Yesterday, rumor had it Rogers Wireless of Canada would soon pick up the iPhone. Earlier today, Rogers confirmed that speculation with a brief announcement. Unfortunately, the Canadian carrier just may not start offering the iPhone as soon as the (already) patient citizens of Canada would like.

"We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year," Rogers president & CEO Ted Rogers said in a statement, according The Star. "We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned."

While folks in Canada must surely be happy by today's news, let's hope for their sakes "later this year" doesn't mean the fourth quarter. They've already waited long enough.

As the only major GSM operator in Canada, Rogers is the only real carrier candidate that to offer the iPhone in the country. The other major Canadian operators use the same CDMA standard as Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Alltel do in the U.S.

Rogers had been in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone for almost year, but couldn't come to an agreement to do so until now.

[via tuaw]