Just to clarify on the texts: The very cheapest monthly (as in a single month long contract) deal I could find came with, by default, infinite texts (and these are cross-network texts, which a quick Google suggests seems to be a restriction on Verizon in the U.S. even when you pay an additional surcharge for texts each month, the price of which alone is higher than my entire monthly bill).

I'm sure you've been able to pay extra for a ridiculous numbers of texts for a good while, but now they seem to have dropped to be very roughly in line with their actual cost, which I believe is indistinguishable from zero to the networks.