Mardini, with the backing of family and friends, is launching Voyager Mobile, a start-up that aims to bring cut-rate cellphone services to the masses. The company is launching with two rate plans with service via Sprint’s network. The company will charge $19 a month for unlimited talk and text, and $39 (plus tax) for unlimited talk, text and Web.

The 22-year-old Mardini, who is entering his senior year at New York University, told AllThingsD that he decided to get into the cellphone business after noticing how high his bill had gotten.

“It was just one of those things,” he said in a telephone interview. “I pay so much for my cellphone. I was thinking there has to be a better way to make it cheaper for everyone.”

Despite the low prices, Mardini said he believes he can offer a range of phones, including some fairly high-end Android devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy S II, also known as the Epic 4G Touch. The company will also sell tablets, data cards and hotspots, though the rate plans for those have yet to be finalized.

Voyager is the latest in a growing number of companies looking to resell service on another carrier’s network.

Among the most high-profile such start-ups are Republic Wireless and FreedomPop.

The notion of a virtual mobile network operator has been around for a while. Some have persisted, while others — like ESPN Mobile and Disney Mobile — have faded. In recent months, though, a new wave of companies have cropped up, promising to bring new business models and economics to the wireless business.

Voyager Mobile has said it will announce details of its plans on Tuesday at 6 am ET. Its Web site promises unlimited service starting at $19 a month, but offers only the barest of details, along with a countdown clock. However, details started trickling out on Monday, including its rate plans and phone lineup, which were reported by several sites, including PhoneScoop and CNET.

Though still in college, Mardini has been involved with several other companies, with the first one tracing its roots back to some DJ gear that he got at age 9. The record business evolved into a local tech firm, and eventually led Mardini to launch Munifi Networks, a broader IT services company.

Mardini said he is using proceeds from those and other family businesses to launch Voyager, which is starting out with just seven employees, and is based in his hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. Given its tiny workforce, Voyager is relying on outsourcing to handle many aspects of its operations. Its small size is a key to the low prices, Mardini insists.

“In the end, we are able to offer the best price to our customers,” he said.

Update: Well, it looks like Voyager had some problems getting off the ground.

“During its Tuesday, May 15 launch, Voyager Mobile experienced a malicious network attack to its primary website: voyagermobile.com,” the company said on its Web site. “Due to the network outage, Voyager Mobile is postponing its launch to a time and date in the very near future.”

The company added that it won’t be derailed.

“Our goal of low cost wireless service for all will not be undermined and we strive to continue the voyage for a better wireless world,” it said.

On Twitter, Mardini said that the Web site was hit with a packet attack, and that the company is working to restore service.

Also, we weren’t the only ones to track down Mardini ahead of the launch. Fred Fishkin had an interview that ran before ours.

That may sound like Apple’s heavily publicized iPhone, which runs on the AT&T wireless network, but it’s not. This phone is called the Voyager, and it’s made by LG and runs on the rival Verizon Wireless network.

Despite their superficial similarities, the two devices are very, very different. In fact, Verizon’s public-relations people are at pains to say the Voyager isn’t intended as an “iPhone killer” or even a “smart phone.”

Still, the Voyager is worth a close look, if only because it is one of the first competitors that attempts to mimic Apple’s touch interface, and many of its functions overlap the iPhone’s.

The Voyager beats the iPhone in certain respects. Unlike Apple’s product, it runs on a fast, 3G data network. And my experience has been that Verizon’s network has better coverage than AT&T’s in many cities, especially on the East Coast. It also costs less: $299, after a rebate, with a two-year service contract, compared with $399 for the iPhone.

In addition, the Voyager has GPS and thus provides real-time navigation, a capability the iPhone currently lacks. And the Voyager can even receive live TV programs for an extra monthly fee of $15, though it gets only eight channels and its TV function works only in certain cities.

A big advantage of the Voyager for some people is that it has a physical keyboard for typing in addition to the kind of virtual onscreen keys that are the iPhone’s only method for entering text. This keyboard is revealed by opening the phone, which then resembles a little laptop with a display that’s separate from the outside touch screen. I found that typing worked pretty well. For folks who insist on a physical keyboard, this is a big deal.

Finally, LG has enhanced the Voyager’s touch screen with feedback: When you tap an icon or scroll through a list, you get a light physical sensation.

But the Voyager is bulkier than the sleek iPhone — about 50% thicker and 40% larger overall — even though it’s a tad lighter. And it lacks the iPhone’s ability to use Wi-Fi hot spots and home networks, which are often faster than Verizon’s 3G network. It also has only about half the battery life; a smaller, lower-resolution screen, and just a fraction of the Apple’s internal memory. (Unlike the iPhone, the Voyager lets you add memory cards, but it doesn’t come with any.)

Most importantly, the Voyager suffers badly in the area where Apple’s phone shines: software. Whether Verizon considers it a direct iPhone competitor or not, the LG product tries to do many of the same things, and it generally falls short.

This is the true challenge that the iPhone poses to established phone makers like LG. Apple has managed to build into its phone a real PC-grade operating system with a breakthrough user interface and elegant programs, something that has eluded the major cellphone makers.

As with so many of the new feature-packed mobile phones, the Voyager’s user interface is clumsy and confusing, requiring too many steps to perform simple tasks. And its applications, such as the photo organizer, music player, Web browser and email program, are primitive compared with the iPhone’s.

In fact, the Voyager, bafflingly, has several different user interfaces — two on the outer touch screen and an entirely different one on the inner screen above the keyboard that doesn’t work by touch at all. Some functions work only with the inner screen.

Scrolling through lists with the Voyager’s touch screen is a halting, frustrating process compared with the smooth, slick scrolling on the iPhone. Its touch functions are old style and basic compared with the new “multitouch” approach that Apple built into the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone, the Voyager doesn’t allow you to “flick” through photos or other screens, or to use two fingers to enlarge or shrink photos or Web pages. It also doesn’t automatically change photos or Web pages from portrait to landscape view by just turning the phone.

In addition, while the Voyager’s Web browser can show real Web-page layouts, I found it to be far inferior to the iPhone’s browser, which shows entire pages and then zooms in on the parts you want to read with a couple of finger taps.

Apparently because the Voyager isn’t considered a business tool or smart phone, its email function isn’t included on any of the main menus or even located under the envelope icon labeled “messaging.” To find it, you have to wade through multiple menus with unhelpful names like “Tools on the Go.”

Even doing something as simple as entering flight mode — which turns off a phone’s internal radios for use on a plane and takes two steps on the iPhone — requires five steps on the Voyager.

Verizon is promising to improve the Voyager, but right now it’s a classic example of how the leading cellphone makers are going to have to step up their games, especially in software, to match Apple’s upstart device.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. Find all my columns and videos online free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Expected at market before Thanksgiving, the Voyager, with its touchscreen (which folds out to reveal a full QWERTY keypad), Web browser and multimedia capabilities is clearly crafted in the iPhone’s image and aimed at prospective iPhone customers.

But is it slick enough to kill Apple’s iconic device? Observers aren’t so sure. “If you have your heart set on an iPhone, I don’t think that the Voyager–or LG’s brand–is strong enough to overcome that,” said Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart.

No iPhone killer here, it would seem. “… This is not, nor is anything else without an Apple logo, anyway, an iPhone killer,” said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias. “Apple is unique in high tech, in that they are not just a manufacturer, marketer and brand. They are, rather, a destination, and many people would simply never consider buying a product competitive with Apple’s rendition of same. We’ve seen this with the Mac, and the iPod, and we’ll see it with the iPhone as well.”