Vodafone New Zealand highlighted efforts in November to boost wireless network capacity and coverage as part of an expanded regional investment plan and initiatives to keep up with soaring data usage driven by Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions, deploying and upgrading 32 sites during the month.

The operator added 15 new sites, including eight under the Rural Connectivity Group (RCG) programme and upgraded 17 existing plots.

RCG is a joint venture between the three mobile operators present in New Zealand designed to improve rural internet access.

Thaigan Govender, head of mobile access networks at Vodafone, stated “2021 was a hard year for everyone”, noting the Delta variant of Covid-19 “threw the need for connection into sharper focus and we expect our networks will see record mobile traffic”, during the New Zealand summer.

In February, Vodafone committed to up its infrastructure investment, detailing plans to upgrade or build more than 250 sites and bring 5G to more cities.