BT dips toe back into Britain's consumer mobile market

(Fixes typo in paragraph 1)

LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - BT took a first step back into the consumer mobile market on Wednesday while it awaits a decision from regulators on its deal to buy EE, the country's biggest mobile operator.

BT said it was launching a SIM-only deal - giving subscribers calls, texts and data but no handset - with the best offers reserved for its existing customers, starting from 5 pounds ($7) per month.

The company, Britain's biggest fixed line and broadband provider, agreed last month to buy EE, owned by Orange (LSE: 0OQV.L - news) and Deutsche Telekom (LSE: 0MPH.L - news) , in a 12.5 billion pound ($18.6 billion) deal that will give it leadership in mobile as well.

Its rivals, wary of the group's potential dominance, particularly in providing the infrastructure that mobile operators rely on, have called on regulators to intervene in the deal.

BT said it would provide further details of its new mobile offer once its acquisition of EE had completed.

"Offering BT customers the UK's best value 4G data deal is a great way to start our journey towards re-establishing ourselves as a major player in consumer mobile," John Petter, chief executive of BT consumer, said in a statement on Wednesday.

BT's foray into mobile comes at a time of major consolidation in Britain's mobile telecoms industry.

Spain's Telefonica said it had finalised a deal to sell its British mobile business O2 to Li Ka-shing's Hutchison (HKSE: 0013-OL.HK - news) Whampoa for 10.25 billion pounds on Tuesday.

($1 = 0.6716 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle and Sarah Young; editing by Jason Neely)