Over the past few days, there’s been quite a bit of confusion about the Nexus 7 LTE and the fact it doesn’t work on Verizon. Well the kind folks at Android Central had reached out to Verizon to see why users having such a difficult time in getting their brand new Nexus 7 LTE working on Verizon’s network. Here’s their response:
This is not yet a device that is Verizon 4G LTE certified. We’ll let folks know when its certified.
This is pretty much what I saw on Twitter earlier today from their @VZWSupport account in response to a user that was having issues with their Nexus 7 LTE and Verizon’s 4G LTE network. It does sound like Verizon is working to get the Nexus 7 LTE certified. However, you’d think that Google would have it certified before the announcement, right? Especially after the whole Galaxy Nexus thing with Verizon.
It’s definitely a sticky situation for those that love Verizon and wanted to use their Nexus 7 LTE on Verizon’s network. However, it’s important to point out that the Nexus 7 LTE is working fine for those that took their Verizon SIM card out of another device and stuck it in the Nexus 7. So it looks like it’s only a problem if you’re adding a device to your account or opening a new account with Verizon. It’s still pretty strange.
At this point, there’s no support from Verizon on the Nexus 7, but we didn’t really expect much support from them anyways. We did, however, expect to be able to pop in a new Verizon SIM into the Nexus 7 LTE and have it working out-of-the-box. But that seems to not be the case. So much for it being a true Nexus on Verizon’s network. This does give us a bit of a sneak peak to how devices would work on Verizon’s network once they go full VoLTE, which means GSM instead of CDMA. Does this mean that we won’t be able to buy a device like the Xperia Z Ultra from elsewhere and put it on Verizon? Doesn’t look to hopeful right now, but hopefully that changes soon.