IPTV Quebec
Most homes in Québec City set up IPTV entirely in French, and plenty never open an English menu. What makes the city different is its buildings: thick stone walls in Vieux-Québec, brick plexes in Limoilou, and post-war bungalows in Sainte-Foy and Charlesbourg where the router often ends up in the basement. Lévis, across the river, uses the same Vidéotron and Bell lines and the same local channels.
Internet in Québec City
Two companies wire almost every street in Québec City and Lévis: Vidéotron with cable and fibre, Bell with fibre. Both sell plans far faster than live TV needs, so pick on price and service. An old rented modem is worth swapping, though: a newer one often does more for a far-off TV than a faster plan.
Our IPTV servers are in North America, and the distance from Québec City to them has little to do with a stalled picture. In a city of stone, brick and plaster, the walls usually do. Run the IPTV speed test twice, once beside the router and once on the TV. If the second number is far lower, the walls are your problem and the table below has the fix. One HD channel needs about 10 Mbps, and the speed guide explains the rest.
Buffering fixes
Some of the housing here is among the oldest in the country, and each type blocks Wi-Fi its own way.
| Home | Why it buffers | What usually fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Stone house in Vieux-Québec | Masonry walls thick enough to stop most Wi-Fi between rooms. | A mesh unit in each room that matters, set in the doorway rather than against the stone. In a rented flat, a flat network cable under a rug and through the door frame needs no drilling. |
| Plex in Limoilou | Two to four flats stacked in one brick building, each with its own router in about the same spot, so the crowding comes from directly above and below. | Put the TV on 5 GHz, which carries poorly through floors and so picks up less from the neighbours. Lift the router out of the closet. |
| Bungalow in Sainte-Foy or Charlesbourg | The line often comes into the basement, so the router sits by the electrical panel while the TV is in the living room above, through joists and ductwork. | Have the router moved to the main floor, or add one mesh unit upstairs. A bungalow is all on one level, so a single well-placed unit usually covers it. |
More on Wi-Fi in older Quebec buildings is in our Quebec streaming guide.
Setup
In a French-only home, do the setup in French from the first screen. Switch the TV or stick to French before you install the player app, and most apps open in French the first time. Then sign in with the login from your welcome email and wait while the list loads. A Fire TV Stick or an Android TV box is easy to set up this way, and an Apple TV works too.
Setting up a TV for parents who only use French? Put their news channels in Favourites so they're one button away, and leave our email on a card by the TV. They can write to online support in French, and so can you. If the basement den and the living room both want the TV on at once, that takes an extra screen.
Pick your device for the full steps:
Time zone
Québec City keeps Eastern time, like Montréal, so the guide needs no adjusting. What shapes the evening is the commute and the weather. Home late from Lévis at rush hour? On channels with catch-up, start the 6 p.m. news from the top. A game in Vancouver begins at 10 p.m. here in summer and 9 p.m. in winter, and catch-up lets you watch the end with your coffee.
The network is busiest from roughly 7 to 11 p.m., and a snowstorm evening, with schools closed and everyone home, can be as busy as a hockey night. Use your free trial on one of those evenings if you can.
| When it starts | In Quebec City |
|---|---|
| An evening game or show at 7 p.m. Eastern | 7 p.m. |
| A late game in Vancouver at 7 p.m. Vancouver time | 9 p.m. (10 p.m. in summer) |
| IPTV West online support (9 a.m. to midnight Eastern) | 9 a.m. to midnight |
Channels
French-language news, variety, kids' shows and sports in French are what most homes here turn on first, and they're in the Full Channels package. Pick it at checkout: English Channels Only drops the French groups.
English news and sports are there when you want them, and channels from France are worth looking for in the European group. Students at Université Laval in Sainte-Foy who come from abroad will find the international groups in the same plan, with nothing to add.
In the app, local news and shows for the area sit in the Local channels: Québec City group. You can check it before you pay with the channel lineup search.
Plans
Same channels on every plan, priced in CAD and paid by Interac e-Transfer. Try it free for 24 hours first.
Try it out
$15.99CAD
$15.99 per month
1 screen · Pay by Interac e-Transfer
Popular
$59.99CAD
$10.00 per month Save 37%
1 screen · Pay by Interac e-Transfer
Best value
$89.99CAD
$7.50 per month Save 53%
1 screen · Pay by Interac e-Transfer
All 4 plan lengths and the price of extra screens are on the IPTV subscription page.
Around the area
FAQ
We do, in French, by Live Chat or email, 7 days a week, 9 a.m. to midnight (Eastern Time). There's no phone line, so it helps if someone can send a photo of the screen with the message.
Often not from one room to the next. Plan on a mesh unit in the TV room, or a network cable through the doorway, and test it during the trial before paying.
Yes. Lévis is part of the Québec City local group, and the service works the same on the south shore as in the city.
No. Pick Full Channels, which has every French group, and add your channels to Favourites so the English ones stay out of the way.
Only if the TV is upstairs and the signal fades on the way. Run the speed test on the TV; if it comes back low, a mesh unit on the main floor usually fixes it.
Set the TV to French, start the free 24-hour trial, and put it on the screen behind the thickest wall in the house before you choose a plan.
