PALM Cove shops and residents were left without telephone services over the weekend for the second time in less than two weeks.

Small business owners on Williams Esplanade said they were increasingly frustrated with Telstra's landline service, which went down days after another problem with a faulty circuit breaker was fixed on January 4.

Pockets of shops were affected during the latest Telstra fault, which also took out EFTPOS connections. Businesses and residents near the Cedar Rd end of Williams Esplanade seemed to suffer most.

Seventeen Telstra customers reported voice services were out from Saturday evening until restored yesterday morning.

Sanctuary Palm Cove manager Scott Gallagher said his phones went down on Saturday morning.

"Our telephones have been down seven times since June 29," Mr Gallagher said. "As soon as it rains we know the phone isn't going to work. We’re just so frustrated with it."

Businesses contacted had diverted landline calls to mobile phones.

But The Boutique Collection director Robert Whyte said it was still "extremely frustrating" to process guests' payments.

"As a small business you just feel so powerless," Mr Whyte said.

Telstra apologised but a spokeswoman could not explain the problem.

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