The use of cell phones would not be as pervasive if it was indeed not remarkable.
Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. This sentence is not clear to me. Are you saying that the use is remarkable or that phones are remarkable? At any rate, in the "if" clause "were" (Subjunctive) would be far better than "was."
no, it should still be "was" because it refers back to "use" not "cell phones" (the object of the preposition)
sentence is kind of confusing