Telcos and governments round the world are taking a long hard look at the economics of the impending 5G roll-outs, and in many cases, looking for ways to soften the capex blow and so accelerate availability of new services. There are two main schools of thinking – open the market up to share the cost burden with new entrants or new telco partners; or lower the barriers to consolidation, so that the existing MNOs can maximize their economies of scale and not face what Korea has called “excessive competition” in 5G. There are contrasting approaches. The European Union and its member governments are generally slow to push either approach, keeping the barriers both to new entrants, and to telco M&A,…