As for Network it has to be BTCellnet (O2). It is the cheapest and most people have O2 phones. If you are a texting person then it has to be Orange, because they have a range of special offers, e.g. �50 top-up voucher equal texts being 5p, and �15 can get 5 free texts' a day.
As for phone it has to be a nokia phone, preferbly Nokia 3310/3330, becasue they are quite cheap easy to use and have lots of feacture to customize your phone like cases, logo and ringtones etc.
...hope it helps