While we have yet to see anything official come from Verizon Wireless or Samsung, it looks like the Stratosphere III has recently made an appearance with the FCC. Of course, we should point out that calling it the Stratosphere III is a bit of speculation. What we do know is that this handset is sporting a model number of SCH-I425 and a codename of Godiva. The FCC filing suggests an announcement is coming soon.

Touching on the SCH-I425 model number is where the name speculation comes into play. You see, the original Stratosphere was SCH-I405 and the Stratosphere II was the SCH-I415. Hence the SCH-I425 being the Stratosphere III. This handset was previously spotted in the GLBenchmark database and has also been seen in some in-the-wild style images.

As for this FCC filing, it just adds further evidence of handset that is destined for Verizon Wireless. The filing shows approval for CDMA and LTE as well as future support for AWS networks. Otherwise, the details were at a minimum. The filing did however show that the SCH-I425 would have NFC and support for roaming on GSM networks.

All said and done, it seems like just a matter of time before we get the official word from Verizon Wireless or Samsung. Needless to say, with the hype surrounding the upcoming Galaxy S IV announcement, we are not expecting either party to make all that big of a deal surrounding a mid-range offering such as the Stratosphere III.

[via Engadget]