Vodafone deal with Hutch ends bizzarrely

In a very terse statement, Japanese giant NTT Docomo has pulled the plug on a deal announced back in December 2006. The aim had been to utilise Docomo's proprietary i-mode system to provide a mobile Internet service in India.

Now that Vodafone has finally won out and taken control of Hutch, Docomo says Hutch has "agreed not to proceed" with i-mode.

Which is a bit strange. Vodafone's Live! rival to i-mode has hardly set the world alight. But then i-mode - which is a whole eco-system rather than just a markup language- requires a fairly high level of commitment from its operators.

After a whole heap of twoing an froing, the Indian government satisfied itself last week that its rules over foreign ownership of a telecoms company hadn't been breached. Even though Vodafone would still appear to have options to increase its stake. µ

See also Further glitch in Vodafone Hutch deal arises