While European operators find it increasingly hard to compete in markets where there are more than three players, regulators are still eager not to reduce the choices available to consumers. This has sparked a new fashion, for carriers to propose mergers, but then to appease the antitrust agencies with offers to support a fourth player. Bouygues tried this tactic in France, to no avail, when it was vying to acquire its larger rival SFR from Vivendi. It would then have sold some of its own network and spectrum to the country’s fourth cellco, Free Mobile. 3 Ireland is taking a similar line, offering to sell off spectrum and customers to a new market entrant, should its bid for O2 Ireland…