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Motorola Droid 4 and LG Spectrum will have global GSM roaming, eventually

Motorola Droid 4 and LG Spectrum will have global GSM roaming, eventually

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Verizon has announced that its new Motorola Droid 4 and LG Spectrum will gain GSM roaming later in the year.

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Gallery Photo: Motorola Droid 4 hands-on pictures
Gallery Photo: Motorola Droid 4 hands-on pictures

Verizon has revealed that that its upcoming LG Spectrum and Motorola Droid 4 will feature global roaming capability through GSM / WCDMA support. Both phones offer LTE, so this makes them the first LTE devices to support GSM, CDMA and LTE alike — a potent triple combo that should give them top speeds essentially anywhere in the world, regardless of network Historically, Verizon has done a solid job supporting GSM global roaming, a challenging prospect when your network is underpinned by a technology supported in just a few dozen countries and territories around the world. CDMA / GSM hybrid handsets are easy to come by on the network's shelves, but the transition to LTE has complicated the issue significantly — any time you add a new radio to a phone, it takes another dose of engineering to get it working properly.

There's a catch, though: the capability won't be available at launch. Verizon says that it's working on "network enhancements" to improve roaming reliability on LTE devices, and it'll be turned on for both phones via software update later in the year, "likely" in the first half. Keep the European vacations off the calendar for the next few months, though, and you should be alright.