T-Mobile USA, the nation’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, may use parent Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTE) sales agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in 2013, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said in a note to clients — as reported by “Bloomberg Businesweek” (http://macte.ch/BtcNi).

Apple and Deutsche Telekom are “increasingly likely” to reach an agreement for T-Mobile to sell iPhones in the U.S. next year, Moffett said. Without the iPhone, T-Mobile has struggled to keep lucrative contract customers, notes “Bloomberg Businessweek.”

The carrier lost 510,000 monthly subscribers in the first quarter while AT&T and Verizon Wireless together added 688,000 post-paid customers. More than half of the smartphones sold at AT&T and Verizon in the first quarter were iPhones, according to “Bloomberg Businessweek.”