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Virgin always tries to act saucy like that, and they've been doing it for a while. They think it makes them hip or something I guess. I have a phone with Virgin Mobile and it drives me nuts every time I go to their website.

You sound like a good candidate for a prepaid service like Virgin Mobile where you don't have a contract and just pay for what you actually use.

The problem with the $15 a month is, I don't want to have to pay if I don't use it for a month. As it is I have spent less then $10 a month on iTunes store (and this month I might not spend anything), for me it has been cheaper.

Try this phone from virgin mobile: http://virginmobileusa.com/catalog/phoneDetail.do? skuId=VMKE43KYKITK7N

My daughter's Kyocera phone from Virgin Mobile has a built-in flashlight. It was such an obvious feature that, once I saw it, I couldn't understand why all phones don't have one!

First a little background: I'm a teenager, and for the past year or so I've been using a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go phone I got for Christmas last year. It's treated me well, but lately I've found myself using more call time and it's more economic for me to use a calling plan than the VM $.25/min.

So, I looked around online for the best deals, because of course not having a highly paying job and being in school, money is of value to me. I compared some companies at letstalk.com, and liked what I saw. I spoke with my brother in college a couple hours away, and we decided to go in on a shared calling plan. I don't need to be real specific but we got a really good deal IMHO.

Now onto portability: Both my brother and I would like to keep our old phone numbers, so I checked with both my old and new providers to comfirm portability. Interestingly, when I placed the order I was told that only one phone number can be ported at a time for an order, so as recommended by the representative the two phones I ordered were actually originally purchased as two separate plans. When they arrive in a couple days, I'll have to call the new provider to switch back to the family plan. I was assuered there would be no penalty or difficulty in doing so.

I'm surprised that there was no integration for the porting of multiple phones at the same time, i.e. for family plans. Also, the online order form was slightly ambiguous about porting, so to play it safe I ordered by phone. As great as the internet is, the assurance of talking to a person was what I needed in this case.

I have Virgin Mobile service on my phone, in the last 60 days, I've used about $20, and that was probably my most active period to date. If you're really good at not using your phone, you can get it down to $20/3 months.

Of course, if you want to talk on your phone, then it's gonna get pretty expensive, pretty fast.

When was the last time you got full service like this? And your mom doing your laundry doesn't count.

Your Virgin Mobile Phone Number: (ABC) DEF-GHIJ
Your Phone's Network ID: 00ABCDEFGHIJ

Give your friends your phone number, but keep the super secret Network ID to yourself, you might need it to program your phone...this message may self-destruct.

Go forth and make joyous calls to friends and family.

NOW your phone is fully programmed. Celebrate by calling a few friends and telling them how accomplished you feel.

If your phone is acting funky, or it just won't work, try going through the steps over again. You may have entered a number incorrectly or something. If you're still having problems, call 1-888-322-1122 and a Central Intelligence Advisor will help you out.

I use Virgin Mobile. It's prepaid, so charges are by the minute--but cheaper for me as a low volume user. The beauty? The 25c/min. (decreases to 10c/min. after the first 10 minutes/day) includes all taxes, regulatory fees, what-have-you. Full disclosure, no surprises.

But the cell phone industry in the US is a scam.... If you are too high you are charged every month for minutes you don't use. If you are too low... you spend about 75c per minute.

Going from local to state-wide to nation-wide roaming might cost 5 - 10 dollars per month in advance, but if you take a trip outside your calling area, and give a loved one two 30 minute update calls, expect to pay an extra 40 dollars.....

If a person is calling you, they are paying long distance to reach you (5-15c per minute), but you are paying long distance charges to recieve the call too (15-25c per minute).

There's more to it that makes a great service but I don't want to turn into a commercial. The point is, the big problem with US cellular companies is how they nickle and dime you to death and overall charge you more than they need to.

Kyocera Wireless had the first 3G (CDMA2000 1X) phone launched over a year ago. The 2200 Series have sold in excess of 3 million units at Verizon, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile USA. Nokia really isn't doing anything special here.

The pay-as-you-go business in the USA is about 3 years behind Europe. Expiry of minutes and minimum top-up fees in the USA mean that effectively most so-called pay-as-you-go plans still require a minimum monthly payment.

This is finally changing. Virgin just launched the first truly open-ended pay-as-you-go service in the USA. $100 to buy the phone, 25c for the first 3 minutes each day and 10c/minute thereafter. Minutes never expire, and there are no long distance or roaming charges. Virgin is using Sprint's PCS network.

The only other service that has come close to this so far in the USA is Tracfone, which offers 365 days of continuous service including 150 minutes of airtime for $100 or so. Great for emergency use, but the price of additional minutes is high.

The trend in Europe has been ubiquitous ownership of pay-as-you-go phones, used modestly. The trend in the USA has been to bundle huge amounts of night/weekend minutes into monthly plans to encourage heavy use. It will be interesting to watch the collision between these business models.