Verizon blames Google and ASUS for Nexus 7 activation woes; cites Android 4.3 “systems issue”
With the launch of the Nexus 5 and Verizon customers being snubbed yet again, folks were starting to wonder if Google and Verizon were in some sort of spat over what happened with the Nexus 7. If you don’t remember, the Nexus 7 was originally advertised to work on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. The network-enabled version of the tablet did, in fact, have radios for Verizon, but Verizon refused to activate the device for those who bought it through the Google Play Store.
Now that the heat is back on, it seems Big Red wants to lay it out there for good — it’s not their fault, so stop blaming them. They say it’s a “systems issue” that arose with Android 4.3, one that Verizon asked Google and ASUS to fix before they’d allow the device to be activated on their network. The problem is that Google and ASUS decided they wanted to wait until Android 4.4 KITKAT rolled out to issue the fix, according to a statement being sent to press:
Since Google was about to launch its new Kit Kat OS, rather than undertake this work, Google and Asus asked Verizon to suspend its certification process until Google’s new OS was available on the Nexus 7.
We probably won’t ever know what that “systems issue” was, of course, but it sounds like Verizon is in the clear on this one. So what does this mean for the Nexus 7? Well, it sounds like you’ll be able to get it activated… eventually. We still have to wait for KitKat to start rolling out, though there’s no telling how long it’ll take for Verizon to finish their testing process before opening activations again.