FREE WiFi Comes to 18 Hospitals and Healthcare Locations in Wales UK

The Cloud (BSkyB) has today added to their 1,000+ WiFi hotspots in Wales by signing two new partners (the Aneurin Bevan and Cwm Taf health boards) from the healthcare industry, which means that their free wireless Internet connectivity is now being deployed to a total of 18 Welsh healthcare locations.

The new deal with Aneurin Bevan and Cwm Taf means that staff, patients and visitors will be able to go online to browse, shop, access emails and do all the other things that bed-ridden folk tend to do when the Internet is available.

John Hunt, Head of ICT at Cwm Taf, said:

“We’ve listened to our patients, visitors, staff and students who have been asking for improved access to the internet at our hospital sites. We have overlaid The Cloud onto our existing secure WiFi hardware, which will be available across all major estates by the middle of 2014. This means that everyone will have free internet access via their own devices without compromising the security of our existing systems.”

Vince Russell, MD of The Cloud, added:

“People often rely on 3G to access the internet from their mobile device. The problem is that coverage can be patchy and the demand on the 3G and 4G networks is so high that they cannot provide the speeds needed to satisfy people wanting to stream video or use other online services. It’s this kind of connection users want. In the digital age, the ability to go online is a necessity not a luxury.”

Apparently a similar deployment at the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABM), which went live in October 2013, has proven extremely popular and the network now sees an average of over 6,500 WiFi sessions per day.