A Cooks Beach resident running a plumbing and internet business from home is desperately trying to access a broadband connection after waiting for one for the last 18 months.

John Orbell.

But Chorus, which owns the copper network and is responsible for installing lines, says the Mercury Bay area has capacity challenges that are currently being worked through.

John Orbell says he's been trying to get broadband to his Purangi Rd property since building his home in January 2013.

'[In January 2013] we went to get the phone line in but were told we wouldn't get internet so we stopped the process, because we weren't going to pay $1000 for a phone line.”

John says he's had many service providers contact him to secure him as a customer but once failing to access broadband always point him back to Chorus. He currently uses his mobile for emailing, using 3G.

'You go through this whole process of service provider sales people telling you you're going to get it, I've even had a modem sent out this time, and then they say: ‘we've put an instruction in to test it and its come back saying you can't get it'. Then they say it's over to Chorus.

'So that's happened to me three times in the last year-and-a-half.”

John understands there may have been damage done to the Cooks Beach network at some point.

'I'm not sure when it was because I've heard different things on when it's happened.

'But I'm not sure if it's a land dispute. That's one of the other rumours – that landowners are preventing repair.

John says while Chorus' frontline staff are easy to deal with, he can't make progress with the company.

He's now raised the issue with Coromandel MP Scott Simpson, who confirms he'll follow it up with Chorus.

Scott says John is among a number of peninsula residents experiencing the limited capacity issue.

'He'll be in a wait queue and as soon as another connection becomes available he'll move up,” says Scott, who says Chorus is rolling out new connections nationwide, as part of the Rural Broadband Initiative delivering broadband to small towns, schools, health facilities and rural areas.

Scott says schools and health facilities comes first – and on the peninsula they have broadband with only residents left to wait.

John says no broadband 'heavily affects” his businesses, as 'everything runs on 3G” – especially his internet business, which requires liaising with his Takapuna-based developer.

'Ideally, we'd do conference calling but I've got to drive up there quite a bit now to meet with him because we don't have capabilities to Skype with such poor 3G signal.”

John believes five-18 people may need broadband connections in Cooks Beach – and he's annoyed some holiday home owners have connections but don't need them full-time.

'I'm not sure how many circuits are here and owned by holiday home owners but that gets my back up as well because there should be something in play for full-time residents.

'I can't rent an office in Whitianga, because I run my plumbing business by day and internet business by night – so I need to be at home.”

With plans to extend his office and hire more staff, John says he's now trying to ‘piggyback” off another connection until broadband becomes available.

Chorus media spokesperson Elissa Downey says a number of people are waiting for a fixed-line connection but says it's difficult to say how many there are as the number changes often.

Work is underway to resolve cabinet capacity challenges but support from members of the community hasn't been forthcoming, she says. She declined to elaborate on this statement, citing privacy reasons.

'Please rest assured we are doing everything in our power to resolve these issues to increase cabinet capacity in the area, and will give an update as soon as we have one.”

She also suggests that people might be able to get a wireless broadband connection through the Rural Broadband Initiative and says people should consult Vodafone's map at http://www.vodafone.co.nz/network/rural/