My Cingular bill -- $19.99 plus taxes and other random fees (including just a little roaming) -- came to $302.20 for the last 12 months' bills (not including a $36 charge because I was a day or two late paying the bill). Grabbing the minutes used for those months and assuming the worst case for the price of those minutes (that is, all 25¢ minutes, never getting past the daily ten minutes to get to 10¢ minutes), that adds up to $105.25. Now, Virgin requires a payment of at least $20 every 90 days, so it might be possible that the timing would work out that I'd end up paying more than that semi-optimal cost (for example, I had 3 months in a row that would have cost a total of $7.50), but it'll still remain at about a third the price. And even if I got their most expensive phone, I'd pay for it within a year, and it's easy to just not buy a computer game or two and write it off totally for that time period.

The only way I'd see using more time with the phone is if it were WAP-enabled, which it's not, and due to checking voicemail which I currently don't have and would use from time to time with the new phone. But it probably wouldn't add up to that much.

Also, I really like the way that all the hidden fees really are hidden. Virgin's costs are paid totally by the per-minute charge. There are no taxes or fees, roaming or any other sort, to be paid.