Own a Nexus 7? Want to use Verizon’s fancy LTE network on it? Verizon would like to make a rude gesture in your general direction.
This may require some clarification, because it does sound weird, but here’s how it is. The new Nexus 7 can technically access Verizon’s LTE band; the radio in the tablet is not the problem. What is a problem is that Verizon has, for whatever reason, been putting off actually certifying the Nexus 7 for use on their network. To the point where they told somebody to buy another tablet:
You can take a wild shot in the dark as to how that went. To give you an idea of how bad Verizon’s tablet selection is, I literally said “Huh! They still sell that?” at a few of their offerings. Yeesh, the Xyboard is still around?
Verizon at least had the wherewithal to realize it had an Internet lynch mob on its hands and claimed that it’s just a matter of certification, honest! They totally weren’t trying to keep Google’s cheaper and better hardware away from their network! Really!
To be fair, it seems likely that this really was just a bureaucratic screwup; Google and the wireless carriers have never been exactly close, and there was likely some confusion as to just what “certification” meant. Nevertheless, expect this to happen more often as hardware makers and carriers get less and less cozy; unlocked phones mean it’s harder to make you sign a two-year contract and they lose out on charging you for the phone on the installment plan, neither of which they enjoy. Once the hardware manufacturers start selling unlocked hardware for lower prices, expect carrier networks to get nasty, quickly.