It has been clear that CK Hutchison would need to offer substantial concessions to get its proposed acquisition of Telefonica’s O2 UK unit cleared by the European Commission, with its instinctive hostility to deals that reduce the number of MNOs in a country. According to the UK’s Financial Times, the Hong Kong firm is offering to give up one-third of the merged entity’s network capacity to rivals, but is resisting the EC’s call for the creation of a full fourth network. Recent operator mergers which have reduced the number of MNOs – most notably that of O2 and E-Plus in Germany, but also deals in Austria and Ireland – have only been allowed if the enlarged operator agreed to guarantee…