Voyager Mobile, Cellphone Start-Up, Launches After Delay

Are you sick and tired of the big cellphone services cancelling out on their promises of unlimited plans? Well meet the new kid on the block, a real kid. John Mardini is just 22 years old, but he is on his third startup venture and he’s still in college. His new company, Voyager Mobile, is offering cut-rate cellphone service with unlimited talking, texting and Internet usage for a low monthly cost. Service is limited to certain states at the moment, but will be expanding into more markets.

“I pay so much for my cellphone,” Mardini said in an interview last week. “I was thinking there has to be a better way to make it cheaper for everyone.”

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Looks like he is just reselling Sprint, which means he is limited to Sprint's coverage and any policy changes they want to make.

I've got pretty much the same service through Virgin Mobile, unlimited data, text, web and 300 talk minutes for 26.75 a month. I have only once gone over and minutes and its easy enough to reload. Paying more every month is just foolish.

Sprint, at least here in Tucson easily has the worst service I've ever experienced.


I realize this is probably not the case elsewhere, but I can never support crap like Sprint. I rather overpay with Verizon, who at least is consistent with the data speeds.

bbvdd2 said:

I've got pretty much the same service through Virgin Mobile, unlimited data, text, web and 300 talk minutes for 26.75 a month. I have only once gone over and minutes and its easy enough to reload. Paying more every month is just foolish.

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I've wondered how these companies (virgin, metro, cricket) work when traveling. Do you get decent speeds and/or coverage? Ever get roaming charges?

Spidey329 said:

I've wondered how these companies (virgin, metro, cricket) work when traveling. Do you get decent speeds and/or coverage? Ever get roaming charges?

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I went from Michigan to Nebraska for a wedding and never had a problem. There's no such thing as roaming.

What Virgin (which is basically Sprint towers only...no Verizon roaming) doesn't have is coverage out in non-city and very rural areas. "I can't have my cell phone without a signal when I'm up north hunting." Etc.

This is the kind of excuses that keep people on $100 a month contract plans with Verizon and thel ike. It's the same kind of logic that keeps lots of people driving trucks year round for the one or two times a year they actually need a truck.

One thing to note is that there's no price breaks on the phones at all, and no obvious way to subscribe without first purchasing a phone. I'd be a little wary there, as were I a shady sort I would sell expensive phones, wait a few months, then increase the plan rates once I'd recouped startup costs in phones sold in order to maintain profits.

Also be very wary that getting support as a reseller's customer can be dodgy at best. Granted that's less likely to be a problem for users of this forum than almost any other site short of XDA, but still an issue.

Maybe I'm just getting a bit of a "too good to be true" vibe here, since I was burned by Sprint fairly recently.

V'GER

Reckon I will hang on to my Straight Talk.

GreenMonkey said:

I went from Michigan to Nebraska for a wedding and never had a problem. There's no such thing as roaming.

What Virgin (which is basically Sprint towers only...no Verizon roaming) doesn't have is coverage out in non-city and very rural areas. "I can't have my cell phone without a signal when I'm up north hunting." Etc.

This is the kind of excuses that keep people on $100 a month contract plans with Verizon and thel ike. It's the same kind of logic that keeps lots of people driving trucks year round for the one or two times a year they actually need a truck.

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That's good to know. I rarely roam (I'm on Sprint right now) and never use 4G because of the battery drain. My phone still isn't antiqued (HTC Evo) despite being two years old. So I may move to a cheaper no-contract plan.