between companies by NOT mandating a specific single technology. Europe on the other hand mandates a single technology...

The end result is that in Europe due to the lack of good landline coverage, there is greater mobile coverage, but effective use of the spectrum is limited, and development tends to lean in the direction of add-ons such as bluetooth and different approaches to the selling of the phones and equipment.

Competition in the US has lead to higher data rates and more effective use of spectrum, and eventually smart phones such as the iPhone... phones that had to do more than "just make phone calls" as the lineline coverage was already very good. This feature rich environment however was metered out to consumers a bit at a time as the carriers themselves used such features as "carrots" to bring customers back into the singular focus carrier specific shops... this was somewhat alleviated by the mandate that allowed customers to take their phone numbers with them as they move from carrier to carrier.

There are different levels of competition... in the US, the technology is being pushed by each carrier needing to compete (and yes "meter out") and constantly introduce their own newer tech to maintain market share.

In Europe since the tech is mandated, and the consumer is not forced to return to a specific carrier for support and service due to sim cards, the competition lies in penetration of coverage... including down to things like purchasing goods at vending machines via phone. The phone technology however was somewhat stagnated by how the government controlled what tech could be used.

The end result is that Nokia for instance was slow to adopt to the US developing smart phone market, (mainly focusing on the GSM market) while companies such as LG (and other Asian companies) supplying the US market now have phones that are vastly technologically superior.

So the competition in Europe, due to a mandated technology, has been horizontal... resulting in wide coverage, while in the US, it has been vertical, leading to smart phones.