Year-long fight for NBN connection hurting Cairns business

A Cairns businessman that battled for 11 months with national telcos to get an NBN service is celebrating the eventual hooking up of a wi-fi connection after going public with his struggle.

Coffee Buoy is located on the ground floor of Lake Street’s Cairns Corporate Tower. Picture: Front Row Foto

A Cairns businessman that battled for 11 months with national telcos get the NBN service is celebrating the eventual hooking up of a wi-fi connection after going public with his struggle.

The process at Coffee Buoy started in March 2024 when operations manager Justin Field tried to connect phone and internet service to the business located on the ground floor of the Cairns Corporate Tower.

Telstra provided a landline number and said the service would be connected in 24-hours, business cards were printed and advertising made ready but 11 months later the proprietor is still stuck in a frustrating arm wrestle with the telco.

Following failed connection attempts Telstra said an NBN technician would be called out to check the connection but on three separate occasions an AI system automatically cancelled the service call, Mr Field claims.

The co-owner of Coffee Buoy cafe Justin Field has been left frustrated by a 11 month wait to have their NBN broadband internet connected, despite being a tenant in the city's number one corporate address. Picture: Brendan Radke

“I can’t even explain my frustration when it comes to this,” he said.

“A new person every week (is assigned to the job) and you have to explain the whole history all over.

“The repetition and the number of people involved in this is endless, it’s insane.”

The Cairns Corporate Tower would be among the best connected buildings in the city and is home to major corporate tenants, as well as federal and state government departments.

The business, until Wednesday had been relying on a Nighthawk mobile modem using the 4G network but nothing is hardwired and when the connection drops out the point of sale system does not work. And there’s no wi-fi for customers.

While troubleshooting the problem Telstra advised Mr Field that ethernet cables were faulty and they were replaced.

Coffee Buoy operations manager Justin Field and his business partner have been relying on an inferior hotspot connection to a mobile service for their point of sales, and have no WI-FI service or phone number. Picture: Brendan Radke

The telco then said the modem was faulty, which was also swapped.

Telstra then claimed a laptop was needed to directly connect to the NBN box.

Mr Field bought the laptop Telstra stated was essential in identifying the fault but connecting to the NBN still failed.

Mr Field said an nbn technician had visited the cafe three times and each time they confirmed everything was working from their end.

It’s claimed no Telstra tech has been sent to investigate.

“Other than the obvious unbelievable fact with the delay to get phone and internet service in our business, one of my biggest frustrations from going through this process so far is how AI-controlled this process is, I was shocked, ” Mr Field said.

“Humans actually have to work out ways to ‘outsmart’ the AI system.”

In response to a Cairns Post query about the matter Telstra stated the issue was with an NBN hardware serial number “mismatch” before suggesting the NBN be contacted directly.

NBN apologised to Mr Field and his business partner while announcing the connection was now working.

“We are sorry for the time, frustration and stress Justin has experienced in trying to connect his business to the NBN,” a spokesman said.

On Wednesday Mr Field was elated the arduous battle was at last over but the business owner has been left wondering what real action had been taken during the past 11 months.

“It is amazing, we have the phone on and we have full internet, it has been a game changer,” he said.

“But the disappointing thing is the stress and pressure it puts on the business, why do I need (to contact the press) this to get it on.”

Telstra said the provider will stay in touch with the business to ensure everything’s working as expected.

“We’re glad he’s now online and he can focus on making great coffee,” a spokesman said.

Follow @petercarruther1

Originally published as Year-long fight for NBN connection hurting Cairns business