Patent ID: 8744411

Claim:
A method for informing mobile stations in a geographic area of an important message, the method comprising: identifying a zone comprising a base station associated with a cell, the zone corresponding to the geographic area; modifying a standard registration message associated with the cell, the modifying resulting in a modified registration message that is different from an immediately preceding registration message broadcast by the base station and comprising a command that is directed towards instructing mobile stations that are already registered in the cell to re-register with the cell, wherein modifying the standard registration message includes at least one of changing a distance from base station value that is indicative of a maximum distance a mobile station can be from its currently registered base station before it must attempt re-registration with the cell, changing a minimum required signal strength value that is indicative of a maximum distance a mobile station can be from its currently registered base station before it must attempt re-registration with the cell, and changing a cell identifier for the cell, and reducing a period for re-registration timer value; broadcasting the modified registration message from the base station; processing a registration request message, sent from each of the mobile stations to the base station, in response to the transmitting of the modified registration message from the base station; and transmitting to each of the mobile stations from the base station an acknowledge registration message in response to the processing, wherein the acknowledge registration message includes data informing each of the mobile stations of the important message.