(Telecompaper) Sprint Nextel announced that it received from Softbank a waiver of various provisions of their merger agreement that will allow Sprint to consider a rival offer from Dish Network. A Special Committee of the Sprint board will enter into a non-disclosure agreement and discussions with Dish for the purpose of clarifying and obtaining further information from Dish on its takeover proposal made on 15 April. The Softbank waiver does not permit Sprint to provide non-public information to Dish nor does it enable Sprint to enter into negotiations with Dish. Sprint said it does not intend to make any further comment on the work of the Special Committee until it completes an assessment of the Dish proposal. SoftBank confirmed the waiver agreement and said it remains confident that it's offer will prove superior to Dish's proposal. Dish said it has provided information to Sprint's Special Committee in response to their information requests and will continue to provide additional information.