Carriers dish summer release plans for BlackBerry Q10

BlackBerry Q10
The wait is over for QWERTY keyboard lovers

Although AT&T has yet to make good with details, U.S. rivals Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are firing up BlackBerry QWERTY fans by pinning a few loose commitments onto the calendar.

Three U.S. carriers today confirmed summer release plans for the BlackBerry Q10, which will finally begin rolling out as early as next month.

Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US have loosely confirmed June release dates for the BlackBerry Q10, the first BlackBerry 10-powered handset to feature the company's iconic QWERTY hardware keyboard.

While Verizon has yet to announce pricing, T-Mobile will make the smartphone available for as little as $99.99 down with monthly payments of $20, for a total over $579.99 over 24 months.

Bringing up the rear

Sprint will also offer the BlackBerry Q10, the carrier's first 4G LTE-enabled BlackBerry device, which is likely to appeal to many of its enterprise and government customers.

Unfortunately, Sprint's press release stops short of detailing price or availability, with the device planned for a "late summer" release.

That's still an improvement over AT&T, who committed to the BlackBerry Q10 - and its keyboard-free sibling, the BlackBerry Z10 - in January, but has yet to follow up with a target date or price.

In the meantime, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile each offer sign-up pages on their respective websites where eager BlackBerry QWERTY hardware keyboard fans can find out when to start lining up to purchase the Q10.