Communities across Tasmania's north-east have been left without reliable phone and internet connection for days and it is unclear when services will return to normal.
Sandy Kerr, who runs a dairy at Winnaleah near Scottsdale, said the issue had impacted her business.
"The internet has been fluctuating between working and not working, the mobile phone is not working as it should," she said.
"My husband was on the phone and then it just went dead. I have been on the phone and it has just gone dead — and I have even rung Telstra and it went dead."
Ms Kerr said she hoped the problem would be rectified as soon as possible.
"I don't know how it is going to play out. We are just so reliant on the internet and mobile phone coverage," she said.
"The north-east is becoming more of a tourist area, but why would you want to come here if you can't use your internet like you can use everywhere else in Australia?
"It is just not good enough."
State Member for McIntyre Tania Rattray said her office had been inundated with complaints from residents.
"I have been hearing from very frustrated constituents around the lack of reliable service in the area," she said.
"How do you run a business, in this day and age, if you don't have reliable access to internet services?
"That's not good enough for the people of the north-east."
Telstra working to resolve issue
Telstra's regional general manager in Tasmania Michael Patterson confirmed technicians were currently working on restoring an issue affecting Telstra mobile services in the north-east, including towns such as Scottsdale, Winnaleah, Derby, Pioneer and Herrick.
"Mobile coverage in this area is provided from our tower at Mount Horror, and there is currently an intermittent issue on our transmission cable which helps connect this tower to the broader Telstra network," Mr Patterson said.
"Unfortunately, this is impacting mobile data speeds and also causing issues with call dropouts and poor clarity for some users."
The Mount Horror tower was upgraded by Telstra in December with new equipment and antennas, aimed at improving mobile coverage and connectivity for local residents.
Mr Patterson said there was no time frame around when services would be back to normal.
"We are working to get the issue fixed as soon as we can and apologise for any inconvenience caused during this time," he said.
"If residents have access to a wi-fi signal, in the interim Telstra encourages local residents to activate wi-fi calling."
Landline and NBN services have not been impacted.
