By VICTOR GODINEZ / The Dallas Morning News


Roughly 1 million low-income Texans now have access to free cellphones and cellphone service from Assurance Wireless, a division of Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Virgin Mobile brand.

Assurance launched its service in Texas on Monday.

The company also offers the free cellphone service in Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Eligible Texas residents will receive a Kyocera Jax phone and 200 voice minutes per month for free, as well as free voice mail and call waiting.

Additional time costs 10 cents a minute, and 10-cent text, e-mail and instant messages are also available.

Spotted here