Mission Beach locals are fed up with years of unreliable phone and internet service and are asking for change

With emergency calls to triple-0 dropping out, businesses struggling with basics including receiving payments and answering their phones, and farmers ditching NBN all together, fed up Mission Beach residents are demanding action.

Mission Beach residents say unreliable telephone service in the region is so severe it has become life-threatening, with one businessman reporting an urgent triple-0 call dropping out while he called for help for a seriously ill customer.

Paul Roxby phoned triple-0 when a man in his store fell ill with chest pain and other symptoms, needing immediate medical attention.

“Would you believe my triple-0 call to ambulance dropped when discussing the situation?” Mr Roxby asked.

“It took five minutes for them to contact me back.”

The Mission Beach Nursery owner is calling attention to the daily struggle of unreliable phone and internet services he says have plagued the region for years.

Mr Roxby said it was not just a “wet season” problem and a long-term solution was urgently required to fix services provided by telecom giants, with many businesses struggling with basics such as EFTPOS payments.

“A Telstra rep suggested people buy a $1600 aerial on their roof to fix the problem, but everyone is already paying for a Telstra service that doesn’t exist,” he said.

Paul Roxby, owner of Mission Beach Nursery, is calling attention to power and internet woes in the region. Picture: Supplied

Owner of Zen Lifestyle and Health Dave Riddell said failing internet had been an issue since he moved to the area from Melbourne in 2020.

“Mobile signal is half a bar a day,” he said.

“It is embarrassing to walk out of the shopping centre to get a payment, sometimes halfway down to the beach to get service.

“The other thing is phone service. I got home after work the other day to see six missed calls.

“None of them came up on the phone. It was people trying to book appointments.

“My business is really struggling and so am I.”

Cassowary Coast Tourism executive officer Patrick Bluett said poor phone and internet service was an ongoing problem that had reached a peak in the past couple of weeks.

“We lost all Telstra service on Jan 31 and got full service only Tuesday afternoon,” he said.

“We couldn’t do any business for five days and then adopted some temporary measures.

“No landlines, Wi-Fi, internet, EFTPOS. We were one of several businesses affected and this time it was mainly residents but a similar outage during tourism season and the loss to business would be significant.”

Path to Wongaling Beach with Dunk Island Water Taxi in distance. Photo: Tourism Tropical North Queensland

Mr Bluett said he could accept temporary issues but was frustrated with Telstra’s customer service, which he described as “non-existent” and akin to “dealing with a black hole”.

“Telstra blame NBN and say a lot of it is because of infrastructure (copper wiring) but Telstra is our provider, the bill is on us, they even inflict late payment fees,” he said.

The upgrade of copper wiring to fibre optics is an important infrastructural upgrade in an area with high humidity and salt water inundation, which has not been delivered to residents of the Mission Beach area, who are caught between Telstra and NBN in finding a solution.

Farmers needing internet for their tractors were among those affected and many chose to discard NBN entirely and opt for Starlink, a satellite internet service provider, despite its prohibitive costs because it works.

A Telstra representative confirmed loss of 4G coverage, Telstra CMUX landlines and 3NBN nodes in the Mission Beach area due to a huge storm on February 1, and said mobile 4G was restored on February 5 after necessary parts were sourced.

Telstra regional manager Rachel Cliffe said regional connectivity was a responsibility to be shared between all levels of government, including NBN and other mobile carriers.

“We have two mobile base stations in Mission Beach and we have plans to upgrade 4G and deliver 5G to the area for the first time in a couple of months,” she said.

Perry Harvey Jetty at Narragon Beach Mission Beach. Photo: Tourism Tropical North Queensland

Optus customers have also suffered due to “planned work on a mobile tower” in South Mission Beach, according to their website, resulting in mobile service disruption until February 22.

An Optus spokesman said they were are aware of customers in Mission Beach, Queensland experiencing network coverage issues and apologised to impacted customers.

A TPG Telecom spokesman said Vodafone did not operate any mobile sites in Mission Beach but had announced a network sharing deal last year with Telstra to significantly boost coverage and improve competition for mobile services in regional Australia.

“Mission Beach was one of the areas targeted to benefit from this network sharing deal but unfortunately, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) decided to not authorise it,” they said.

“We are continuing to fight for the interests of regional consumers and competition, and are challenging the ACCC’s decision in the Australian Competition Tribunal.”

Originally published as Mission Beach locals are fed up with years of unreliable phone and internet service and are asking for change