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LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Britain's competition authorityis considering weighing into Hutchison Whampoa's bidfor Telefonica's British mobile unit O2 UK, a deal thatwould cut the number of network operators to three and which wassubmitted for approval by the European Union's competitionregulator last week.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said onWednesday it would seek views from the industry on whether themerger would substantially lessen competition in the Britishmobile market.
If the CMA decides it could damage competition, it could askthe European Commission, the EU regulator, for the right torefer it back to the CMA for an in-depth investigation.
The European Commission had said last week it would decideby Oct. 16 whether to clear the deal, which would makeHutchison's Three UK business the second biggest networkoperator behind EE and ahead of Vodafone.
Meanwhile the UK authorites are proceeding with the vettingof a separate $20 billion deal for BT, owner of thecountry's biggest fixed line network, to acquire EE from itscurrent owners Orange and Deutsche Telekom.
Last week the prospects of the O2 and Hutchison mergergetting approved were thrown into doubt after EuropeanCompetition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager effectively blockeda plan by TeliaSonera and Telenor to combineforces in the Danish market because it would have reduced thenumber of operators there to three from four.
The CMA said given the short amount of time it had to makeany request to the Commission, any representations should bereceived by Sept 24. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
