Kilo Seven

http://www.mobilemag.com/2011/11/08/republic-wireless-19month-unlimited-plan-has-soft-caps  details a $19/mo cellphone plan for a $199 Android cellphhone ($99 w/ the discount code “welcome19″) running version 2.3 aka 'Ice Cream".  This depends on using WiFi to talk most of the time, with 'soft' limits of  550 minutes, 150 texts, and 300MB of data  which you should not exceed when you're on 3G cellular; no limits apply when you're on WiFi. The phone is basic but decent, and if most of your time is spent inside where there's WiFi, it's an intriguing deal.

http://phandroid.com/2011/07/07/new-virgin-mobile-usa-plans-coming-july-19th/ hints at a price hike for Virgin Mobile USA users. Still cheaper than the Big Four, but the threat of the ATT-TMobile merger is clearly making Sprint think they can hike prices.

Want a secure, untappable mobile call? There's over a dozen products which *say* they can give you that security, but only three of them couldn't be cracked by one coder in half an hour.

Interesting list of services to help your cellphone do more in the   NY Times technology pages .