Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026 offered a glimpse of where global connectivity is headed, highlighting the infrastructure, networks, and devices that will underpin the next wave of innovation. Across the show floor and in policy discussions, AI enabled systems, robotics, and advanced wireless capabilities were at the forefront. But these technologies also raise new questions. This alert distills key signals from Barcelona on how evolving connectivity models, dynamic network tools, and AI driven systems are impacting legal and regulatory considerations.
At Mobile World Congress (“MWC”) in Barcelona, lawyers and the practice engineer from our Communications, Internet, and Media practice engaged with global network operators, equipment manufacturers, and policymakers to see firsthand how AI and robotics and are influencing the development of advanced communications technologies and the regulatory implications of those developments, with impacts across consumer, industrial, and enterprise environments, raising new legal and policy questions that companies will need to address early.
MWC and CES: Differing technology pipelines
Both MWC and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which our team attended in January, showcased eye catching advances in wireless technology, robotics, and AI-enabled applications. While CES is focused on consumer products, MWC focused on the broader connectivity ecosystem that will enable industrial, enterprise, and network level use cases, including manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and smart infrastructure. That distinction is important because consequential technological advances are often first funded, incubated, and proven in enterprise settings before reaching the consumer market. Many of the technologies showcased in Barcelona are therefore likely to influence not only enterprise systems, but also the next generation of consumer-facing devices and services. In both contexts, successful deployment will depend on technological maturity as well as attention to legal, regulatory, and commercial frameworks.
AI, robotics, and spectrum
Robotics and AI dominated MWC. From dancing humanoid systems to industrial automation tools, these technologies will require wireless connectivity that can deliver low latency, high reliability, strong security, and greater uplink capacity than many networks provide today. While consumer applications may be able to rely on unlicensed spectrum, many industrial and enterprise deployments will require protected or dedicated spectrum. As this tech moves from demonstration to commercial scale, a key issue will be how to expand access to licensed and unlicensed spectrum while also more efficient use of existing allocations.
One promising (and perhaps underutilized) capability is 5G network slicing. At MWC, equipment manufacturers demonstrated how network slicing can deliver differentiated performance for specific applications, including latency, reliability, throughput, and security, without requiring the use of separate physical networks. That presents significant opportunities for businesses, but also introduces practical legal and commercial questions. MWC has featured network slicing in prior years, but its deployment has been slower than many anticipated, due in part to the complexity of operationalizing and managing slices at scale. The growing intersection of slicing with AI may change that equation. AI driven orchestration and agentic network management could make slicing more adaptive, efficient, and commercially viable. As network slicing and other dynamic spectrum tools become more widely available, companies will need to consider how commercial arrangements allocate network access rights, define service-level quality expectations, address network congestion and performance degradation, and assign cybersecurity and operational responsibilities. These questions are central risk management considerations.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) leadership and geopolitics
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was one of the most prominent policy voices at MWC. Carr urged regulators to adopt a humble approach to AI governance, warning that overly prescriptive rules could slow technological development. Drawing parallels to the days of the early internet, he suggested that the relatively light-touch regulatory approach taken in the United States during the 1990s allowed the internet ecosystem to flourish and could serve as a model for AI policy today.
Carr also warned that the U.S. could respond if European regulations disadvantage American space and satellite companies. Commenting on the EU’s proposed Space Act, Carr stated that Washington may take reciprocal measures if European policies favor European satellite providers over others or impose discriminatory requirements on foreign operators. This issue reflects broader transatlantic tensions over digital and technology regulation, as U.S. officials increasingly scrutinize European rules that they believe could restrict opportunities for American technology firms.
MWC as a bellwether
Conferences like MWC illuminate how advances in technology will change our tech and telecom clients’ businesses, products, and services. Compliance strategies need to be nimble to address where technology is heading – and not just where it stands today.
Based on our time in Barcelona, we identified the following takeaways for tech and telecom companies:
- AI is everywhere, embedded in devices, networks, and as part of industrial and enterprise systems. Companies should track evolving changes in AI laws and frameworks and prepare internal governance policies and compliance strategies that mitigate legal risk while furthering business objectives.
- In the U.S., the current patchwork of state AI laws is likely to continue to growing, complicating compliance for companies developing and deploying these technologies.
- Using AI raises privacy and data protection questions, particularly where data is crossing borders or where the data itself is heavily regulated (e.g., personally identifiable information, health data). Companies should understand their data compliance obligations and adapt strategies to reflect use of AI tools.
- 5G technologies will continue to enable innovative use cases such as smart cities, smart factories, and connected infrastructure. Supporting these use cases will require more than new spectrum allocations; it will also require policymakers and businesses to make more effective use of existing spectrum resources.
- Where dynamic sharing, network slicing, and similar tools are used, operators, enterprises, and solutions vendors should consider how contractual arrangements govern access rights, performance expectations, prioritization, and security responsibilities. These terms will be increasingly important components of deployment and risk management strategies.
- If you are waiting until launch to evaluate legal and regulatory risk, you are too late. Companies should factor in legal risk at the design stage to avoid being caught flat-footed.
Conclusion
MWC Barcelona 2026 reinforced that advances in AI and robotics will profoundly affect and drive the evolution of, mobile communications network technology and the use of spectrum. For technology and telecom companies, the opportunity is substantial, but so is the need to plan early for spectrum access, data governance, cybersecurity, and fast-evolving regulatory requirements across jurisdictions. The companies best positioned to succeed will be those that integrate legal and regulatory strategy into product and network development from the outset, rather than treating it as a final launch-stage checklist.
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