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In a Thursday report, TechCrunch said France Telecom CEO Stéphane Richard told a group of reporters that the iPhone 5 would be released on October 15. But as the blog pointed out, Apple's U.S. releases don't always coincide with international launches.

In the past, Richard not been shy about talking Apple. In May, he told All Things D that Apple had scrapped a plan to get rid of physical SIM cards by using a new kind of small micro-SIM card in future iPhones. Prior to the launch of the iPad in 2010, meanwhile, he told a French journalist that the iPad would be released "in a couple of days."

There's also the matter of whether Apple will be expanding the number of U.S. iPhone carriers. Bloomberg said recently that Sprint would not only sell the iPhone, but it would offer its unlimited data plan with the Apple smartphone. On Tuesday, TUAW reported that Sprint has started briefing employees about an October iPhone launch. The blog's source said Sprint is only talking with workers about the iPhone 4, and that the carrier would get the iPhone 5 in 2012, but a commenter suggested that the iPhone 4 talk might just be a way to keep iPhone 5 specs under wraps.

While not confirming that Sprint will get the iPhone, Sprint Nextel CFO Joe Euteneuer did tell attendees at a recent banking conference that the carrier was preparing its network for the influx of usage should it get the smartphone. "We're going to stay ahead of it," he said of the demand.