Policy-making around network infrastructure always has to strike a balance between competition and cost efficiency, the latter essential to drive rapid roll-outs of networks to support national objectives related to digital divide, enterprise enablement and other topics. As operators have increasingly differentiated themselves based on their services rather than the underlying network coverage or quality alone, regulators have generally become more friendly towards shared or wholesale models. However, they still have to be very cautious about creating anything close to a monopoly situation in a key area of infrastructure. Sometimes, policy seems to be made using out-of-date assumptions. The UK decisions in 2020-2021, to allow BT to buy the country’s largest MNO, EE, but to block Telefónica and Hutchison from…