 Review by bouchecl 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 5.2 years, 1456 visits, last login: 5 days ago
 Quebec,QC
 $44 per month (12 month contract)
 about 20 days
 "Stable, fast internet access."
 "some outbound ports are blocked, small quotas"
 "Stable and reliable connexion, small quotas"
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(ratings match consensus)
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Videotron used to have a lousy reputation as an ISP. A long strike at this cable operator in 2002 caused many outages and problems with mail and news forwarding.
Since the end of the strike, the situation improved greatly and it is fair to say that Videotron has reclaimed its position as a top-tier ISP in the Quebec market. If you're looking for a stable, no-frills access to the net, Videotron is what you're looking for.
The up time is impressive (one or two 15-minute outages in a year); the quotas (20 GB down and 10 GB up per month for the regular package; unlimited up and down for the premium service) are quite reasonable and the advertised speeds are relatively close to my own speed test results.
Videotron also recently added a web-based access to their e-mail, which was long awaited by customers.
Although I did not have many problems with my Internet connection in the last year, I found the customer service reps I talked to to be friendly and competent. For specialized support, there is a fairly active group discussing Videotron on this site. The group includes users and at least one Videotron employee, who is generous enough to give his time to answer further enquiries.
On the less positive side, some outbound ports (notably port 25 and 80) are blocked and the service agreement specifically prohibits servers on their customers machines.
Overall, Videotron has a top-notch product, and I'm happy to recommend them to my friends.
UPDATE: Videotron's Internet service still performs beautifully. After over two years with them, I rate them highly for reliability, services and value for money. I also had to use their tech support when I've switched to their VoIP services and was pleasantly surprised by their willingness to go the extra mile to improve my cable signal. The technician changed over 50' of cable from the street to my tap, no questions asked. On the minus side, the ISP now asks all its customers to use the company's SMTP server for all outgoing mail, as part of their anti-spam strategy. It's a PITA for many people.
UPDATE 2 (2007): Bandwidth quotas have not been increased for the last 4.5 years I've been a subscriber. Vidéotron's service is less competitive than it was a couple years ago; since then some other ISPs offer more realistic bandwidth allocations than this providers' 20 GB down/10 GB up.
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