Merger with Idea by first half of 2018: Vodafone’s Sunil Sood

Vodafone expects to complete its merger with Idea Cellular in the first half of 2018 - that's the word coming in from the MD and CEO of Vodafone India, Sunil Sood.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18, he said we had to first get CCI approval, then the stock exchange approval and the SEBI approval. The next step was individually for both companies to get NCLT approval, which have now got.

Now the last step is to get the DOT approval in terms of merging the licenses etc, he added.

Talking about reduction in interconnect user charges (IUC), he said it will impact any of the companies and favours only one company. The impact for the industry would be in multiple thousands of crores, so each one of us will lose around Rs 1000 crore plus.

Two telecom majors had announced in March 2017 that they will join hands to create what will be the world's second largest telecom firm.