Doesn't even matter if you self host - the critical failure here was a Domain Name System (DNS) resolution problem which presents a single point of failure to EVERY hosting provider and EVERY service on the internet (public / private / commercial / self-hosted). The general public takes for granted that DNS will continue to work - acting as a database to keep track of which URL should point to which IP address. So many potential attacks against DNS exist (poisoning, redirection, DoS, etc) that unless and until the underlying issues are addressed, this failure is likely to continue to haunt us. Whee.

That performs well, with long battery life, and with all the features and capabilities of the phone built in. (Who wants to carry a giant slab phone anymore?)

republicwireless.com, ting.com, or similar are inexpensive and the phones are decent too. I have a republic acct. It's $20/mo and "covers" everything. The *catch* is that they want you to use your wireless data network connections instead of the cellular network connection whenever possible. I spend my days at university and have wifi at my home so I have yet to even come close to reaching the caps on cellular usage proposed by republic. I don't have any personal experience w/ting.com, but from what I've read it appears to be a *much* more fair and equitable provider (also a mvno).