Who will have the Nexus 4? Not Telstra or Vodafone

THE CARRIERS

With a build up of rumours and a surprise announcement, Google has kept us on our toes. The Nexus 4 is pretty much as we expected it to be, but some have expressed huge disappointment in the lack of 4G capabilities on the phone. As such, we saw earlier today that Telstra will not be stocking the Nexus 4, because

 ..customers are increasingly demanding a high speed mobile internet experience on their devices so we are focused on bringing models that are compatible with our 4G LTE-enabled network to market

Upon hearing that Telstra would not be stocking the Nexus 4, I reached out to Vodafone for some more info.

I thought that the only network that does not offer 4G capabilities would surely stock the Nexus 4 – apparently not. However, there is one major player that has been keeping silent on the whole issue – Optus.

I am not sure what benefit Optus would receive from not informing all current and potential customers of their plans, like Telstra and Vodafone, to not stock the Nexus 4. As such, I think they may be hiding something – perhaps they are the exclusive carrier for the Nexus 4 in Australia? Furthermore, maybe there is something about a 4G capable Nexus phone that Google hasn’t told us. Such a plan that would coincide perfectly with the new 4G network offered by Optus. This is quite far fetched – sure, an exclusive 4G Google phone for Aussies would be awesome, but in light of current information, it seems unlikely.

Only time will tell about El Goog’s plan with the Nexus 4 – but lets hope Optus will have some kind of exclusivity, and some kind of 4G variant of the N4.

Update: We have reached out to Virgin Mobile who has also confirmed that “Virgin Mobile has no plans at this stage to stock the LG Nexus 4″.

Update 2: We have tweeted Optus, and have asked whether they have “any news on stocking the Nexus 4?”. The reply we got is a little sneakier. Optus have neither confirmed nor denied being stockists of the Nexus 4, and have just told us that “there is no news at the moment”.

THE GREY IMPORTERS

It would be unusual for the major importers to not stock Google’s flagship phone. However, we have been left in the dark in this case.

Kogan has told us to simply ‘Stay tuned’ and there has been no word from Mobicity. But there is a glimmer of hope – Think of Us (thinkofus.com.au) has told us that we should know on Friday about the Nexus 4. I would assume that all the other Importers should know by then, too.

What do you think of the potential exclusivity Optus may have? Do you think that Google is hiding some information on the Nexus series? Let us know!