Re: Double standards
Pretty simple, prior to the merger
EE does little/no relative fixed line. BT do little/no mobile. The marget segments do not overlap, so it's a simple approval of the merger.
O2 are a large mobile player, 3 are a large mobile player. A merged O2/3 will have a dominant market share, so will either be blocked, or will be subject to OFCOM undertaking, like Openreach (a BT company) are.
... It's pretty simple. It's not BT that have a monolpoly on fixed line operations, it's Openreach (as a BT subsiduary that does), and this is pretty strictly governed by Openreach being firewalled operationally within the wider BT organisation and Undertakings agreements (with Ofcom) that the other telco's are not subject to - Virgin have no obligation to allow competitors access to it's (cable) mobopoly infrastructure for example. BT do.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
