Videotron halfway to a million phone users

Videotron, the largest cable operator in Quebec, has announced that it has reached the benchmark of 500,000 residential and business customers for its cable telephony service. The company says its telephone service is now available in all of the large urban centres located in the areas it serves, covering more than 83% of this territory. Videotron passed the 400,000 subscriber mark in early February. Most of its phone users have been poached from Quebec’s main wireline incumbent Bell Canada, which is losing an estimated 20,000 subscribers to Videotron every month. Nationwide, Bell lost 107,000 wireline customers in the first quarter of 2007, thanks to aggressive cable competitors like Videotron in Quebec and Rogers in Ontario.