Legal for company to REQUIRE work cell, but only provide insufficient "stipend"??

i don't believe anything is illegal. ther are jobs that require you have things for employment in the field that you are in for example; uniforms, licenses, car, cellphone! the stipend they provide for you may just be to cover half of the cost because you will be able to use the phone for personal use as well and they will not be responsible for that. If you want the job sometimes you have to make the necesssary sacrifices.