As I understand it, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on Verizon is a CDMA/LTE/GSM phone. The CDMA/LTE only works on Verizon; the GSM only works outside the US (as I understand it). I vaguely recall that Verizon had it locked for a while so that you could only use their network overseas with it (not simply pop in a local GSM SIM). I don't know if they unlocked it - I'm sure they didn't do it unless they had to.

The (LG) Nexus 4 is GSM only. The Nexus 4 isn't an option on Verizon.

While J has Verizon, I want to avoid it because I really don't like the company and I want to be able to use local SIMs when we travel overseas. I've still got Sprint, but don't think we'll see LTE from Sprint in this neck of the woods in the next 5 years or more, and it has the same non-GSM issues as Verizon...

Yeah, hemming and hawing is a fault of mine, but it's cheaper than buying something that I don't fully understand. Beats reading and posting about stupid politics, doesn't it? ;-)

I'm mainly worried about data usage on the road - I understand Google Maps and Navigation can eat up a lot of data... If we're off the road then WiFi is likely to be available.

I'm leaning toward the $30/mo T-mobile 100min+data plan. Even if it doesn't work very well here at home, we can always download off-line maps for it, and we'll have a GSM phone that we can use traveling in Europe and elsewhere. But I'm still on the fence, though leaning now.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Scott.