My 29 year old niece has been traveling alone in Southeast Asia and now Australia. Somehow she hurt her foot and got a nasty infection. She is in Rabina Hospital and has had four operations so far, with plastic surgery yet to come. The cell phone she has does not make or accept international calls. Her mother has had limited contact with her through a nurse. We are trying to get her a phone that she can use to keep in contact with her mother.

Short of air freighting one from the U.S., does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

buy one at a online aussie website and have it

delivered to her room?

its hard as they require ID, unsure if you need a aussie address but drivers license and passport might help.

Telstra is our main telecommunications provider but unfortunately here in Australia the competition is not great so costs here are higher than US. Check out Telstra - Pre-Paid Mobiles - Mobile for info on prepaid cell phones. We call them mobiles.

Another method I use when travelling is get a skype account and use local wi-fi to communicate. You can even do this with smart phones, ipads, laptops etc as it does not need a Sim cards and is much cheaper. You can also chat via text or buy skype credit and call landlines.

Thanks for the information guys. I passed that on to my sister.

Communication has improved - my cousin's cousin (other side of the family) has a friend in Melbourne who has a friend in the area who went to see my niece, and brought her flowers. You guys down under are awesome!

hope its all up from here

Any news.....can anyone in Melbourne help?