MEDIA RELEASE - Patients and families at Burwood Hospital are about to have their lives made easier, with a brand new 4G cell site vastly improving coverage and high speed broadband to the state of the art health facility.

The site will radically transform the hospital’s access to communication services, with employees, patients and visitors benefiting from greater connectivity over Vodafone's 4G network.

Vodafone’s Technology Director Tony Baird said, “Hospitals can often be stressful places for patients and visitors, so it’s important that they can easily communicate with family and friends.

The new 4G site will enable Vodafone customers to instantaneously load web pages, stream the latest movies and music without delay and keep on top of life admin, all from the comfort of their bed while they recover,” added Baird.

Hospital staff will also notice a difference with improved mobile data speeds and coverage, enhanced voice quality and better signal strength for calls and TXTs, increasing the ability for faster turnaround of important medical information.

Burwood Hospital’s post-quake rebuild has meant it now measures 32,000 square metres over three floors with the footprint of two rugby fields.

To enable better connectivity, Vodafone has erected a 20 metre Monopole in the carpark of the hospital, custom built to transmit long, low wave frequencies, ensuring the highest possible penetration through thick hospital walls.

Vodafone are constantly investing to ensure Kiwis up and down the country have access to decent internet and mobile coverage and work really hard to deliver as much mobile coverage to as many New Zealanders as possible. Our network currently reaches 98.5% of the population with 4G reaching 93%.