I wonder if anybody has even considered that? It would be a great thing to suggest if not. Otherwise wifi and internet calling provides a backup. Although I’ve found hotel wifi a bit hit and miss when trying to achieve this in the past. That would especially be the case with heavy use by people with nothing else to do.

I’m assuming the ‘internees’ are provided with room service meals, so maybe they can order a sim at the same time.

Maybe it’s something the telco reps on GZ could contact the relevant authorities to organise a supply.

Unfortunately wifi in a lot of hotels is still quite expensive and limited - take Zenbu for example (there are others also), these companies just are not up with the current standards in terms of data allowances and still a lot of accommodation operators continue to use them to manage their wifi.  When I was in China some years back, all the hotel's we stayed at had their wifi completely open and free.  With the business broadband plans you can buy today, there's no reason why hotels in NZ can't do the same.

If you're stuck in a hotel for a period of time, your best bet would be to order a 4g sim online and have it couriered to the hotel, it would also workout much cheaper than paying for wifi data depending on who is managing the hotels wifi.

Found a report from somebody staying in an isolation hotel.

Obviously the sample size is 1, so situation may differ.

Apparently in the Grand Mercure Hotel wifi is great and is provided for free (I presume that the government negotiated it be included with rooms, meals etc.).

https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/gcgtgb/i_have_just_traveled_from_melbourne_to_auckland/