Not like we were really suspecting any issues or anything, but the European Commission has just made public its "unconditional approval" of Nokia's "voluntary tender offer for all the shares in Trolltech ASA." In other words, Nokia's acquisition of Trolltech is officially complete, with today being the final day in which the latter company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Such a cute couple, don't you think?

Not even a week after hearing that Air France was forging ahead with an in-flight calling trial, the European Commission has now voiced its approval of using mobiles on planes in European airspace. After six months of deliberating, the decision was finally made to give airlines the choice of offering up services in order for guests to dial loved ones at 3,000-meters or more. The EU telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, went on to warn operators to "keep the cost of calls made on planes at a reasonable level," and of course, not all is clear just yet. For starters, the European Aviation Safety Agency still needs to green-light the whole ordeal by approving any hardware that would be used, and we won't be seeing any 3G action up high just yet. Still, at least one less hurdle stands in the way of you phoning home from over Europe (and simultaneously making enemies out of all your neighbors trying to get a few decent minutes of shuteye).

It may have won approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and NAVTEQ shareholders alike, but it looks like the EU's European Commission needs a bit more time to think over Nokia's acquisition of the company, and it's now launched an "in-depth" probe into the matter. According to Reuters, the Commission said that the "proposed merger raises serious doubts with regards to ... competition concerns," although it was quick to add that the decision to open the inquiry does not prejudge the result of the probe. Among other things, the probe will apparently attempt to asses whether the purchase would affect the cost of maps for other companies providing navigation services on cellphones. If all of this has a familiar ring, it should, because it wasn't all that long ago that the EU launched a similar probe into TomTom's similar acquisition of map-maker Tele Atlas.

As expected, the European Commission just did the obvious and made the EU's de facto DVB-H standard, standard. The move is expected to accelerate the deployment of mobile television services across Europe in the same way that GSM standardization in the early 90s gave Europe a head-start on backwater cellular locations like North America. So get outta Dodge Qualcomm and South Korea with your MediaFLO and DMB mobile television technologies, you aren't welcome around Brussels anymore.

Qualcomm finding itself in more legal trouble? Say it ain't so! Sure enough, the chip maker is now facing even more heat as the European Commission "has launched formal antitrust proceedings" against it after "mobile phone manufacturers complained it charged far too much for vital technology licenses." The move had reportedly been expected for some time, and while the Commission noted that this would be considered "a matter of priority," no deadline was immediately set for a resolution. Apparently, Qualcomm feels that mobile phone makers were trying to "stifle the competition that it brought to the market," and while the probe could eventually be scrapped, the other outcomes are likely to involve Qualcomm coughing up some dough unless it proves that the allegations were without merit.

Officials taking advantage of the ubiquitous nature of cellphones to ensure the safety of the public is nothing new to us, but with its newest project, the European Commission is definitely taking it to a new level. The "Mobile Autonomous Reactive Information System for Urgency Situations" or MARIUS as it will be more affectionately referred, allows rescue teams to send SMS alerts from helicopters with built-in miniature wireless networks to areas, regardless of whether there is a functioning network in place. The project, which is being facilitated by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), Thales, BAES, Selex, Eurocopter and Swapcom, is designed to allow for the rapid deployment of "autonomous Command Posts" which function in any sort of disaster. The project was successfully tested last month in a laboratory and July will mark the first one site testing in Valencia, Spain. It should be said though, while we definitely enjoy seeing technology used in this sort of capacity, it is does make us wonder where it will leave certain folks in such moments of crisis.

[Via Textually]