobile flanker brand , Fizz Mobile , in Quebec and in Ottawa. In 2023, as an aspect of Rogers Communications ' acquisition of Shaw Communications , parent company Quebecor acquired Shaw-owned Freedom Mobile . The major centres are located in Montreal, Longueuil, Quebec City, Gatineau, Joliette, Saguenay and St-Hubert. Vidéotron also has outsourced customer service centres that include Utopia, Gexel Telecom and Atelka. In 2007, Videotron formed
527-593: The United Kingdom, but were acquired and merged into Cable & Wireless plc along with Bell Cablemedia and NYNEX Corporation in 1997. The company also used to operate in Africa and the United States. One of its previous subsidiaries – Videotron Telecom (not to be confused with Videotron Mobile) – was financed by the Carlyle Group . Vidéotron has provided telecommunication services to business and governments since
558-399: The city saw large increases in its anglophone population. Most of them left the region by the 1950s. Only 1% of the population still speaks English as its first language. In fall of 1950 Rivière-du-Loup was the site of a nuclear accident . A United States Air Force B-50 was returning a nuclear bomb to the United States. The bomb was released due to engine troubles, and then was destroyed in
589-466: The city was served by Canada's only triple-stick operation, in which all three of its licensed stations are owned by the same company, Télé Inter-Rives . This would be pared down to a twin-stick following the closedown of CKRT-DT in August 2021. Defunct station: Rivière-du-Loup is a mandatory market for digital television conversion ; Télé Inter-Rives converted all of its transmitters to digital prior to
620-582: The company launched digital television in Montreal. By the start of the 21st century, Rogers Communications struck an accord with the Chagnon family to purchase Vidéotron. However, citing cultural sovereignty concerns, the second-largest shareholder invoked its right to veto the purchase. Quebecor acquired Vidéotron instead, after months of legal proceedings. On May 23, 2001, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved
651-469: The company's founding president. From 1966 to 1969, Vidéotron expanded by acquiring several cable networks in many regions of the province of Quebec. In 1969, the company offered the first pay-per-view service under the name Sélecto-TV . In 1974, a bi-directional network was created in Saint-Jérôme , one of the first in the world at the time. By 1980, Vidéotron acquired Câblevision Nationale to become
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#1732851564314682-582: The deadline of August 30, 2011. Unlike most larger cities in Quebec, Rivière-du-Loup has no local Télé-Québec outlet, though Rimouski's CIVB-DT is available on the Vidéotron system in Rivière-du-Loup. Following the closedown of CKRT-DT, Radio-Canada would be seen on Vidéotron from CJBR-DT Rimouski. Sir John A. Macdonald , Canada's first prime minister, had a summer home in Rivière-du-Loup. People born there include: City (Quebec) The following
713-602: The first interactive television (ITV) system in North America. From 1995, the company entered the Internet era and acquired its own Internet portal, InfiniT.com. In 1997, CF Cable TV , which operated primarily on the western end of the Island of Montreal, southern Laval and Northern Ontario, was acquired by Vidéotron, further expanding its base. The Northern Ontario division was later sold to Regional Cablesystems. On March 29, 1999,
744-460: The greater areas of Montreal , Quebec City , Gatineau , Sherbrooke , Trois-Rivières and Saguenay . Vidéotron also serves areas in eastern Ontario, such as Rockland and the surrounding municipality of Clarence-Rockland , as well as parts of New Brunswick near the Quebec border. Vidéotron offers broadband and IPTV -based digital cable television under the "Helix" brand, which is based on Comcast 's X1 platform and hardware. Helix serves as
775-777: The integration of Vidéotron Télécom into Vidéotron Ltée. The services include dark fiber, SONET, ATM, and Ethernet links as well as video circuits used by various Quebec television networks. On July 29, 2004, Vidéotron announced plans to launch a telephone service using VoIP technology by the first half of 2005. Vidéotron launched its cable phone service in late 2004 to compete with Bell Canada and Telus. Deployment of this service started on Montreal's South Shore. By press release on January 24, 2005, Vidéotron announced that 300,000 customers on Montreal's South Shore had access to this service and that deployment would continue all over Quebec throughout 2005. Vidéotron also announced that about 2,500 customers had already subscribed to this service, following
806-425: The largest teledistributor in Quebec. Vidéotron acquired Télé-Métropole in 1986, the largest private French-language television company in North America. In 1989 the company opened the first video rental stores: Le SuperClub Vidéotron . Its first fiber optic network was created between the cities of Quebec and Montreal . On January 24, 1990, Vidéotron launched Vidéoway [ fr ] terminals in Quebec,
837-407: The lower, western portions of the city to experience frequent signal dropout. That makes it all but impossible for a television station to serve the entire area with a single transmitter. Accordingly, each station in the city has both a primary transmitter and a "nested" low-power rebroadcaster to serve viewers in the western part of the city who cannot receive the primary signal. Until August 2021,
868-456: The municipal government of Dorval still uses the name Cité de Dorval). Prior to January 1, 1995, the code for municipalité was not M but rather SD ( sans désignation ; that is, unqualified municipality). Prior to 2004, there was a single code, TR, to cover the modern-day TC and TK. When the distinction between TC and TK was introduced, it was made retroactive to 1984, date of the federal Cree-Naskapi (of Quebec) Act (S.C. 1984, c. 18). There
899-434: The spring of 2010, Vidéotron launched IllicoWeb, an online television and video-on-demand service. In September, it launched a 3G+ wireless service, with plans to offer a quadruple play service with its existing cable services. On December 30, 2017, assets from Vidéotron G.P. were transferred to Vidéotron Ltée, as the company underwent a corporate reorganization. In September 2018, Vidéotron began beta testing for Fizz,
930-428: The transfer of broadcasting licences from Vidéotron to Quebecor. Video-on-demand and high-definition television became available in 2003. Vidéotron launched their wireless service in August 2006 and, two years later the company announced the launch of two new internet access services: Ultimate Speed Internet 30 and Ultimate Speed Internet 50 which deliver speeds of 30 Mbit/s and 50 Mbit/s respectively. In
961-659: Was launched on September 9, 2010. Infrastructure work for a pre-4G HSPA+ wireless network was done over the span of three years, Videotron now having its own cellular communications resources. Vidéotron was the only provider in Canada that sold the short-lived Garmin Nuvifone A50 smartphone . In 2013, Rogers and Vidéotron struck a 20-year deal, enabling Vidéotron to share its network with Rogers Wireless . This network sharing agreement enabled Vidéotron to deploy LTE on its network in Quebec in 2014, in partnership with Rogers. The agreement also enabled Vidéotron customers to use