How Fibre Internet is Transforming this Rural Ontario Town

Rhonda Twine from Sauble Beach was not surprised that she was the first person in Ontario connected to Xplore’s 100% pure fibre Internet service.

“I laughed because I knew what my friends and family would say, “The only reason high-speed Internet was coming here is because I am the biggest user of it.” I’ve been into the Internet since the beginning,” she said.

Her first memory of the Internet was the excitement of communicating with her father’s relatives overseas, first through email and later video calls.

“Being able to have a webcam and see them in real-time and speak with them... My grandpa immigrated from Hungary, traveling for 3 weeks on a boat. My dad was amazed to speak with his aunts and uncles and see them without having to fly over,” she explained.

Belly Achers, the name of her father’s home and the family’s cottage, is now her permanent retirement residence, just 300 feet from Lake Huron.

“We didn’t think this place could get any better. And now, we’ve got high-speed Internet. It definitely helped us make the decision to retire up here,” she said.

Rhonda said that the community struggled with unreliable Internet for a long time. With their previous Internet provider, her family would struggle to stream movies on family night, especially on weekends when more people were online and sharing bandwidth.

“I’m loving my high-speed Internet. We’ve had no buffering whatsoever. We can watch all our programs, our company can all be on their phones and tablets and we’ve had no interruption of service,” she said.

With her new Internet connection, her family’s home is directly connected to a 100% pure fibre network from Xplore so she no longer has to worry about sharing an Internet connection with her neighbours. They can now enjoy fibre-powered entertainment all weekend long, with a dedicated connection and enough speed to stream on multiple devices, video conference, set up an Internet-connected security system and do the many other things that speeds up to 1 gigabit per second can enable.

She’s also happy that as local shopkeepers get hooked up to fibre they can start offering debit and keep their businesses flourishing with all the opportunities that reliable Internet can provide.

“A lot of the businesses here had to be just cash because of the sketchy service. A lot more of them have really got their websites up and running. We’ve seen real growth in our community. Fibre came just in time,” she said.

She has been telling everybody who’ll listen about fibre and says there’s been a lot of enthusiasm.

“Everybody was excited in Sauble Beach – absolutely everybody! All the people around us were happy to sign up. All of our neighbours switched over. A lot of people have been able to relocate and work from home up here and you couldn’t do that before,” she said.

With her keen interest in the Internet, Rhonda expressed gratitude for the potentially life-saving benefits it brings.

“We don’t necessarily have an actual address out here; Canada Post doesn’t recognize this area so the ambulances use [the Internet] for Google location to help people. As more people come up here and are retiring it's going to be an older population and very important,” she said.

Fibre-to-the-premise networks offer the fastest broadband speeds available. With a direct connection that is more consistent and reliable, it is known to deliver the best online experience.

For residents that rent their property as a short-term vacation rental throughout the summer, a high-speed Internet connection could also set their rental apart. In fact, A research shows that Internet is one of the amenities guests search for the most. The Fibre Broadband Association estimates that access to fibre can increase your home’s value by an average of 3.1% - roughly the equivalent of adding a fireplace or half bath.

Thanks to projects awarded to Xplore by Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) residents of Grey Bruce, Middlesex and Brant Counties have access to 100% pure fibre.

Visit the Fibre Internet Look Up page and sign up today.