(Telecompaper) The USD 26 billion merger of US operators T-Mobile and Sprint is close to being cleared by the US after their foreign parent companies pledged to reduce their use of Huawei equipment, according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters. Although neither T-Mobile or Sprint use Huawei network equipment, their majority owners, Germany's Deutsche Telekom and Japan's SoftBank, respectively, use some Huawei gear in overseas markets. However, both companies last week responded to rising security concerns resulting from the use of Chinese telecommunications equipment by pledging to replace Huawei devices in the coming years.