I'm a very happy Virgin Mobile user since 2006. I recently took the plunge to the smart-phone world and have the Optimus V with a $35/month plan -- 300 talk minutes, unlimited text/web access. You can step up to 1200 minutes for $45 and unlimited minutes for $55/month, but I'm guessing your nephew is like most kids and will never even approach 300 minutes since all they seem to do is text, so you could get a phone and 12 $35 top-up cards and the kid will be set for a year.
The only place I've ever traveled in 6 years and wasn't covered by voice-service was in/around Rapid City, SD.
Now, if you're going to go this route, check out Target tomorrow. I have the ad for next week (print form, otherwise I'd post a link) and they're selling the Optimus V for $69, regular price $129. They also say that they're offering a sale on top-up cards, but no specifics. $129 was a good price when I bought my phone in August, so this is killer -- heck I may get another one just to salvage the battery and charger out of the new phone -- cheaper to do this than to buy a new battery and charger separately and I'd have a replacement phone when I finally break this one since I seem to love dropping them.
