Just when you thought cell phones on planes was a dead issue... they bring it back to life! Not on our shores, however. Airbus just received approval for an onboard mobile phone system, but only in Europe. It's unclear how far this ruling extends geographically or where exactly the service will be rolled out, but the EASA has jurisdiction covering the whole of the EU.

Airbus's system, a partnership called OnAir, is GSM-based (of course) and includes capabilities for voice calls and text messaging. Support for services like BlackBerry email are also included in the technology, but it's unclear whether more advanced activities like web browsing will be possible.

Interestingly, pilots will be able to disable the service at any time as well as turning on a "quiet mode" whereby voice services are disabled but text services are not. Sounds like a brilliant plan to pacify both the gotta-stay-in-touch crowd as well as the no-more-noise majority.

Wirelessinfo notes that the service is now being rolled out in smaller aircraft on short flights, though there is no information on how soon the OnAir service will start showing up in actual aircraft. I defer to my European readers to cue is in when things are live... and to let us know if it's really as maddening as everyone seems to be afraid it could become.