Telecom is giving out a rival company's SIM card to key hospital staff in Canterbury due to concerns over the reliability of its XT mobile network.
The network, which has been operating less than a year, has broken down four times since December. The problems have affected thousands of customers, mainly south of Taupo.
In Canterbury, hospital staff are being given 2Degrees SIM cards, which store numbers and other data, for use in their XT phones or having their 3G XT phones replaced with older 2G Telecom phones which are not affected by the XT network fault.
The Hutt Valley District Health Board has decided to ditch the XT network, saying it is unreliable and could threaten patient safety.
Hutt Valley staff members have been transferred to the older Telecom network and the DHB is also reconsidering its contract with Telecom, worth about $1 million.
DHB acting chief executive Michael Hundleby says some clinical staff with XT are on call for emergencies and it needs a network it can trust.
It is believed Capital and Coast District Health Board and the Otago-Southland DHB are also reconsidering their mobile phone options.
