Maidstone Mayor Brennan Becotte speaks during SaskTel announcement. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

High speed

High-speed internet comes to Maidstone

Dec 8, 2024 | 2:00 PM

Eleanor Pegg and Amanda Flasch are thrilled for their community.

After years of intermittent or slow service, high speed internet has finally come to Maidstone.

“I couldn’t do Zooms at my work, I had to go home because it just cut out,” said Pegg.

She and Flasch were among some local residents to attend the SaskTel announcement at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 142 on Fri., Dec. 6 that infiNET has expanded into nine other rural communities: Buena Vista, Clavet, Foam Lake, Grand Coulee, Kinookimaw, Lampman, Regina Beach, Shellbrook and Waldheim.

The fibre cable. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

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“It’s fast, we’re a Netflix family,” said Flasch, adding that a TV is often on, and her children will be on their phones.

“You’ll often find it slows down and now since our house has been upgraded and our service has been upgraded to infiNET, it’s been nice to be able to use all of our devices at once without the lag.”

According to the press release, 80 communities are now connected to the high-speed digital highway.

“The expansion of internet services to these communities is the direct result of SaskTel’s $280 million rural Fibre initiative,’ said Greg Jacobs, manager of SaskTel corporate communications.

Last year, 5G came to the community and that is something Mayor Brennan Becotte said he was excited for. He explained that during the pandemic, as a longtime customer, he found himself leaving the company behind because the infrastructure didn’t work.

“My first experience of retrying infiNET was on Monday,” he said.

Becotte explained when he did the fast test and saw the number 500 appear, he said it was “absolutely unbelievable” before thanking the company for bringing the community into 2024.

“It really does work well and I’m excited to use it everywhere in the town and through the community.”

Becotte explained that while cellphone service was always stable and reliable, during the pandemic and everyone had to work from home, the internet infrastructure – made up of copper lines – couldn’t keep up.

Maidstone Mayor Brennan Becotte places the little green sticker on the connected board. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

“I spent a few years answering the public’s questions about why we were hydro digging every single corner and putting holes and plywood and they thought that was the town messing up the roads and doing the rest of it,” he said, while taking questions from the media.

“We had to do a lot of education to the public what actually was going on when they were installing the main lines and the rest of it.”

According to Jacobs, the community was selected based on a number of factors such as size, the state of existing infrastructure and economic development. As a result, the company is expanding in phases.

“That’s what we’re going to continue to do as we move forward,” he said.

According to James Thorsteinson, Cut-Knife-Turtleford MLA, this is the second community in the riding to get high-speed, the first being Unity.

“There are few pieces of infrastructure more important than those that deliver internet activity,” he said, adding it enables collaboration, online learning and helps patients get the health care they need.

“Most importantly, broadband ensures that families in communities of all sizes have an equal opportunity to participate and succeed (in our) ever-connected world.”

In the release, Jeremy Harrison, Meadow Lake MLA and SaskTel minister, said the ongoing expansion of the fibre optic broadband network will offer “better access to remote learning and work opportunities, further enhancing quality of life and creating a stronger and more prosperous economic future for Saskatchewan.”

Meanwhile, Jacobs said infiNET launched in 2011 and the infrastructure investment is “massive.”

“When you’re talking about upgrading a community to infiNET, even a community the size of Maidstone, you’re talking more than $1 million,” he said, noting service providers need to make that return and thus focused on larger centres.

The equipment that will deliver the infiNET. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW)

Since 2011, Jacobs said the company has invested nearly $1 billion.

“By the time we’re done he rural fibre initiative, it’ll be 225 [communities] we think we’re making every good progress with it, it just takes time.”

Pegg said while she hasn’t been connected yet, she is nevertheless excited.

“We’re just getting into all the streaming and stuff so I’m looking forward to it.”

The company expects that the majority of the “announced communities” will be connected by the end of January.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlySky: juleslovett@bsky.social