Someone pinch me and tell me this isn’t happening. The European Commission announced today that mobile phone use over European skies has been given the go ahead. An onboard network that’s connected to a ground network is being deployed that will allow travelers to babble on and message at their leisure. Pricing hasn’t been announced but many suspect that providers will price aggressively, which means it’ll be cheap, but in its infant stages you’ll probably have to pay the price as most early adopters do.

Airlines will regulate how long and when travelers can use the service and the flight captains have the power to turn the service off if it gets out of hand. I don’t see this working at all without it becoming extremely obnoxious. 27 EU members have six months to comply with the new rules or else. Or else what? We don’t know what, though.