Horseshoe Bay jet ski company says Telstra black spot costing tourism business

The owner of a tourism company on Magnetic Island says his business has lost $50,000 since the monsoon rains due to failing Telstra services.

Andrew Eslick, owner of highly rated Magnetic Island Jet Skis. Magnetic Island Jet Skis based in Horseshoe Bay. Picture: Supplied

The owner of a tourism company on Magnetic Island says his business has lost $50,000 since the monsoon rains due to failing Telstra telecommunications services.

Andrew Eslick, owner of Magnetic Island Jet Skis in Horseshoe Bay, said Telstra coverage in the bay had dropped out two months ago, adversely affecting businesses and tourists.

“Sometimes the phones do pick up one bar or two bars but none of the phones are still working, so none of the businesses or any tourists or any customer in Horseshoe Bay can use their phone if it’s Telstra,” he said.

“There’s no data, ATMs aren’t working, Eftpos terminals aren’t working, it’s been like that for about two months now.”

Andrew Eslick, owner of highly rated Magnetic Island Jet Skis. Magnetic Island Jet Skis based in Horseshoe Bay. Picture: Supplied

Mr Eslick said some businesses had landlines and ADSL internet connections, although the services were intermittent and had recently been out for a month.

“But the mobile services have been affected the entire time … it’s been causing some dramas for a lot of tourists and businesses in Horseshoe,” he said.

“Every person who comes to Horseshoe, no one can use their mobile phones so if there is anyone who is trying to book a tour or a product, trying to research anything to do on the island and they’re in Horseshoe, unfortunately they can’t use their phones.”

Magnetic Island Jet Skis based in Horseshoe Bay. Picture: Supplied

Mr Eslick, who employs four people at his family-run business, said he had been forced to cancel plans to employ two additional staff and his business had been impacted financially to the tune of an estimated $50,000.

“We haven’t been able to be in contact with any customers on the island so normally February and March are a lot busier but since the phones have been down we haven’t been receiving calls from anyone who is on the island.”

He said calls would go direct to voicemail and they would not receive a notification until six hours later.

“We call back the numbers once we get connected to Wi-Fi at a different location and they are like, ‘sorry, we are only here for the day, we were just calling to see if anything was available’.”

Magnetic Island Jet Skis based in Horseshoe Bay. Picture: Supplied

Mr Eslick said he was not buying Telstra’s excuses that its telecommunications towers were the result of “congestion” or overloading.

“The towers were working before the monsoon in the peak season in January and February when we had the school holidays … the phones were working fine but then after the floods that’s when the towers stopped working,” he said.

“How can a low period have congestion issues when the busy period beforehand did not?”

Magnetic Island Jet Skis based in Horseshoe Bay. Picture: Supplied

Telstra said it was urgently addressing the issue that was “affecting data speeds”.

“The impact is quite localised but we’re working to get the site back to 100 per cent ASAP and we thank everyone for their patience,” a spokesman said.

“The fix requires getting specialist teams and heavy machinery onto the island, which is scheduled for this weekend so everything should be sorted soon.”

The Telstra spokesman said residents could improve their mobile coverage by using their NBN connection to access Wi-Fi calling.

“This is a free setting on most popular mobile phones and allows your mobile to use a Wi-Fi network to make and receive mobile calls,” he said.

“We also encourage business owners to talk to their bank about connecting their EFTPOS terminals to their NBN or Wi-Fi connection to prevent delays in processing transactions.”

Originally published as Horseshoe Bay jet ski company says Telstra black spot costing tourism business