This Xplore Employee is Building 5G, Training Future Para-Olympians and Providing Equine-Assisted Therapy at his Farm

Oro-Medonte, Ontario, where Robert Timlin, one of Xplore’s Fixed Wireless Construction Managers calls home, is the perfect spot for him to fulfill his many rewarding pursuits.

Here, he and his spouse operate “The Horse Sanctuary”, a 50-acre farm where they rescue horses and invite locals from the at-risk segment to visit for equine-assisted therapy.

Coincidentally, the farm is also spitting distance to the ski hills where he teaches adaptive skiing.

As well, the farm is where his home office is – his launch pad for helping build Xplore’s fixed wireless network in Ontario.

Although Rob lives and breathes rural, he was actually born and raised in Mississauga.

“My father was a mechanical engineer. He helped build the nuclear power plants. I am also building, and I know if he was around, he’d enjoy seeing what I’m doing,” he said.

Rob’s father grew up rural, so he followed in his footsteps in more than one way.

“My father grew up in southeastern Saskatchewan on a large farm so it’s kind of been full circle. He moved from the farm and built his life in the city and now I’ve grown up in the city and moved to the farm,” he said.

His wife Lillian, a lifelong equestrian, also inspired Rob.

Many years ago, Rob and Lillian came to the unpleasant realization that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of horses being needlessly discarded.

“Because they are so long-lived, when a horse can no longer serve its purpose they very often fall into less-than-ideal circumstances,” he said.

They decided that they were going to actively rescue these horses and give them a future.

“We didn’t want to just rescue horses, we wanted to give them a purpose,” he said.

They wanted to help both the horses and the people of their community, which is why they decided to offer equine-assisted therapy programs and invite people in need to work with horses. “People Helping Horses Helping People” became, and continues to be the organization's mission statement.

The Horse Sanctuary became a registered Canadian charity, serving children with special needs, adults with disabilities, the elderly, youth groups, and women’s shelters.

“The farm is fully accessible so anyone in need that would enjoy the opportunity to interact with horses is welcome. It’s extremely empowering for youth or women who have experienced trauma to develop a connection with a huge animal. It’s rewarding both for the participants and for us the facilitators,” Rob explained.

Rob and his wife also rescue Great Danes and Standard Poodles and use The Horse Sanctuary’s Facebook page to advocate for responsible ownership of both horses and dogs.

“They deserve a high quality of care from sunup to sundown and there’s lots of things we could do better. At the Horse Sanctuary we strive to do better,” he said.

Rob also hosts an Xplore tower on his property and uses his Xplore Internet connection at home not only to run the charity’s Facebook page but for all aspects of his rural life.

“It’s great to be able to stream multiple devices until our heart’s content. Mine and my wife’s offices are here at home. Through COVID, my wife being a professor at the college, having a good quality, reliable connection was the only way she could do her job,” he said.

Rob is proud to know that his neighbours are also connected to the tower on his property.

“People we get eggs from and goats from... I’m proud to be working for the company that’s providing their internet. It’s life-changing for people in the country. It’s been really rewarding to know that,” he said.

If that weren’t enough, Rob spends his free time, and most of his vacations, in the winter teaching people with disabilities how to ski.

His son’s classmate from high school was in an ATV accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. While horseback riding at the farm, she mentioned she wanted to go to Horseshoe Valley to learn adaptive skiing.

“I had ski experience, my sons both ski and one of my sons is a high-level ski coach in Ontario, so I decided to help her,” he said.

He got involved with Canadian Adaptive Snow Sports (CADS), a national organization that offers adaptive ski programming at regional ski hills across the country. Volunteers come every Saturday or Sunday for eight weeks in the wintertime where they are matched up with students who want to learn to ski.

Rob is now a CADS level 2 course conductor and can both teach students to ski, as well as train and certify other instructors. One of the adaptive skiing tools that he trains para-athletes in is the sit ski.

“It’s a great organization, no matter what the disability, we can get you skiing! It’s very rewarding, there’s always people I can help,” Rob said.

Rob also trains students in para-racing with the Ontario Para-Alpine Ski Team (OPAST). Some of his students even represented Canada at the Paralympics.

He just got back from the Canadian Winter Games in Atlantic Canada where a couple of the athletes he worked with competed, bringing home two silver medals for Ontario.

“I’m really proud to say that two years ago one of the athletes I taught to sit ski (Katie Combaluzier) represented Canada in Beijing at the Paralympics and is on track to reach the 2026 games in Italy,” he said.

Rob brings the Olympic spirit to his work with Xplore.

“Faster, higher, stronger - Together” is the Olympic motto and for us it’s similar. People are moving rural, and the requirement for more bandwidth increases daily. It’s important for us to get out and build the network to meet customers’ needs. There’s no 5G until someone gets out and builds it,” he said.

Rob will celebrate 15 years with Xplore come April 2023.

As a construction manager for the fixed wireless team, Rob oversees existing and new site construction activities in the central, west, and southern Ontario regions.

His favourite part of the role is that it’s dynamic.

“Things are evolving almost daily sometimes. While it can be stressful, being unsure of what could be happening three weeks or three years from now, change is good,” he said. “It’s really rewarding to build this service and see the results firsthand as the company grows and customers get an increasingly better experience.”

Xplore’s 5G Home Internet service is now available in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland. Call 1-866-601-0021 today to see if speeds up to 100 Mbps are available where you live!