Mar

Verizon’s global 3G modem from ZTE spotted in FCC

We’ve known for some time that Verizon is fixated on dominating the global roaming market in the US — or, at the very least, catching up to AT&T — and to do that, they’re going to need hardware capable of taking advantage of the very best speeds that those wild and majestic foreign lands have to offer. In other words, no EV-DO-only modem is going to cut it, and an EV-DO modem with a sprinkling of EDGE on the side is a consolation prize that’s going to get frequent world travelers irked after a little while. To that end, we just witnessed this brick of a USB modem pass through the FCC bearing Verizon branding, the A3700 from ZTE. Name a frequency or wireless technology, the A3700 probably has it; in addition to EV-DO, it’s got GSM / EDGE and HSPA, so your bases are pretty well covered wherever you happen to be (hell, it even has North America-friendly HSPA 850 / 1900 in there, though Verizon wouldn’t dream of letting you stray from its own airwaves when you’re stateside). Enticing, yes — but considering that this is one of the ugliest modems we’ve seen in recent memory, you’d better really need that roaming capability when it gets around to launching.

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Filed under: Wireless