On Friday morning, BT's planned multi-billion-pound acquisition of EE was given the seal of approval by the UK's competition watchdog. The move paves the way for two of the country's biggest communications providers to be wedded to each other—thereby creating an even more powerful company, rivals have complained.

The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA), however, has brushed aside those concerns by saying that the telecoms market in the UK will remain competitive, despite former state monopoly BT tying up its £12.5 billion nuptials with the UK's largest mobile provider. Completion of that deal is now a matter of days away.

Meanwhile, the bid for consolidation in the UK mobile market continues, albeit with something of an international whiff.

Mobile operator Three—which is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd—has proposed to buy Telefonica's O2 for £10.25 billion. That particular offer remains in stasis while competition officials in Brussels scrutinise the planned takeover of the Spanish telecoms giant's UK-based carrier.

The antitrust wing of the European Commission opened an in-depth probe into the deal late last year.

"With this investigation we want to ensure that consumers in the UK do not pay higher prices or face less choice as a result of this proposed takeover," the EC's competition chief Margrethe Vestager said at the time.

The UK's competition regulator, the CMA, tried and failed to bring the inquiry under its jurisdiction late last year. The investigation's high-profile status at the European level was welcomed by communications watchdog Ofcom, which has argued that the merger of Three and O2 would weaken competition in the UK, and lead to consumers facing hiked prices.

Such a takeover would also reduce the number of mobile network carriers from four to three, which has caused concern among UK virtual operators (MVNOs).

One of the reasons cited by the CMA for waving through BT's buyout of EE was that the acquisition would not affect competition, because it was largely the coming together of a broadband giant and mobile operator. BT and EE, the watchdog said, had only a "limited overlap" in the categories of services provided by the two firms.

Concerns around Hutchison and Telefonica's UK mobile operators tying the knot are markedly different, however, and it's for this reason that the chances of Three and O2 becoming one remains a more challenging prospect.

Competition officials at the European Commission have until April 18 to reveal their final decision about the proposed deal.