Deutsche Telekom today announced that its subsidiary T-mobile USA is partnering with Apple to “bring products to market in 2013.” The news comes almost as a side note in a press release covering Deutsche Telekom’s financial investments for the coming year.

Few specific details are known about what products T-Mobile and Apple will be bringing to market next year, but one can speculate that this will mean an iPhone for the fourth-largest U.S. carrier. Both Apple and T-Mobile have confirmed the report but couldn’t add anything additional.

Until now, T-Mobile has been the odd man out amongst the major U.S. carriers. AT&T, Sprint and Verizon all offer the iPhone and iPad, while T-Mobile has been content to bide its time, allowing users to bring unlocked GSM-capable iOS-based products onto its network.

T-Mobile expects to roll out its LTE network sometime next year. The carrier is in the process of re-farming its 1900 MHz spectrum to open its AWS holdings for LTE, all the while continuing to support its 2G and 3G customers. The new LTE network will run in 20 MHz in three-quarters of its top 25 markets, and the remaining will have to do with 10 MHz.

T-Mobile has plans to use equipment on its new network that will be compatible with LTE Release 10, allowing it to capitalize on features of LTE Advanced such as carrier aggregation, which bonds together disparate bands of spectrum into a single, larger channel.