LG is to rollout its Optimus G Pro flagship Android phone to 40 new countries, starting this week in Italy.

Other regions in Europe, Latin America, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and the Middle East will see the phone hit stores this quarter, but it looks like the UK will miss out altogether, amid LG fears that our LTE (4G) network is not yet mature enough.

UK product manager Shawn Musgrave told Tech Radar in February that the company wouldn't be launching the Optimus G Pro, Optimus F7 or Optimus F5 because it would rather wait until all the networks show their hand when it comes to 4G coverage. But that was before the spectrum auction results were known, so that may have changed opinion since then.

What is more likely is that the UK will miss out on the phone that is already available in the US and South Korea because another, newer flagship handset is on the horizon: the LG Optimus G2.

It is expected to be announced during a special LG press event on 7 August in New York City - with Pocket-lint in attendance - and we would expect that the UK will be among several countries to get the device this year, if not within a few weeks.