Videotron has taken a commanding lead in the DOCSIS 3.0 speed race with yesterday’s launch of a 200 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up tier in Québec.
The new tier, which is called Ultimate Speed Internet 200, is available to both businesses and residential customers in Québec. The wideband package comes with a monthly data cap of 200 GB for download and 50 GB for uploads for residential customers. For business customers, the cap is 320 GB for downloads and 180 GB for uploads.
Ultimate Speed Internet 200 is available to residential subscribers starting at $199.95 per month and to businesses starting at $256.95.
By contrast, Bell Canada, which is Videotron’s biggest competitor in Québec, has a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service with symmetrical speeds of 175 Mbps on the downstream and upstream with a 300 GB cap. Bell Canada’s fastest tier is priced at $129.95 per month as part of a bundle.
Prior to the launch of the 200 Mbps wideband tier, Videotron already held the lead for the fastest DOCSIS 3.0-based service in North America at 120 Mbps down, with 5 Mbps up.
Following Videotron, Buckeye CableSystem launched a 110/5 tier in March. Other notable speeds in North America include Suddenlink’s 107/5, Comcast’s 105/10, Cablevision’s 101/15 and Charter’s 100/5. Verizon offers a fiber-based tier with speeds of 150/35 in some areas.
A spokeswoman for Videotron confirmed that the 200 Mbps service was DOCSIS 3.0-based but did not provide any additional information, such as how many channels were being bonded or the vendors that were being used.
