Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL) and India's Essar Teleholdings have been squabbling over their mobile carrier joint venture Hutchison Essar. Last week the Bombay High Court ordered the two companies to resolve their disputes through an arbitration panel or out-of-court settlement. The most recent conflict surrounds Hutchison Essar's acquisition of BPL Mobile Communications from Essar Teleholdings. The two agreed that Hutchison Essar would take control of BPL Mumbai along with BPL Mobile Cellular and Essar Spacetel. Essar closed the BPL operations last July, but complications arose over the BPL Mumbai part of the deal. Essar Teleholdings terminated the agreement, saying HTIL failed to receive regulatory approval from the Department of Telecom (DOT), failing to meet the terms of the merger agreement. Essar has kept control of BPL Mumbai and has offered to give HTIL its money back. But DOT said its approval wasn't necessary for the deal to be approved.
For more about the conflict between HTIL and Essar:
- check out this article from LightReading