Western Europe’s operators are on a regulatory seesaw. Will the European Union members’ regulators become more open to consolidation, as the MNOs face saturated markets and falling ARPUs? Or will they insist on additional players as they allocate 5G spectrum? The EU, and many member state authorities, have been hostile to any mergers that reduce the number of MNOs in a single country (usually from four to three). Some have been allowed, with significant concessions required (usually mandatory access to networks for a new MVNO, with the idea that a strong MVNO should, in effect, be an additional choice for consumers). This happened in Germany, Ireland and Italy, but similar deals were blocked in the UK and Denmark. Now, the…