Motorola Confirms XOOM 4G LTE Update Even For Rooted Tablets

After concerns that rooting the Motorola XOOM would leave owners of the tablet ineligible for Verizon's 4G LTE upgrade later in the year, the manufacturer has stepped in to reassure would-be buyers that they can hack their toys and still get high-speed access. According to the official Motorola support forums, the company promises that XOOM slates that have had "the original factory software reinstalled" and have been "relocked" will be updated as normal, while it will "attempt to complete the upgrade" on those returned rooted.

"All Motorola XOOM tablets on the Verizon Wireless network are eligible to  receive an upgrade to support 4G LTE. This includes those that have been  unlocked; however, those units must be submitted for upgrade with the  original factory software reinstalled and the device relocked in order  to receive the upgrade.

For devices that are returned unlocked, Motorola will attempt to complete  the upgrade, but may be unable to update the software. In these cases, the device will be returned to the consumer with just the 4G LTE modem  installed.

More details on the process will be available closer to the upgrade availability."

Even if Motorola can't get the 4G LTE modem working on rooted XOOMs, they'll at least return the slate with the new hardware installed. We imagine it'll only be a short matter of time before the Android ROM community get 4G support up and running on hacked devices.

Motorola promises more details closer to the upgrade, but already a stock XOOM ROM has leaked for overly-cautious owners wanting to get as close to box-fresh as possible. More on the Honeycomb-based XOOM in our full review.

[via Android Community]