T-Mobile made quite a few big announcements at its CES 2013 event last night, including a no-contract Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data plan, but one item that didn't get a mention was the carrier's new Apple partnership. The good news is that T-Mobile CEO John Legere did decide to touch on the deal a bit with an interview with Reuters, telling the publication that he expects T-Mobile to begin offering the iPhone "in three to four months as opposed to six to nine months." Legere also expects to ditch subsidies and go all Value plans in that same timeframe.

T-Mobile originally announced its agreement with Apple a little over a month ago, saying that the two companies plan to team up to "bring products to market together in 2013." The magenta operator is currently the only major U.S. carrier that doesn't officially offer the iPhone, but it has made a push to get unlocked iPhone owners onto its network, and it currently serves around 1.9 million Apple smartphones. Considering all of that, it'll be interesting to see how many iPhones T-Mobile can sell once it does begin officially selling the device.

Legere also touched a bit on the possibility of T-Mobile merging with more carriers after its MetroPCS deal is done. The CEO said that he would "obviously" consider partnering with Dish, which is hoping to build out its own wireless network and is interested in getting a partner to help with that process. Another operator that T-Mo would be interested in combining with is Leap Wireless, which owns Cricket Wireless, with Legere describing Leap as "one of those things that makes extreme sense for us to look at." T-Mobile and MetroPCS are currently working to gain regulatory approval for their merger, which is expected to close in the first half of 2013.

Via Reuters