Essar Group may block Voda deal for Hutch Essar

Expect loads of drama when it comes to Vodafone's $11.1 billion deal to buy a controlling stake in operator Hutchison Essar [1]. The latest: Essar Group may try to block Vodafone's buy because Vodafone entered into an agreement to share rural telecommunications infrastructure with Hutchison Essar's rival, Bharti Airtel, India's largest cellular operator. The Essar Group, which owns 33 percent of Hutchison Essar, was surprised by the Vodafone-Bharti tie-up and isn't happy.

On an interesting side note, The Times of India published a Q&A with Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin asking him whether the company would deploy CDMA in India. His response: "CDMA is like spaghetti. There are too many parts to it. Why do you need it when you have such a clean global standard like GSM? For someone who is already on CDMA, it makes sense to graduate to GSM and maybe get out of CDMA eventually. The short answer to that is no. We will not consider CDMA."

Read more:
- about the latest drama [2] in the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)
- check out Sarin's comments [3] about CDMA in India from The Times of India