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PARIS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Orange Chief ExecutiveStephane Richard said on Thursday he expected BT Group todecide before Christmas on whether to bid for the UK's largestmobile network operator, EE, or its smaller rival, Telefonica's 02.
"BT has its own calendar," Richard said, speaking at aconference on France's economy and business climate. "You shouldknow more a few days before Christmas."
EE's owners, Orange and Deutsche Telekom,confirmed last month that they were in talks with BT about apossible sale, while BT is also talking to Spanish groupTelefonica about buying its UK mobile business, O2.
JAZZTEL
Richard also said on Thursday he was confident of afavourable outcome to the review by competition regulators ofOrange's 3.4 billion-euro ($4.2 billion) deal to acquire Spanishbroadband provider Jazztel, even though it faces anin-depth review in Brussels.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters onWednesday that EU antitrust regulators were likely to expandtheir scrutiny of the deal, stepping up pressure on thecompanies to make concessions.
One source said the Commission was likely to announce theopening of an in-depth investigation on Thursday and also rejecta request from the Spanish competition authority to handle thecase.
Richard said he had been "surprised" by the decision, notingthat the 7.2 billion-euro purchase of Spain's Ono by Vodafone inMarch had been cleared without an in-depth probe. But he said hethought it unlikely the commission would set terms tough enoughto derail his proposed deal. (Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by Leila Abboud andAndrew Callus; Editing by Natalie Huet, Greg Mahlich)