Patent ID: 7853240

Claim:
A method of automatically calling an emergency number for use by a mobile communications device that has stored thereon a plurality of emergency numbers that are each associated with a country code, wherein the mobile communications device is (i) enabled for voice communications over both a wireless local area network (WLAN) and a wireless wide area network (WAN), and (ii) enabled to receive country code information from the WLAN and the wireless WAN, the method comprising: receiving at the mobile communications device a user input indicating that a user of the mobile communications device wants to initiate an emergency call; determining if a wireless WAN is acquired by the mobile communications device at the time that the user input is received, and if so initiating a call from the mobile communications device to an emergency number selected from the plurality of emergency numbers in dependence on country code information received by the mobile communications device from the wireless WAN; and if a wireless WAN is not acquired by the mobile communications device at the time that the user input is received, then determining if a WLAN is acquired by the mobile device and if so initiating a call from the mobile communications device to an emergency number selected from the plurality of emergency numbers in dependence on country code information received by the mobile communications device from the WLAN.