The antitrust regulators which are examining proposed cellco mergers in Europe and elsewhere (see separate item) are already hopelessly out of date. While they fret over reducing the numbers of mobile operators per country, and therefore limiting consumer choice, in fact effective competition in wireless services will soon be greater than at any time in history. In markets where there are one or two incumbents ‘ often former national telcos, bruised but not battered by deregulation ‘ smaller and newer cellcos can frequently have little prospect of being dangerous competition. This is why we are seeing a string of M&A in many countries with developed mobile and converged markets, as smaller operators seek scale and viability. Nonetheless, for the first…