Evidence of meeting #19 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Quebecor Media Inc.
Vidéotron has taken a lot of steps. Let me ask Jean-François Pruneau to answer that question.
Jean-François Pruneau President and Chief Executive Officer, Vidéotron ltée
Thank you for the question, Ms. Lambropolous.
We have implemented a number of measures to demonstrate our goodwill to our customers. For example, we removed the caps on Internet consumption on our wired services for about two months. People could have unlimited Internet usage even if their plan included a limit. We removed the caps on usage and our customers have been able to use their Internet connection with no limit.
We also removed the data usage limits on wireless services. We removed roaming fees, meaning when people are not on the Vidéotron network, and the cost of long-distance calls. We have implemented a number of measures to benefit our customers.
A year and a half or two years ago, we launched a second service called Fizz. The service offers much lower rates and our customers have used it a lot during this period, precisely because the rates are much lower. It's a completely digital model that costs us less and allows us to provide our customers with lower prices.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
There is a federal program that connects Canadians in the greatest financial need at an affordable price. Do you participate in that program? Do Vidéotron or its companies use that program to provide services like that to those who need them?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Vidéotron ltée
Thank you for the question.
We do indeed participate in the program. We offer a 10-megabit per second Internet connection with an upper limit of 100 gigabytes. It costs $10.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
In terms of competition, some small companies are not of the size of Vidéotron or Bell Canada. They do not really have any infrastructure capacity but they can still provide services to Quebeckers and Canadians. Should we make things easier for those companies?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Quebecor Media Inc.
We actually answered that. I would add that we have always believed in competition. In fact, we were resellers ourselves once. Back when we launched our wireless service, we used the Rogers network and the department required license holders to use their license. After a network is put in place, there must be some assurance that a significant investment will be made. If not, they are just parasites.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you very much.
That's the time for our witnesses today.
I would like to thank everyone for being with us today.
My thanks to the witnesses for being here and for their testimony. We are very grateful to them.
Members, please disconnect from Zoom, and reconnect in the in camera portion.
[Proceedings continue in camera]