I don't think approaching it from a radio standpoint would help, since it's simply a matter of Verizon choosing deliberately not to provision the phone. For ex

I don't think approaching it from a radio standpoint would help, since it's simply a matter of Verizon choosing deliberately not to provision the phone. For extra coverage while traveling, you could order a SIM from Ting[1] (a Sprint MVNO that I've used and really enjoyed), and switch to it for coverage on Sprint's LTE network; they fully support the Nexus 5. It's not as expansive as Verizon's network, but from my experience it tends to fill in the gaps left by T-Mobile. I say that because my service is with Straight Talk on T-Mobile's network, and my wife's phone is on Ting. Everywhere I don't have coverage, she does, and vice versa. Ting charges a base price of $6 per month per device, then charges for metered usage. My wife uses about 800 MB of data, about 80 minutes of calls, and about 300 texts per month, and her bill comes in at under $40 per month. I won't pretend to know your travel itinerary, but if all you do is order the SIM and activate it once every few months, you're probably looking at less than $70 per year to have the convenience of extra coverage when you need it. Or, you could forgo all of that and go back to Verizon on a Moto X, it's the closest you'll get to a Nexus device on that network, but then you're back in user-hostile support territory. [1] https://ting.com/shop/microsim https://ting.com/shop/microsim