Clearly terrified at the process of losing four solid months of its 3G license's duration (which still runs for another 13 years, by the way), the UK's Office of Communications has now confirmed that O2 has stood up, acted like a carrier for once in its life, and taken responsibility for its wrongdoing. Obligations tied to the sale of the UK's 3G licenses back in 2000 stipulated that all buyers must reach 80 percent population coverage by December 31, 2007; Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, and 3 all managed to do that, but O2 was caught with its pants down at 75.69 percent. Ofcom showed leniency and extended O2's deadline out to June of this year, which was just enough for the carrier to get its act together and bring its coverage over the minimum. Meanwhile, US 3G coverage is an embarrassing shadow of the impressive numbers that even the slacker carriers there have managed to put up, so don't feel too bad for yourself, O2, we still love ya.

[Via Coolsmartphone]

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).

So the UK's Ofcom (that's Office of Communications, for those not in the know), in awarding its coveted 3G licenses, required that those five licensees all cover at least 80 percent of its population by December 31, 2007. Four of those five companies -- Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, and 3 -- were able to meet that deadline; meanwhile, O2 has been holding down last place with a measly 75.69 percent blanketed with its high speed data, which leaves the Telefonica subsidiary about 2.5 million Britons short of its obligation. So when a government body is dealing with a huge, multinational corporation that's failing to hold up its end of the bargain, you'd think that there'd be some massive fine levied, right? Not exactly. First of all, Ofcom's extending O2's deadline out to the end of June, and if they're still not at 80 percent, the penalty will be to reduce the term of O2's 3G license by a mere four months. Oh, and the license doesn't even expire until 2021. Way to put your foot down, Ofcom.