East Arnhem Land's local MP says Telstra and the NT government are "playing with people's lives" after close to a fortnight of evenings without mobile coverage in Galiwin'ku.

Residents of the island community say reception has dropped out for around 12 hours every night after 8pm since March 22, in a continuation of inconsistent coverage since the week before Christmas, the ABC reports.

Nearby Milingimbi has also experienced similar drop outs of service since March 25.

Telstra is the only network provider to the more than 2,000 residents of Galiwin'ku, with the company blaming the issue on solar power site failures and contributions by the weather.

It's understood a generator has now been brought in to help.

Yolŋu man Marcus Lacey said the situation threatens major risks, and that his family members have been left asking what they had done to deserve it.

"It's not right. It shouldn't be like that," he told ABC.

"There could be someone dying out there."

Local resident Phil Watson said "I would have called the police if I'd had some sort of phone coverage, but as it was, I wasn't able to do that." after coming across a disturbance while walking in town at night recently.

Mr Watson said people have had to physically seek out medical help in the middle of the night without being able to make calls.

NT independent Legislative Assembly member for Mulka, Yingiya Guyula, said the failures would not be tolerated in other parts of the country.

He said the response from both Telstra and the NT Government has left Milingimbi and Galiwin'ku community members feeling "outraged and completely abandoned".

"This would not be considered acceptable anywhere else," Mr Guyula told the ABC.

"Thousands of people are in phone isolation and there seems to be no urgency to fix the problem and no one seems to care.

"By ignoring the problems with the phone service, Telstra and the government are playing with people's lives."

NT Minister for Minister for Corporate and Digital Development told ABC the NT Government is advocating for "better connections and services on behalf of Territorians to the Australian government and telecommunications industry".

Telstra's Northern Australia General Manager Nic Danks said there has been power failures in Mapuru, which relies on both solar and batteries with no mains power connection, leading to the network issues.

"The cause has been a combination of low levels of charging due to the weather and a failure in one of the three battery racks we have located on site," he said, the ABC reported.

"In the interim, Telstra has this week brought a backup generator to site to ensure it continues to remain charged over the next few months."

Mr Danks apologised to the local community, that Tesltra takes their service of the area seriously, and said an upgrade to the Mapuru site is expected to take place in July.