June 13 (Reuters) - Telecom providers T-Mobile US Inc and Verizon Wireless do not directly contribute to thecontroversial U.S. surveillance program, partly due to theiroverseas ownership ties, the Wall Street Journal reportedThursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Legal complications could arise from any participation bythe two firms in efforts by the National Security Agency tomonitor Internet and phone data of millions of Americans, thenewspaper reported. ()
T-Mobile is majority-owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, while Verizon Wireless is a joint venture betweenVerizon Communications Inc and Britain's Vodafone GroupPlc.
However, the chances of the two companies' networks notbeing monitored are small because most calls at some point passthrough networks controlled by U.S. companies that do work withthe NSA, the Journal said, citing a U.S. official.
The NSA has standing court orders with top U.S. mobileservice providers AT&T Inc and Sprint to disclose information on calls over their network, the paper said.
Several companies, including Google Inc, MicrosoftCorp and Facebook Inc have come under scrutinyfollowing disclosures last week in the Guardian and TheWashington Post newspapers for their role in the NSA datacollection program.
T-Mobile US, Verizon Communications, Verizon Wireless andSprint declined to comment on the report.
Vodafone (VOD)