Videotron Pushes 4 Mbps

While most U.S. cable operators are pushing their downstream high-speed Internet services to 3 megabits per second, Videotron Ltée is jumping from 3.1 mbps to 4.1 mbps.

The company said the speed increase will be phased in during April to more than 90% of its subscriber base. Upload speeds also will increase, from 350 kilobits per second to 820 kbps.

Videotron also offers an "Extreme High-Speed Internet" service, and will boost those download speeds from 4 mbps to 4.5 mbps and the corresponding upload speeds from 640 kbps to 900 kbps.

The company said that as part of a $40 million investment in its broadband network this year, it will increase the monthly download limit for customers from 15 gigabytes to 20 GB and the upload limit from 5 GB to 10 GB.

Of the company's 1.4 million cable subscribers, 435,000 take either high-speed or dial-up modem service.