- The U.S.-based lobbying group CTIA says U.S. policies promote investment and innovation
- Europe’s problems stem from a patchwork of national and local rules that chill investment and limit the scale at which companies compete, according to CTIA’s report
- All of this matters more in the age of artificial intelligence
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2026, BARCELONA — During the wireless industry’s biggest annual trade show, the U.S.-based wireless lobbying association CTIA is here to remind everyone that U.S. wireless companies invest over 2.5 times more than their European counterparts.
Take that, European regulators and business leaders.
But if that sounds like a rather inhospitable thing to say to your hosts, so be it. According to CTIA, they’re only relaying what European leaders already know.
CTIA President and CEO Ajit Pai told Fierce at Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona that he’s heard from several European industry leaders here this week that they’re not happy with the current regulatory environment.
“The European operators and even some regulators that I've spoken to in the past few days have recognized that the European model has just not been optimized for anybody – not for the operators [and] not for the consumers in Europe, either,” he said.
Circling back to the Americas, he explained that the point of the report is to say that policy does make a material difference in the lives of the American consumer, as well as American companies.
“In our view, at least, that's a very positive difference when companies feel that they have the regulatory certainty, the ability and willingness to invest,” he said. “Ultimately, that creates a wireless economy that's a great framework for consumers to benefit from and for entrepreneurs to innovate on.”
One operator in a relatively small European country with whom he spoke said there are five operators in his country and none of them have the incentive or ability to invest fully in next-generation networks because they’re never going to be able to achieve scale.
For the record, Pai said this isn’t about U.S. carriers competing with European carriers for customers or vice versa, because they don’t. This is primarily to point out the stark differences between how regulatory regimes affect business outcomes.
That, of course, affects technological leadership and when it comes to wireless, the battle over who reigns supreme in any given geography is one that spans every generation of wireless.
From a regulatory perspective, Europe micromanages much more how telcos operate and what spectrum they can get compared to the U.S.
“It's more a question of: How can these businesses ultimately succeed and deliver value for consumers,” he said. “It just creates a lot more complexity for businesses in Europe when you can't achieve scale and get the regulatory certainty you need to be able to create these capital-intensive networks.”
CTIA says wireless and AI go together
Of course, this being the term du jour, the conversation turned to AI.
“One of the things we're seeing here in Barcelona, and one of the things that's apparent to me as a consumer using AI, is that wireless and AI are inextricably intertwined. The stronger the spectrum assets and infrastructure you have in place for wireless, the more likely you are going to be able to benefit from the AI innovations that are coming,” he said.
Conversely, “if you have networks that have been under-invested in, or if you don't have enough spectrum, or if you don't have a framework that incentivizes innovation, you're going to be more of a follower than a leader in AI,” he said. “I think the results in the report, in terms of American investment exceeding Europe significantly, is also going to have a spillover effect in AI.”
Ajit Pai’s first year at CTIA
Pai was appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by President Trump in his first term and served in that role from 2017 to 2021. In April 2025, he became president and CEO of CTIA.
How’s the first year on the job been?
“It’s been terrific. I really enjoy engaging with these issues. I believe strongly, following up on my time at the FCC, on the issues that we're advocating on spectrum and infrastructure and the technologies that ride over wireless networks like AI. So it's been a very smooth transition,” he said.
One of the issues that he didn’t spend a lot of time on at the FCC is related to taxes. Turns out, being able to get the bonus depreciation renewed in the One Big Beautiful Bill that passed last year was a massive deal for the carriers that CTIA represents.
Depreciation related to tax policy isn’t always top of mind for the average person, but when you’re running a business that is as capital intensive as wireless, it’s a big deal.
“Just a continuation of that bonus depreciation was exceptionally important from a business perspective,” he said. “To be able to tell your shareholders and the capital markets that, OK, we're not going to take a hit if we make these important investments from a tax perspective, was really, really important.”
Read all of our coverage from Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona here.