Withernsea businesses complain of lost trade over phone mast work

Work is taking place on Withernsea lighthouse, including upgrading the phone masts

Businesses owners in part of East Yorkshire say they have lost trade after mobile phone mast upgrade work left the area with little or no signal.

The phone masts on Withernsea lighthouse have been switched off while they are upgraded from 4G to 5G.

Sevvy Robinson, who runs SBR Gas Services, said he had lost money as "I can't get back in touch with anyone".

02 and Vodafone apologised for the disruption and said the masts were due to be switched back on by 20 October.

Mr Robinson said a large proportion of his work was emergency callouts.

"By the time someone has managed to get in touch with me, or I have rung them back on a night, they're going to be ringing someone else.

"I have already lost between £480 to £750 at a minimum, which is a decent loss for me."

'No signal'

His concerns were shared by Helen Cleworth, who runs Precious Prints in Withernsea.

"O2 are still sending me messages saying, 'you have missed calls' - so those are potential customers.

"Basically I've got no signal."

Phone companies said they had boosted other masts, but people living in the area said they still faced signal issues which limited their access to essential services such as internet banking.

Amanda Bailey, who owns Bella Moda, said she was having to advise customers her business was currently cash only.

"A lot of people like to pay with a card, but we can't get the card machine working because it runs on the internet from my phone."

'Planned upgrades'

02 said some customers would experience "intermittent issues" during the work on the masts and apologised for any inconvenience.

"Once completed, our customers in Withernsea will benefit from faster and more reliable mobile connectivity," a spokesperson said.

A Vodafone UK spokesperson said: "We'd like to say sorry to any of our customers experiencing problems with their service in the Withernsea area at the moment.

"Our infrastructure partner, TEF (Telefonica S.A), is currently making some planned upgrades and maintenance to a local mast."

The firm also said customers who registered on its Network Status Check would automatically be notified about issues including planned maintenance work.

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