The agreement would allow national security officials to monitor changes to the company’s system of routers, servers and switches, among other equipment and processes, the officials said. It would also let them keep a close watch on the extent to which Sprint and SoftBank use equipment from Chinese manufacturers, particularly Huawei Technologies. The government officials spoke about the possible agreement on the condition of anonymity because negotiations are continuing.

While common to most technology investments in the United States by foreign companies, such agreements have come into sharper focus recently because of accusations by United States government officials of espionage by foreign countries.

SoftBank and Sprint have already assured members of Congress that they will not integrate equipment made by Huawei into Sprint’s United States systems and will replace Huawei equipment in Clearwire’s network. Clearwire is a discount cellphone firm Sprint is seeking to buy.

In meetings here on March 14, Masayoshi Son, the chairman and chief executive of SoftBank; Daniel Hesse, chief executive of Sprint; and Erik Prusch, chief executive of Clearwire, sought to reassure United States officials that the merged company would take the steps necessary to ensure that its networks would not endanger United States communications networks.

SoftBank, one of Japan’s biggest cellphone companies, is offering to buy majority control of Sprint for $20.1 billion.

Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on Thursday that he also met this month with the company executives, who promised him that they would not use equipment from Huawei.

“I expect them to make the same assurances before any approval of the deal” by national security officials, Mr. Rogers said. “I am pleased with their mitigation plans but will continue to look for opportunities to improve the government’s existing authorities to thoroughly review all the national security aspects of proposed transactions.”

A recent report by the intelligence committee identified Huawei and the ZTE Corporation, another Chinese equipment provider, as possible security risks. The report cited the companies’ potential ties to Chinese intelligence or military services.

In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, whose approval of the merger is needed to allow the transfer of wireless-phone licenses, the Communications Workers of America said that Huawei and ZTE were “helping to build SoftBank’s next-generation 4G wireless network in Japan” and that Huawei also helped build wireless networks for Clearwire.

But in their own F.C.C. filing, SoftBank and Sprint called the union’s concerns “misplaced.” The companies noted that national security reviews were already being conducted by Team Telecom, an interagency group that includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Homeland Security, Justice and Defense Departments.

Tadashi Iida, a senior SoftBank network executive, said recently that the company and its subsidiaries did not “use any equipment manufactured by Huawei Technologies Co. or its affiliates in their core network infrastructure,” according to an affidavit attached to the document.

In another, related filing, Sprint similarly dismissed the concerns. “Not only is there no evidence of any national security threat that might arise from the proposed transaction, but the expert authorities on national security issues — in particular the agencies that work together in Team Telecom — already are engaged with Sprint and SoftBank on these questions,” it said.

Also studying the potential consequences of the transaction is a national security unit within the Treasury Department that reviews foreign acquisitions of American businesses: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The interest of government officials in monitoring Chinese manufacturers around the Sprint deal was reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

Officials at the Treasury and Justice Departments declined to comment, as did spokesmen for the F.C.C. and Sprint.

Roland Sladek, a spokesman for Huawei, said, “Huawei is a company that meets the highest standards of network security, is a trusted vendor to 45 of the world’s top 50 network operators and is an active investor and employer in the U.S.”

It will not be easy for SoftBank and Sprint to avoid all equipment made by Huawei, because it is second in size only to Ericsson of Sweden. American manufacturers of telecommunications equipment have been struggling to remain competitive in the fast-changing industry.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting from New York and David Barboza from Shanghai.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/business/sprint-and-softbank-near-agreement-to-restrict-use-of-chinese-suppliers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss