AT&T wants the Palm Pre after Sprint

Speaking at the D Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson spent the better part of Wednesday morning defending AT&T's network and addressing complaints about how the carrier was ill-prepared to handle all the demands of the iPhone. It's an interesting discussion, which you can catch here in CNET News' Ina Fried's report.

However, here's something else of interest. During the discussion with host Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, Stephenson added that he sees AT&T selling the Palm Pre once Sprint's exclusive deal with the smartphone is up. This is the first indication that other carriers will offer the Pre, though it's not clear how long Sprint has the exclusive.

It's also a good sign that a GSM version of the smartphone is in the works, which many of you Crave readers have been asking for. Palm has only admitted to a UMTS version of the Pre, which we actually got to see at GSMA 2009. In addition, AT&T is also rumored to be getting another Palm Web OS smartphone, the Palm EOS.

For now, the only version we'll be seeing in the near future is the Palm Pre for Sprint, which goes on sale June 6 at Sprint, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Wal-Mart stores nationwide.

(Source: Wall Street Journal via PhoneScoop)