Being a CDMA user is a bittersweet deal. In the U.S., the two big CDMA carriers (Sprint and Verizon) get a good amount of awesome devices that don’t make it to other carriers. On the flip side, once on those two CDMA carriers, venturing to other carriers globally is an incredibly limited experience. Globally speaking, CDMA is the ugly duckling. GSM and SIM cards rule!
For a little while a few years ago, “Global” version of Verizon Wireless (and a few Sprint) phones saw Verizon implementing in SIM card slots and GSM radios for overseas cellular networks. More recently, however, with LTE taking the main stage, international operability has sadly taken a backseat. There is also the whole battery life aspect. LTE by itself is a huge battery killer. There’s also the CDMA radio, too. Tossing in a third GSM radio sounds like a terrible idea if battery life is anything important to you. But global CDMA phones are in the process of making a comeback as components inside phones shrink.
Back at CES 2012 Verizon boasted how the DROID 4 and RAZR would become “Global” devices via a later software update. In the mobile world, nearly 6 months in is plenty “later” enough. And we may finally be almost there. Droid-Life sources claim that the hallowed updates for the RAZR and DROID 4 that unlock global GSM operability will be made available “soon”. On top of that, there’s the little image above floating around which shows an HTC Rezound sales card sporting verbiage that seems to indicate it too will be receiving the same global update.
Nothing has been confirmed by VZW (or Motorola or HTC) yet, but we’ll be sure to update you once we know more. Any DROID 4/RAZR/Rezound users chomping at the bit for some global roaming capabilities?
Via: Droid-Life
